Posted on 03/03/2008 5:33:15 AM PST by NYer
ROME, March 3 (Reuters Life!) - The body of the mystic monk Padre Pio, one of the Roman Catholic world's most revered saints who died 40 years ago, has been exhumed to be prepared for display to his many devotees.
The body of the Capuchin friar, who was said to have had the stigmata -- the wounds of Christ's crucifixion -- on his hands and feet -- is to be conserved and put in a part-glass coffin for at least several months from April 24.
A Church statement said the body was in "fair condition", particularly the hands, which Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, who witnessed the exhumation in the southern Italian town where Pio died, said "looked like they had just undergone a manicure".
A spokesman for the monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo said he believed morticians would be able to conserve the face of the bearded monk well enough for it to be recognisable.
The body, which had been buried under marble in a crypt, was exhumed during a three-hour service that ended after midnight.
A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other icon of the faith, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus.
Some 7 million people visit his tomb every year. There are some 3,000 "Padre Pio Prayer Groups" around the world, with a membership of around 3 million.
The friar, born Francesco Forgione, died in 1968 aged 81.
Among the stories that surround him is one that he wrestled with the devil in his monastery cell.
Padre Pio is also said to have predicted future events, to have been seen in two places at once, and to have been able to tell people their sins before they confessed them to him.
Pope John Paul II made him a saint in 2002 at a ceremony that drew one of the biggest crowds ever to the Vatican after the Church said it had found evidence that the miraculous cure of a sick woman was due to the dead monk's intercession.
But Padre Pio was dogged during his life and even after his death by accusations that he was a fraud.
A new book last year suggested he was a self-harming man who may have used carbolic acid to create wounds in his hands mimicking those of Christ when he was nailed to the cross.
Church officials have repeatedly denied that he was a fake. (Editing by Kevin Liffey)
This is a statue, not an idol.
This is not an idol either.
"My parents went to not worship a non-idol in a New Jersey field and all they brought me was this T-shirt."
Blessed Padre Pio is now Saint Poi.
This really isn’t the place to air your ‘issues’ with your parents.
Please let us know specifically what scripture we should check. I'd be interested in knowing if you can provide a scriptural reference for digging up a body after 40 years and putting it on display.
Please show me from scripture where bodies were exhumed and put on display for 'veneration'.
:)Litany of the Saints
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5B4U6k0qs4&feature=related
Were the nails driven through his hands and feet before or after he died?
Maybe I should have said “I know”. In a local paper there are numerous ads stating, “Give thanks to St. Jude for prayers answered. yada, yada, yada.” I grew up Catholic so some old timers would pray to saints and Mother Mary. To ask someone to pray for you is good, to pray to someone other than the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is bad.
Earthly remains of the saints are venerated because the saints are living members of Christ and their bodies, like ours, were temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17, 6:15, 19, Eph. 2:19-22). These remains will one day be awakened and glorified (1 Cor. 15:42-54). While the saints were on earth, God bestowed many graces upon his Church through them (2 Cor. 1:11), and he continues to do so now that they are glorified in God's presence (Heb. 12:1). We honor (dulia) the relics, statues, and images of the saints with a veneration that is directed toward the saints themselves, and in honoring the saints we honor Christ whose members they are (1 Cor. 12:27).
Not only were items associated with the saints used by God as conduits of grace, but the saints' physical remains were used by God as well. In 2 Kings 13:20-21 we read that, after the prophet Elisha had died, "while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet." Hardly a more dramatic example of the power of God working through relics could be imagined!
Just curious, Goody, do you ever visit the graves of your deceased family members?
No nails were driven through his hands or feet. This is a mystical gift given by God. You can read the detailed research on stigmata at the following link.
seems a bit grisly and not what Christianity is about.
When I'm in town, I'll take flowers. I don't dig them up and put their bodies on display.
None of the scriptures you sited talk about digging up bodies and putting them on display, so I don't know where the claim comes from that it is biblical.
If Catholics want to do this kind of stuff, they are of course, free to do so. But as I said, it seems no different from my perspective than that "Bodies Revealed" exhibit that has been touring the country.
See post #52
“No nails were driven through his hands or feet. This is a mystical gift given by God. You can read the detailed research on stigmata at the following link. “
If there are wounds in the man’s feet and hands, somebody drove some nails.
Then you are following the Christian practice of honoring the relics of the dead.
None of the scriptures you sited talk about digging up bodies and putting them on display, so I don't know where the claim comes from that it is biblical.
The ancient Jews were scrupulously observant about attending to the remains of their ancestors. In Genesis 50:25 Joseph made his family swear an oath to carry his bones out of Egypt when the time came for them to return to Palestine. This is precisely what Moses himself did over 400 years later when the Israelites were preparing to leave Egypt during the Exodus (Ex. 13:19). In order to transport the bones, they had to dig up the deceased.
Actually, I'm doing it so my sister will be happy. I know my mom isn't there, and doesn't care one bit about flowers on her grave. She is with the One who loves her best.
In order to transport the bones, they had to dig up the deceased.
The bible doesn't actually say that Joseph was buried. Only that he was embalmed and put in a coffin. Even if he was buried, he wasn't 'dug up' so that his body could be venerated. It was done so that a promise that was made to him could be fulfilled. So your example doesn't make what is being done to Padre Pio 'biblical'.
Not the stigmata, I’m Catholic and I believe Padre Pio’s stigmata was real. Exhuming the body so people can look at it is what I believe is grisly.
Our holiness does not depond on someone else’s.
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