Padre Pio’s habit will be brought to the U.S. in October
The National Centre for Padre Pio and the Padre Pio Foundation of America announced that a group of Capuchin friars will bring a habit worn by Saint Pio of Pietrelcina to the U.S. in October. The friars will transport the relic from Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary in San Giovianni Rotondo, Italy, where Padre Pio resided and lived most of his vocation.
The full-length habit, a precious second-class relic that has never left Italy, will go on display for pilgrims to venerate at the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, from October 11 to 14, 2025. The friars will then bring the habit to Saint Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut, where it will be exhibited from October 15 to 18.
“This unprecedented visit gives us the privilege to share a rare and intimate relic with Padre Pio’s American Spiritual Children, offering an occasion of deep spiritual reflection and prayer,” said Vera Marie Calandra, Vice President of the National Centre for Padre Pio.
A man of sanctity and mystery
Francesco Forgione was born in Pietrelcina, Italy on May 25, 1887. His parents, though poor, offered support when their young son expressed an interest in becoming a priest; Grazio Forgione even traveled to the U.S. and worked on a farm in New Castle, Pennsylvania, to earn money for the education his son needed in order to enter the Capuchin order.
When Francesco was finally accepted into the order at the age of 15, he took the name Pio. Considered unremarkable by his childhood peers, Fra Pio suffered from ill health but also began to exhibit extraordinary spiritual gifts that included eyewitness reports of him levitating during moments of intense prayer.
For six years after his ordination, Padre Pio remained in Pietrelcina with his family, mainly due to ill health. When he was ordered to reenter community life, he moved to Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary. He became renowned for his humility and prayerfulness. Many people traveled to San Giovanni Rotondo to speak with him and make their confessions.
In 1918, Padre Pio received the stigmata after celebrating Mass. “I saw Our Lord in his crucified form,” he later told an apostolic investigator. Padre Pio continued:
“He invited me to let his pains enter into me and to meditate on them and at the same time concern myself with the salvation of others. Following this, I felt full of compassion for the Lord’s pains, and I asked him what I could do.
I heard this voice: ‘I will unite you with my Passion.’ And after this the vision disappeared, I came back to myself, my reason returned, and I saw these signs here from which blood flowed. Before this, I did not have these (wounds).”
Padre Pio’s fame continued to grow, and he drew even more pilgrims to San Giovanni Rotondo. Among them was Father Karol Wojtyla, who, as Pope John Paul II, would canonize Saint Pio in 2002.
Special opportunity during Jubilee Year
Devotion to Padre Pio has continued to grow over the past two decades.
In April, the National Centre for Padre Pio presented several of the saint’s relics at an event in Montclair, New Jersey. Among the items on display for veneration were one of the gloves that Padre Pio wore to hide his stigmata and a piece of his bloodstained shirt. Visitors traveled from across the state to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Oratory to view these relics and hundreds of others on display.
The October events in Pennsylvania and Connecticut provide another opportunity for pilgrims to ask Padre Pio for his intercession during the Jubilee Year of Hope and to be inspired by his example.
Nick Gibboni, Executive Director of the National Centre for Padre Pio, said that the organization feels “immensely blessed” to host the friars and the habit they will bring with them from Italy. “This is a spiritually enriching event we hope all devotees of Padre Pio will experience,” he said.
For more information about the event and schedule, visit the NCFPP’s website at padrepio.org/habit-visit or the PPFOA’s website at padrepio.com/relic-tour-2025.
Featured image: Left: A photo of Padre Pio, age 32, in 1919. (Public Domain) Right: This habit, once worn by Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, will be exhibited October 11 – 18 in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. (Photo courtesy of the National Centre for Padre Pio)
