PEREGRINUS CRACOVIENSIS Zeszyt 13, 2002 ISSN 1425−1922 Piotr Mróz OFM, Franciszek Mróz On the Footprints of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina 1. Introduction L ook now, he was so famous and managed to gather so many people aro− und him. But why? Maybe he was a philosopher? Maybe a wise man? May be ha had some resources to spend? The reason is that he was saying his mass in a humble way, confessing people all day long and he was also, although it is hard to explain, marked with the stigmas of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man of prayer and suffering. 1 These were the words that the pope Paul the Sixth addressed on 20 th February 1971 to the authorities of the Capuchin order. They relate to Francesco Forgione, known world−wide as Padre Pio. This Italian Capuchin, priest and stigmatic was aperson who bore the marks of Jesus Christ’ suffering for 50 years and who received from God the gift of reading human consciences, bilocation and profound contemplation of Jesus Crucified. The Holy Father, John Paul the Second beatified him on 8 th May 1999, and three years later, i.e. on 16 th June 2002 he was canonised infront of 300 thousand pilgrims gathered at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This paper is an invitation to a pilgrimage following Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. It aims at presenting the places related to the monk’s life and work. The article pays special attention to Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo, two towns in which the stigmatic spent the most of his time and which attract a few million pilgrims every year. 2. “There was Jesus in Pietrelcina and everything happened there” Pietrelcina is a little village of Benevento province, sitting on the slopes ofmildly shaped hills of Sannio, 351 meters above sea level, around 12 kilometres north−east of Benevento. Its population is currently around 4 thousand people. The name of the village comes probably from “Preta Pucina”, which means a small pebble. proper