Faithful await display of Catholic mystic’s body
750,000 people to view Padre Pio’s body, which goes on display Thursday

REUTERS
updated 3:34 p.m. ET, Wed., April. 23, 2008

SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy - Pilgrims gathered to pray on Wednesday in a small town in southern Italy abuzz with anticipation for the moment when the exhumed body of a revered mystic monk would be put on display.

The body of the friar, who died in 1968 and was said to have had the stigmata — the wounds of Jesus' crucifixion on his hands and feet — will be placed in a glass coffin in San Giovanni Rotondo on Thursday.


FULL STORY

I was in Italy when JPII died. No one seemed to give a shit, really, but the commoners are ga-ga over P. Pio. And this was in the north, so I can imagine what goes on in the Boot and below.