An estimated 15,000 pilgrims converged on the 800-year-old Cistercian Abbey at Holycross, near Thurles, Co Tipperary, yesterday for the annual National Padre Pio Pilgrimage, which this year enjoyed gloriously sunny weather.
They came by bus and car from all over the Republic and Northern Ireland for the event, held on the same day Padre Pio was being beatified in Rome.
The Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, gave the homily and there were 20 concelebrants at the open air Mass following Stations of the Cross and the traditional Blessing of the Sick.
There is a Padre Pio prayer garden in Holycross and a Padre Pio prayer group meets in the abbey on the first Thursday of each month.
The Padre Pio pilgrimage has been an annual event in Holycross for more than 20 years and attracts people from around the State and also from abroad. Yesterday, many American visitors were at the ceremonies. Sick people make the trip to Tipperary and there is a special ceremony for them. Confessions were also heard at the abbey. The Holy Cross prayer garden dedicated to Padre Pio features a bust of the stigmatist and is placed in a rural setting by the River Suir.
The attendance included a pilgrim, Mrs Mary Delaney, from Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary. "I was here today especially because of the beatification in Rome. Really I had to say it was a very moving ceremony today. There were so many young people present and many members of the Travelling community," she said.
People sat in the sun on deck chairs and even on the kerbs of graves in the shade of the abbey because of the unprecedented crowds.
All afternoon the women in the local community hall which was formerly a parish church, were busy with teas and sandwiches for the thousands in a very pleasant atmosphere.
However, Rev Joseph Egan from Boherlahan, said: "Suffering is very much the theme of today's ceremonies, the suffering of Padre Pio, the stigmatist, and of course the suffering of the sick people, and we had many sick people here today. We had people from Northern Ireland and just about every county in the Republic."