The birthplace of Padre Pio
In the green hills of the Sannio, about ten kilometres from Benevento, Pietrelcina is the village where Francesco Forgione, the future Padre Pio, was born in 1887. The Capuchin friar, famous for the stigmata he bore for fifty years and for the crowds of faithful who came to see him at San Giovanni Rotondo, was proclaimed a saint in 2002 and is one of the most venerated figures in modern Italy.
The village keeps the places of his childhood and youth: the birthplace, a small stone house in the old district of the Castello; the little Torretta where he lived as a young friar; the parish church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where he was baptised and where he celebrated mass; and the rock of the Morgia. Just outside the village, at Piana Romana, is the farm of his family with the elm tree under which he is said to have received the first, invisible stigmata in 1910. A large modern church and a Capuchin friary welcome pilgrims.
Tip: the places are close together and can be visited on foot in a couple of hours; combining Pietrelcina with San Giovanni Rotondo, in Apulia, makes a complete pilgrimage.
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