A metro area church expected to draw a large crowd for the viewing of relics of an Italian Catholic saint on Friday. Those expectations were well founded as an estimated 3,000 people had viewed the relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina by 3 p.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church, 8005 Dorset Drive. At times, the line to get into the house of worship snaked around the exterior of the church.

The Rev. Rick Stansberry, the church's pastor, expected the largest crowd for a planned Mass with Archbishop S. Coakley set for later in the afternoon. St. Pio of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio, was the first Catholic priest in the history of the Catholic Church to be stigmatized when the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, appeared on his body on Sept. 20, 1918.