Worshippers came with rosaries, prayer cards, crucifixes and even photographs of loved ones to touch them to objects connected to St. Padre Pio, the Capuchin Franciscan friar who died in 1968.
The saint is said to have borne crucifixion wounds similar to those of Jesus Christ and to have healed the sick. Tradition also holds that Padre Pio, described as a mystic, could bilocate - that is, be in two places at once.
His relics are on view at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle. Displayed will be a fingerless glove, crusts from his wounds, a piece of cotton gauze stained with his blood, a lock of hair, a handkerchief soaked with sweat shortly before he died, and his mantle (or friar’s) cloak.
Except for the cloak, each relic will be exhibited in a container for sacred relics, known as a reliquary.
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