The crypt beneath Renzo Piano's circular stone church holds the incorrupt body of Francesco Forgione, a Capuchin friar who bore the wounds of Christ for fifty years and died in 1963 at the monastery where he first arrived in 1916.
Canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, Padre Pio drew millions to San Giovanni Rotondo during his lifetime, and the pilgrimage traffic has only intensified since his death — today the Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina receives more than seven million visitors annually, making it one of the most-visited Catholic sites in the world after the Vatican and Lourdes.
The original Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, a modest sixteenth-century convent church where Padre Pio celebrated daily Mass and heard confessions in a wooden stall for decades, remains at the heart of the complex. The friar's cell, preserved behind glass on the upper floor of the adjacent monastery, is spare and small — a narrow bed, a writing table, a crucifix — and conveys the asceticism that defined his life. In 2004, the new sanctuary designed by Renzo Piano was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI, its sweeping spiral plan accommodating six thousand worshippers beneath a limestone exterior quarried from the surrounding Gargano massif. The crypt, reached by a wide ramp that descends from the main nave, is lit by thin vertical skylights; Padre Pio's tomb occupies a side chapel whose stone walls are inscribed with prayers in dozens of languages.
Pilgrims arrive from across Italy and beyond, many travelling from Rome on padre pio shrine tour from rome day trips that depart before dawn and return after dark. The drive east crosses the Apennines and descends into Apulia, a journey of roughly four and a half hours each way. Guided excursions typically include time in the old church, the crypt, and the Via Crucis path that winds through pine groves behind the monastery, as well as optional visits to the nearby Grotta di San Michele in Monte Sant'Angelo, a cave sanctuary where the Archangel Michael is said to have appeared in the fifth century. The shrine is open daily from six in the morning until seven in the evening, and entry is free, though the crowds swell by mid-morning and remain dense through the afternoon. For those seeking a contemplative visit, the earliest hours offer quieter access to the crypt and the friar's cell, before the tour coaches arrive from the coast and the interior.
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