Believers Flock to Body of Exhumed Monk in Italy

By TRACY WILKINSON, Los Angeles Times
April 25, 2008

SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy — The exhumed and cosmetically enhanced corpse of Padre Pio, a mystic monk and one of the world's most revered saints, went on display here yesterday amid weeping devotees and eager souvenir-hawkers.

By evening, several thousand pilgrims had filed past the body of the purported worker of miracles and reader of souls whose cult-like following spans the globe.

Padre Pio died 40 years ago at the age of 81, and the tomb containing his remains was unearthed from a church crypt here in March. A team of forensic specialists, doctors, and a biochemist worked to restore the body for yesterday's ceremony.

A London company that supplies figures for wax museums created a special silicon mask to represent his face, complete with beard and bushy eyebrows. Resting in a regal glass-and-marble coffin in the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church, Padre Pio is wearing the brown hood of his Capuchin order. A white silk stole embroidered in crystals and gold covers his shoulders. His hands are placed on his chest under a large wooden cross.

"My heart is crying," Anna Menga, 56, said after praying alongside Padre Pio's body for the health of her sick son. "Whenever we have problems or we feel sad, we turn to Padre Pio. He has changed my life."

Bishops and priests were among the first to view the body, many using cellular phones to snap photos. Nuns standing to one side of the coffin said prayers.