Story by Joe Pisani
Photos by Amy Mortensen
BRIDGEPORT — They came early to Mass, some of them two hours early, to sit and pray at St. Augustine Cathedral as they waited to venerate the relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina on the fourth day of a diocesan novena to one of the most beloved saints of our era.
When the relics were finally displayed at the front of the church, they approached with awe and reverence.
Esther Rivera, with her 5-year-old great-granddaughter Nyzelise, brought prayer cards and a plastic bag filled with rosaries and medals to touch to the five relics of the saint — a crust from Saint Pio’s wounds, a piece of his mantle, his brown fingerless glove, a handkerchief he used at Mass to wipe his tears, and a lock of his hair.
Esther, a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bridgeport for 30 years, said two months before she had been praying the rosary in the church’s new adoration chapel, which has a first-class relic of St. Pio, when she heard someone say, “Father Abelardo [the pastor] is one of my favorite priests.” She turned and saw a vision of the saint. On another occasion when Father was celebrating Mass, she recalled, “I looked at him and I saw Padre Pio’s face.”
Others shared stories of their devotion to the saint and examples of his intercession during times of distress and suffering.
Lynn French, a parishioner of Blessed Michael McGivney Parish in New Haven, came with her husband Daniel. “I just love Padre Pio. I think he’s an amazing inspiration to me and my husband,” she said. “He loved Jesus so much and trusted him so much … but I don’t trust as well as I should. He once said that he would wait for all of our family members at the Gate of Heaven, and I believe it.”
Alexandria Faiz, a member of the Cathedral Parish, was delighted to have St. Pio’s relics to venerate and said, “It’s so wonderful to have this in our parish — to bring his spirit and healing power to a world that needs this so much, and by summoning his name, we become vehicles of his healing power.”
Sandra Romano, who has a shrine to St. Pio in her home, said, I love Padre Pio and I pray for his miraculous intercession every day, for the protection of my family and for everyone who is sick and has asked for prayers.”
In his homily, Bishop Caggiano talked about the crises of faith people often experience when they witness the suffering of their loved ones and said that Padre Pio’s saying, “Pray, hope and don’t worry,” is a simple reminder of the importance of trusting in God’s love and timing, the power of prayer, and the need to refrain from excessive worry during the storms of life.
He told the faithful: “You and I can look to the example of this man, whom we have come to ask for his prayers and intercession — this remarkable friar, a simple man born in the farmlands of Campania in Southern Italy, a man who suffered mightily in his life. But the sufferings of his life were not moments of crisis for him. They were moments that drew him closer and closer to the Lord Jesus.”
He was a sickly boy, and when he became a Franciscan, he could not live in community because he had to return home for his family to care for him. In his ministry, he also encountered adversity.
“Many a person did not believe in what he stood for, but more than that, they opposed him and spread gossip and lies about him,” Bishop Caggiano said. “Even the Church silenced him at the highest authorities in Rome. They silenced him for years, took away his ability to celebrate Mass in public and even to hear confession in public. This was suffering for a man whose life was all about celebrating the Eucharist, hearing confession and being what he always wanted to be — a simple priest and friar.”
Almost his entire life, Padre Pio carried the stigmata — the wounds of Christ — which for the saint were not just the signs of the cross, but the actual sufferings of the cross.
“He could feel that suffering and pain for years, and in the midst of all that, he allowed all those moments of suffering to draw him closer to the Lord,” Bishop Caggiano said. “He trusted in God’s love for him because he knew that God always keeps his word….He knew in his heart, he believed and prayed that this Lord who suffered and who would not leave him in his suffering forever, would one day give him glory. That fed his hope that one day, he, you and I would see that glory in a life that never ends in Heaven.”
The bishop urged the faithful to “learn to retrust” in God’s great love, especially those who are enduring grief or who have pushed aside a deep hurt, or are having “a momentary crisis and question whether God really is there and can hear them in their suffering.”
“Let us claim the gift of deep trust,” the bishop said, “because Padre Pio trusted the Lord to the end and because the Lord Jesus on the cross trusted his Father to the end. Will we do the same?
There are countless cases of physical and spiritual healings through Padre Pio’s intercession. The saint had the ability to read hearts and knew people’s sins even before they confessed them. He is said to have heard confessions 10 to 15 hours a day.
Padre Pio is the only priest who had the five wounds of Christ, in addition to the gift of bilocation — the ability to be in two places at the same time — even though he never left the Capuchin Friary of Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy, where he stayed from 1916 until his death in 1968. Today some 7 million pilgrims go there each year.
Bishop Caggiano later said that he plans to install one of St. Pio’s relics along with a statue of the saint in the back of St. Augustine Cathedral, near those of St. Carlo Acutis and Blessed Michael McGivney. Another relic is in the Chapel of Padre Pio at St. Charles Borromeo Parish and one will be on display at a garden chapel in Greenwich, yet to be constructed. The novena to the saint will become an annual diocesan tradition, and plans have begun to hold another one in the spring.
The dates and churches for the novena follow. Mass begins at 7 p.m.:
9/23: The Basilica of St. John the Evangelist, Stamford
9/24: Church of the Holy Spirit, Stamford
9/25: St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Fairfield
9/26: St. Augustine Cathedral, Bridgeport
9/27: St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Trumbull
9/28: St. Jude Parish, Monroe
9/29: St. Patrick Parish, Redding
9/30: St. Philip Church, Norwalk
10/1: Church of St. Cecilia, Stamford
