Twenty thousand pilgrims queued for hours for a glimpse of the body of St
Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio, with a mask ordered from the
company that supplies Madame Tussauds covering the skull.
The body of the most popular and controversial saint of modern times was put
on public display yesterday, 40 years after his death, at the centre of his
cult in San Giovanni Rotondo.
At a mass held in the town before the unveiling, Cardinal Jose Saraiva
Martins, the head of the Vatican's sainthood office, said: "Today we
venerate his body... Padre Pio is not only a corpse. Looking at his remains,
we remember all the good that he has done." The bearded Capuchin friar was
made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002 before one of the biggest crowds
St Peter's has seen. He was hailed by millions around the world as a miracle
worker, and the little southern Italian town where he lived and died became
the focus of mass pilgrimage and has prospered greatly as a result.
He died in September 1968, aged 81. Last month, he was exhumed so the
condition of the body could be ascertained before being consigned to its
permanent home in a crypt under the town's vast modern church.
Officials who examined the corpse said it was in "fair condition", apart
from the head, much of which had been reduced to bare bone. A team of
medical scientists and biochemists has been working since then to restore
the corpse to a presentable condition. The face has been covered with a wax
mask commissioned from a company that supplies waxworks to Madame Tussauds.
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