Newsroom (16/10/2025, Gaudium Press) The habit of St. Padre Pio will visit the United States for the first time. Devotees of the Italian saint will be able to venerate it. The relic will be on display from October 11 to 14 at the Padre Pio National Center, located in Barto, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Allentown.
The religious garment will be carried by a group of Italian Capuchin friars from the Convent of Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo, located in southern Italy. According to Vera Marie Calandra, vice president of the Padre Pio National Center, the visit “is an extraordinary opportunity to share a unique and intimate relic of Padre Pio with his devotees.”
A program consisting of Masses and processions
The celebrations will begin on Saturday, October 11, with a Holy Mass presided over by the Capuchin Friars of San Giovanni Rotondo, followed by a procession in honor of Padre Pio. On Sunday, October 12, another Eucharistic celebration and procession will follow.
On October 13, Bishop Emeritus Ronald Gainer of Harrisburg will preside over a Holy Mass in English, followed by a Mass in Italian celebrated by the friars. The program concludes on October 14 with a Mass by Bishop Alfred Schlert of Allentown, after which the friars will conduct another Eucharistic celebration in Italian.
The relic will also visit the Padre Pio Foundation of America.
Following its time at the national center, the Italian friars will take the saint’s habit to the Padre Pio Foundation of America in Cromwell, Connecticut. There, the relic will be available for veneration by devotees at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut, from October 15 to 18. (EPC)
Compiled by Dominic Joseph
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