Padre Pio devotee looks forward to prayer group visitor

FOR Ennis woman Máire Coll, Padre Pio is an especially relevant figure. Her own experience of the saint inspires her and she organises an annual pilgrimage to Italy and is part of a group that meets during the summer months to acknowledge the saint through prayer.

Máire took an interest in the famous stigmatic a number of years ago after what she considers a personal intervention by the saint. Now she keeps a religious relic from Saint Pio with her. The relic is part of a bandage said to have been worn by Padre Pio who suffered from stigmata.
“A friend brought me the relic from San Giovanni,” recalls Máire and she has held it dear ever since.
“I had favours in the past and Padre Pio has a special meaning in my life,” she stated.
Padre Pio was born in Pietrelcina in Southern Italy in 1887 and lived until September 1968. He was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II and is one of the most popular saints among Irish Roman Catholics.
“I think part of the reason he means so much to people is that he is a saint of our time. There are so many miracles that we can attribute to him,” Máire explains.
The Ennis Padre Pio prayer group meets once a month from September to June. Fr John O’Gorman from the Tuam Diocese will be the guest speaker on Wednesday at the monthly mass for group.
“Fr O’Gorman is privileged to have witnessed St Pio’s intercession, this time it was in the life of one of his parishioners in Connemara. I would say he will draw a large crowd, as he did before, to hear his testimony of how St Pio can change people’s lives,” Máire stated.
“Fr O’Gorman has been here before but that was about five years ago. He has a very interesting story about his own experience with Padre Pio’s intervention. Fr O’Gorman was very well received last time and people have asked for him to come back,” she added.
The mass will take place on Wednesday at 7.30pm in St Joseph’s Church in Cloughleigh, Ennis.
The Ennis Padre Pio prayer group will travel to Rome in early September taking in a papal audience, San Giovanni, Monte San’t Angelo, Loreto, Manopello, Nettuno, Lanciano and the Adriatic Coast under the spiritual direction of Fr Tom Hogan.
For more information on the pilgrimage or the group, contact Máire on 086 8804603.