Superstar saint’s relics expected to draw thousands

In 1947, the great tenor, Beniamino Gigli, traveled to southern Italy to see a Franciscan friar with a reputation for performing miracles.

As the story goes, when the two met, Padre Pio told the opera star that his surname, which means “lilies” in Italian, didn’t match his heart. Leave your mistress and think only of your wife, the friar reportedly said. Gigli obeyed and the two became great friends.

Pio, who died in 1968, and was made a saint in 2002, has become something of a superstar himself. He’s expected to draw thousands of the faithful when some of his relics — including cotton gauze stained with his blood — make stops on Monday and Tuesday in Chicago this week as part of a tour of the United States.

“The police are aware of it and they have a traffic plan, and the alderman is involved,” said the Rev. Bob Cook, the jovial pastor of St. Ita Catholic Church on the North Side, where the relics can be viewed Tuesday.

Cook’s staff have hired private security, arranged for a first-aid station and porta-potties in anticipation of the crowds.

What accounts for Saint Pio’s popularity? He was austere in his habits, often blunt with his counsel but also charismatic enough to attract people from all walks of life. And to the believers, he possessed an extraordinary range of mystical powers.

He wore gloves because his hands bled continuously — a sign of the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross, believers say.

“It was said he would lose up to half a liter of blood each day. His wounds were open,” said Luciano Lamonarca, the president and CEO of Saint Pio Foundation in New York.

Others have claimed the wounds were self-inflicted. In his 2011 book, “Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age,” historian Sergio Luzzatto claimed that the priest used carbolic acid to create the bleeding.

Beyond the bleeding wounds, Padre Pio was also known for the power to “bi-locate” — the ability to step out of one’s body and travel to distant locales to perform miracles.

“He never came to the United States,” said Cook, “but he would visit people in their homes there. There is talk during World War II of him appearing on battlefields.”

If you sought out Padre Pio to confess but tried to keep something hidden, he would often say, “‘You forgot one,’” Cook said. And then he would name the omitted sin.

That didn’t deter legions of his admirers, who would travel to the province of Foggia, located on the “spur” of the Italian boot, to wait days just so they could confess their sins.

“It was estimated that every week, Padre Pio received 10,000 letters. And every morning there were thousands of people outside the church, asking for a blessing, asking for miracles,” said Lamonarca.

And when Padre Pio died on Sept.23, 1968, age 81, an estimated 100,000 people showed up for his funeral.

The relics can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church, 8033 W. Addison St.; and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at St. Ita Catholic Church, 5500 N. Broadway.