(Beloit, KS, February 5, 2024) The first of five Saint Pio chapels sponsored by the Saint Pio Foundation will be established in the center of the United States, in the Diocese of Salina, KS, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Beloit, KS, on Sunday, February 11, 2024. The Saint Pio Foundation is working with five dioceses across the United States to permanently place first class relics of Saint Pio in chapels in the North, South, East, West, and center of the United States, to represent the sign of the cross.
Each chapel will have a certified first-class relic of a fragment of gauze stained with blood from Saint Pio’s side. Saint Pio suffered the stigmata, wounds that correspond to those Jesus Christ received during his Passion.
On Sunday, February 11, 2024, the Saint Pio Foundation will join the Diocese of Salina in establishing the first of the five chapels with the presentation of the authentic relic at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Beloit, Kansas. Diocese of Salina Bishop, Gerald Vincke, will preside over the 10 am Mass. After Mass, the relic of Saint Pio will be officially consigned and placed in the chapel located just beneath frescoes depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.
“It is appropriate that the first of the five Padre Pio chapels will be in the very center of America, at a parish known specifically for its devotion to Eucharistic Adoration and prayer for peace,” said Luciano Lamonarca, Founder and CEO of the Saint Pio Foundation. “Our goal is to replicate five Saint Pio Chapels within the United States, so that the many faithful around the country could conveniently access the Chapel closer to their home, and thus facilitate their pilgrimage and spiritual encounter with Saint Pio. My hope is that the presence of this relic of Saint Pio will draw more attention to the life and legacy of the beloved saint,” Lamonarca continued. “Most importantly, may all who make a pilgrimage to St. John’s to venerate this relic, grow in their faith as St. Pio would have wished.”
The placing of the relics in the United States is part of a series of initiatives planned for the 10th anniversary of the Saint Pio Foundation’s founding and for the 25th anniversary of the beatification of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. “We are honored and thrilled to be a part of this initiative and to serve as the host diocese for the first Padre Pio Chapel,” said Bishop Vincke. “We look forward to offering this veneration opportunity to the faithful to experience a prayerful, spiritual encounter and to ask for Saint Pio’s intercession.” The Saint Pio Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization that was founded in 2014 to promote the knowledge of and devotion to Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, known also as Padre Pio, a 20th century Catholic priest from the Puglia region of Italy. For more information about the foundation see www.saintpiofoundation.org For more information about the Saint Pio Chapel in Beloit see www.stjohnsbeloit.org/saint-pio-chapel.
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