Blessings with one of the gloves worn by St Pio will be offered to the public in Killarney at a service on Monday night.
The glove was worn by Padre Pio to cover his stigmata which saw the palms of his hand bleed openly for several years.
The Killarney St Pio Prayer Group will have the glove available for blessings following 7.30pm Mass in the Church of the Resurrection in Killarney next Monday.
Organiser Michael Anthony Clifford said there has always been a wonderful turnout for previous Pio blessings in the same church, highlighting the great devotion to St Pio and, he said, the rare opportunity to be blessed with one of his relics is very important to many people
Many Irish people have great devotion to St Pio with thouands embarking on pilgrimages to San Giovanni to pray at his coffin.
Pio, who lived from 1887 to 1968, was an Italian Capuchin friar who spent most of his religious life in a convent in San Giovanni.
Beatified in 1999 and declared a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002, St Pio is the only stigmatised priest in the history of the Church and he bore the bodily signs of Christ’s passion for the last 40 years of his life.
Padre Pio died in September 1968, at the age of 81. Following his death, his popularity continued to spread among believers all over the world.
St Pio’s relics are exposed next to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo which is now a major pilgrimage site.
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