CNN reports that ‘[t]he body of Padre Pio, a hugely popular 20th century Italian saint, went on public display Thursday in a southern Italian town where thousands gathered to pray.’ Pio died in 1968 when he was 81 years old. He was ‘a mystic monk who many Catholic faithful believe bore “stigmata,” or wounds like those Jesus suffered at his crucifixion, on his hands and feet.’

In the end, he (whose original name was Francesco Forgione) was made a saint in 2002.

Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican’s sainthood office, lead an open-air Mass for thousands of faithful before the unveiling of the saint’s body in a church in San Giovanni Rotondo, where the saint had lived.

“Today, we venerate his body, opening a particularly intense period of pilgrimage,” Saraiva Martins said. “This body is here, but Padre Pio is not only a corpse. Looking at his remains we remember all the good that he has made.”

As the article at CNN explains, Padre Pio is one of the most ‘popular’ saints in Italy, and perhaps even in the world. He had and continues to have an enormous following. Church officials expect some 15,000 ‘people to pay their respects to Padre Pio on the first day of the viewing.’

Padre Pio had a huge public following in life, as in death, and his beatification and canonization ceremonies drew hundreds of thousands of people to the Vatican.

For decades, though, many in the Vatican were uneasy about his popularity and scorned him, doubting that his wounds were real and that mystical virtues attributed to him were authentic. He was barred for years from saying Mass in public, even as his following grew immensely.

‘Since the unearthing in March, the body has been prepared for public viewing in the crypt of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in San Giovanni Rotondo, a town near the Adriatic in southern Puglia.’

The body is in good condition, and there are no signs of ’stigmata on his limbs.’ As of yet, ‘[i]t is not yet known when the body will be reburied.’

Although I personally don’t consider the ’sainting’ of anyone a good thing from a religious perspective, I do think that people should do whatever helps them grow spiritually in this regard. From a religious perspective, they should only keep in mind that the so-called saints were human beings, just like them, and that they shouldn’t make the mistake to worship their fellow men.