ITALY:To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the death of Padre Pio, Italy's favourite saint, his body will be exhumed, given a "check-up" and put on display for a few months, church leaders have decided.
Renowned for his stigmata and miracle work, St Pius - still known as Padre Pio by his followers - was canonised in 2002 to popular acclaim and about seven million pilgrims visit his tomb annually at the friary in Puglia, southern Italy, where he died in 1968.
To mark the anniversary of his death, local archbishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio said on Sunday that the Capuchin friar's body would be exhumed from its tomb at the sanctuary church "to check on the state of it and to carry out all the necessary work to guarantee the best conditions for its conservation." When the work is completed, the body will go on display in April for "a few months".
Antonio Belpiede, spokesman for Padre Pio's Franciscan chapter, denied reports that the procedure would also be a chance to remove relics from the saint's remains. "This is not on the agenda," he said.
The exhumation of the saint, who was credited with more than 1,000 miracle cures, has been approved by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Congregation prefect Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins told Il Giornale yesterday that the exhumation was a standard procedure to check on the state of the body of a beatified or canonised person, and had been undertaken in 2001 on the body of the Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963 and was beatified, one step before sainthood.
The practice has its origins in the need to confirm that tombs of saints-to-be contain the right body. Check-ups on the body's state of preservation and the removal of relics are reasons given by applicants to the congregation for later exhumations.
"There is, however, no reason to check to see if the body has miraculously remained intact. That has nothing to do with sanctity," said one Vatican insider.
Pope John XXIII's body was nonetheless found to be extremely well preserved when his coffin was opened, with facial muscles intact, according to a cardinal present at the opening.
No special measures were taken to preserve Padre Pio's body. His body was injected with formalin, but only to preserve it better during the following days as devotees filed past his coffin. Officials from Padre Pio's order said they would take advice from a committee of scientists on how best to preserve his corpse.