In an imposing ceremony in St Peter's Square yesterday attended by more than 300,000 - including 1,000 Irish pilgrims - Pope John Paul II beatified the Capuchin friar Padre Pio.
Speaking to the massive gathering, which filled not only St Peter's Square but also the surrounding streets all the way back to the River Tiber, the Pope made no secret of his pleasure in declaring Padre Pio blessed, saying in his homily: "When I was a student here in Rome I myself had the chance to meet him personally, and I thank God for allowing me today to enter Padre Pio's name in the book of the Blessed."
Earlier the Pope, who looked and sounded well throughout the strenuous four hours of ceremonies, had been greeted with cheers, applause and waving from the faithful when he appeared on the threshold of St Peter's Basilica.
The splendour of the occasion was at odds with the simplicity of the figure of Francesco Forgione, later Padre Pio, the Capuchin friar known throughout the Catholic world for his intercession
ary powers with God, the gift of bilocation and, above all, for his stigmata (wounds on his hands, feet and side similar to those suffered by Christ on the Cross).
Born in Benevento, near Naples on May 25th, 1887, Padre Pio first reported his stigmata in 1919. From that first admission until his death on September 23rd, 1968, he remained a controversial figure, distrusted by the Vatican, reviled by many within the church but quickly becoming a cult figure for Catholics worldwide.
Pope John Paul said yesterday: "Those who went to . . . attend his Mass, to seek his counsel or to confess to him, saw in him a living image of Christ suffering and risen. The face of Padre Pio reflected the light of the Resurrection. His body, marked by the stigmata, showed forth the intimate bond between death and resurrection which characterises the Paschal Mystery."
The gathering in Rome - another 300,000 pilgrims watched the ceremony on giant TV screens at San Giovanni Laterano, across the city and later visited by the Pope - testifies to the popularity of a saint described by Italian media as the "most popular of the century". More than seven million pilgrims last year visited the Capuchin monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo in Puglia, southern Italy, where Padre Pio lived, prayed and received penitents for 52 years from 1916 to his death.
The cult generates an estimated $110 million per annum by way of tourism, travel and the sale of Padre Pio-related objects.
Among the crowd in St Peter's yesterday were many prominent figures in Italian public life, including President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and the Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema. Also in attendance was Ms Consiglia De Martino (46), the woman from Salerno whose unexpected recovery from a life-threatening illness in 1995 is considered a miracle by the Catholic Church and as such helped qualify Padre Pio for the title "Blessed".
Senator Des Hanafin and his wife, Mona, also attended yesterday's ceremony, having the honour of being among those who laid flowers on the high altar.
Despite dire predictions, yesterday's ceremony passed off smoothly.
It marks the high point in a policy of "multiple" sainthood embarked on by Pope John Paul who, in the 20 years of his pontificate, has declared 283 Catholics to be saints, contrasting sharply with the 300 saints declared by all his predecessors for nearly four centuries from 1588 to 1978.