Padre Pio’s glove to go on display near Athy on Saturday
Padre Pio Glove will go on display near Athy
A relic of one of the most well-known of the Catholic saints will be available for a day’s devotion in Kilberry, near Athy on Saturday 14 June.
The mitten of Padre Pio will be on display at the home of Ann Fitzpatrick – R14 XT53 - between the hours of 11am and 5pm.
“I’m in the Padre Pio Society, and my family have it twice a year,” said Ann.
“We’ve hosted the glove for the last 13 years, and 100 per cent of the people will come to be blessed with the glove,” she said.
“The glove is one he would’ve worn, but it is now in a frame because people would be pulling little pieces of the wool for their own healing."
She added: “I myself have gone to different places to view the glove, and I remember my mother and I going to see it in Carlow one time and could only view it in a scullery."
Because of this Ann and her family offer a better viewing experience in the parlour, and a marquee of refreshments out the back at their own expense.
“I don’t mind the crowds, they’re all good people coming for Padre Pio,” she said.
“Any and all donations go straight to San Giovanni and Padre Pio,” she said.
The asked Ann how she first managed to get such unique access to the relic, and she explained it was through a fellow devotee Pat Ryan from Edenderry, “who has secured the glove for the last few years”.
The also spoke with Pat Ryan to get some more background on this mystical mitten.
Pat explained that when his first child was only five months and had developed a serious case of pneumonia, and that his mother managed to bring the mitten to cure the child.
He explained how his mother got it from another devotee, Mairead Doyle from Dublin, who had made multiple pilgrimages to the San Giovanni monastery in Italy in the 60s, and was gifted the mitten from the man himself shortly before he died.
“She gave it to her sister Kay in Edenderry when she died, and when Kay died, I became the third caretaker of it since Padre Pio handed it to Mairead in 1968,” he explained.
“It doesn’t tour, but if people want it for hospital visits, I’ll let it out, though not overnight, so people can get a blessing with the glove,” said Pat. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio was an Italian Capuchian friar, priest, stigmatist and mystic who died in 1968, and is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Devotion to Padre Pio has spread among Catholics all over the world since his death, and he was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II after many miracles have been attributed to the saint over the years.
