Padre Pio, the Franciscan Capuchin monk who had unexplained bleeding scars like Christ's wounds, is to be beatified by the Pope on May 2nd. The move is the first stage of a process that can lead to sainthood.
The Vatican announced the plans for the beatification yesterday and the ceremony is expected to draw one of the biggest crowds ever to Rome.
The monk, who has millions of devotees, lived for most of his life in a monastery in southern Italy, where he died in 1968. He is credited with performing many miracles and is said to have predicted the 1978 election of Pope John Paul years earlier.
From 1918 to his death, Padre Pio bore the "stigmata" - bleeding wounds on the hands, feet and side. Doctors were unable to explain why the wounds oozed blood for half a century without his flesh having been cut.
To accommodate the crowd the Vatican said the Pope would conduct the beatification in St Peter's Square and it would be broadcast to Piazza San Giovanni, Rome's largest square. The ceremony also will be broadcast live to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo, where the monk lived and where he founded one of Italy's largest and best-equipped hospitals to help the poor.
Pilgrims coming to Rome for the beatification will have to book remaining space in Piazza San Giovanni because there is no more room in St Peter's Square, which alone can accommodate several hundred thousand people. The Pope will make an afternoon appearance in Piazza San Giovanni after the beatification Mass.
The beatification that is expected to draw the biggest crowd ever to Rome for a Mass is seen as a critical test for next year, when some 30 million people - some five times the usual number - are expected to travel to Rome for millennium celebrations.
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