A foundation dedicated to spreading devotion to St. Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio, is set to open a chapel in rural Kansas this weekend that will permanently host a first-class relic of the saint.
Luciano Lamonarca, the founder of the Saint Pio Foundation, told CNA that the plan is to inaugurate five chapels dedicated to the saint, each with a first-class relic, across the United States in the four cardinal directions so that they form the shape of a cross on a map, with the Kansas chapel forming the cross’ center. The inaugural chapel, located inside St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Beloit, Kansas, opens Feb. 11.
