By Jay Sorgi • Posted September 8, 2025

Many parishes in the Philadelphia region hold festivals. Few of them offer the opportunity for prayers of healing with relics of a saint amidst the food and entertainment.

St. Bede the Venerable Parish in Holland, Bucks County, home of the official archdiocesan shrine of St. Pio of Pietrelcina – known as Padre Pio — is giving that opportunity with its 10th annual Padre Pio Festival.

“The festival is an opportunity primarily to evangelize and to get our Catholic faith, in a sense, out on the street and beyond the church,” said Msgr. John Marine, the pastor of St. Bede.

“It’s also an opportunity for people who are very devoted to Padre Pio to have an opportunity to come learn a little bit more about him and his message, and how he touched the lives of so many people with the theme of reconciliation and love of God and his own personal intercession for the needs of so many people during his lifetime.”

The festival will be held at St. Bede the Venerable Church, 1071 Holland Road in Holland, beginning on Saturday, Sept. 13 from noon until 9 p.m., including 5:30 p.m. Mass followed by a blessing with relics of Padre Pio.

It resumes on Sunday, Sept. 14 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., including 11:30 a.m. Mass in celebration of Padre Pio, which will also include a homily by Capuchin Franciscan Father Joseph Tuscan.

The Mass will be followed by the sacrament of reconciliation and a procession, and a 1:30 p.m. healing service with Padre Pio relics. Parking is free. Visit the website PadrePioFestival.org for more information.

“We have numerous priests that come especially on Sunday to hear confessions because (the sacrament of) reconciliation was a big part of Padre Pio’s ministry,” said Msgr. Marine. “He would be in the confessional for hours and hours.”

Born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, a town in southern Italy, the Capuchin Franciscan priest bore the stigmata, or wounds of the crucified Jesus, for 50 years before he died in 1968. Countless miracles have been attributed to him, leading St. John Paul II to declare him St. Pio in 2002.

“He’s really a saint of the 20th century. He had the heart of Jesus Christ. He was a follower of St. Francis as a Capuchin,” said Msgr. Marine.

“He had that heart of simplicity, but also because he was so close to Christ, he endured the wounds of the passion with the stigmata. That (drew) him even closer to people’s suffering. He knows what suffering is about. People are attracted to that. He walked the walk himself.”

When Msgr. Marine and the parish began the festival a decade ago, they were not prepared for the level of devoted interest that would come the first year.

“I was like blown out of my mind (by) how many people in my parish already had a devotion to Padre Pio,” he said. “I thought I was going to be, in a sense, bringing it to so many people. Yet I found out they already had it, so I just gave them an opportunity to come and celebrate it.”

He also highlights the rare opportunity that comes at a parish festival to receive opportunities for healing, including the healing service set for Sunday afternoon following the Mass and procession.

“We have a special shrine room with relics of Padre Pio, including one of the many gloves he wore during his time of stigmata, gloves that absorbed his blood. We have a bandage that we just received from the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo in Puglia, Italy where his body is. The bandage absorbed the blood during the stigmata along his side of his chest. People come to revere that. There’s great joy and celebration,” said Msgr. Marine.

“One of the most touching things is the healing service. Some of the people who come, I know their stories of sadness. All are coming with great hope to be touched by the relics and to, again, feel God’s presence with them.”

The festival also includes the typical staples of a parish festival, with plenty of beloved food vendors, activities for children and families, and numerous musical acts like the Jersey Tenors, all as a way of gathering people for opportunities to evangelize.

But the final connection to Padre Pio involves how proceeds from the festival will benefit St. Mary’s Hospital in Langhorne and its Pediatric Emergency Care Center.

“Padre Pio knew that the people who lived up in the mountains where his monastery was in Italy, if they needed an emergency, they would die by the time they would get to a doctor or a hospital,” said Msgr. Marine.

“He had a hospital built right up in that mountain town, and it’s one of the best hospitals in Italy, especially for children. We feel like we’re continuing his ministry by taking the proceeds we make and giving it to St. Mary’s.”