Thieves in Italy attempt to steal Padre Pio Relics
(August 12, 2010) In Italy thieves attempted, but failed, to steal a few relics of
St. Padre Pio from the Capuchin cemetery in San Giovanni Rotondo, the town where the
friar lived and ministered. Italian police said thieves entered the cemetery chapel
the Sunday night of Aug. 8 by breaking a window. St. Pio is not buried with his Capuchin
confreres in the cemetery but rests in a shrine dedicated to him nearby. Police said
the thieves used a sharp object to try to break the glass case of a reliquary containing
some of St. Pio's hair, a gauze bandage that had been wrapped around his ribs and
a pair of his gloves. The bandage and gloves are stained with blood from the stigmata
that marked the saint's body. For more than a half century, Padre Pio bore bloody
wounds on his hands, feet and side, like those that marked Christ's crucified body.
The glass on the reliquary was scratched but not broken, police said. Padre Pio is
revered not only in Italy but also all over the world.