AN extraordinary opportunity to be blessed with relics linked to St Pio of Pietrelcina will occur later this week at two Brisbane churches.
Capuchin Father Ermelindo DiCapua, one of the few people to be close on a daily basis to then Padre Pio, is arriving in Brisbane next Friday morning with the relics – three pieces of blood from the saint’s stigmata and one of the mittens the saint used to cover the sacred wounds.
Fr DiCapua, confidant and translator to the Italian mystic and saint, has already visited Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand with the relics in recent weeks.
Organiser of the Brisbane visit, Cap-uchin Father John Spiteri said the events, being held at Our Lady of Graces Church, Carina, next Friday and St Brigid’s Church, Red Hill, on Saturday, would follow a similar format.
“Starting from 2pm, there will be Adoration, Rosary and Benediction followed by Mass,” Fr Spiteri said.
“During the Mass, Fr Ermelindo will preach on the holiness and life of St Padre Pio and bless all present with the first and second-class relics of the saint.”
People were expected to come from around Brisbane archdiocese and beyond for the Masses, including a bus-load of visitors from Bundaberg.
Fr Spiteri said only one official Padre Pio prayer group – located at Wynnum – existed in the archdiocese, but it was hoped Fr DiCapua’s visit would lead to the establishment of others.
Fr Spiteri is spiritual assistant to the Wynnum group in Guardian Angels parish.
Padre Pio was ordained a priest a century ago this month on August 10.
He first reported his stigmata to a spiritual advisor in 1910. By 1918 the wounds were permanent and would be with him for the remaining 50 years of his life.
Pope John Paul II declared Padre Pio a saint in 2002.
Fr DiCapua, who was ordained a Cap-uchin friar in 1958, was appointed to stay with Padre Pio as his English secretary at San Giovanni Rotondo from 1965 until Padre Pio’s death on September 23, 1968.
His task was to introduce Padre Pio to the many English-speaking visitors from abroad and to answer the many letters that Padre Pio received in English.
Fr DiCapua, in an interview with West Australian Catholic newspaper The Record, said despite having first-hand experience of the mystic, he preferred to talk of the saint’s holiness rather than his numerous and extraordinary spiritual and physical miracles.
Padre Pio’s close friend said this was because the miracles came from God through Padre Pio’s intercession.
For further information contact Fr John Spiteri on 0401 937 780.
