Facts & Stories
On Monday, April 19 at 4:30 p.m. the body of St. Pio of Pietrelcina will be moved from the crypt in the small Santa Maria delle Grazie sanctuary to a crypt covered with gold mosaics designed by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, located in a magnificent new church designed by Renzo Piano. Many of the Saint's followers find it unacceptable, considering the new sanctuary too modern, too majestic, and above all, too removed from the way Padre Pio lived his life.