By Lois Rogers | Correspondent

The round brass bowl and sturdy stem of the chalice once used by St. Pio of Pietrelcina stood in wonderful simplicity atop the altar of St. Mary Church, Barnegat, Sept. 27 as dozens of faithful of all ages approached to venerate it.

Among them was Frances Kory, a member of St. Theresa Parish, Little Egg Harbor, who was attending a “Holy Hour for Life” in the Barnegat parish when she heard there would be an opportunity to celebrate the life of St. Pio with a Mass and the veneration of his chalice.

Kory said she felt blessed to be present and to touch the chalice prayerfully. “I came right over when I heard,” she said with a smile.

"I thought that this was a very special opportunity.”

Billy Turner, a member of St. Mary Parish, saw it as a chance to express his special devotion to St. Pio and to venerate an object which he had held in hands that bore two of the five wounds of the stigmata – the wounds of Christ. “He was so (one) with the Lord,” Turner said of St. Pio. 

Veneration followed Mass celebrated by Father Nestor Chavenia, parochial vicar of St. Mary Parish, who, in his homily, said he was “struck by the gifts given to (Padre Pio) by our Crucified Lord … how he suffered, underwent pain, how he endured and how gifted he was in spirit of the suffering.”

Padre Pio fulfilled his ministry of healing and leading people to Christ in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Tales of miraculous cures from his intercessions are legion. He died in 1968 and was canonized a saint in 2002 by St. John Paul II.

The precious vessel he used in his ministry had traveled a long way to get there – commencing its ceaseless journey in Italy where a devoted and hopeful American couple first purchased it at an auction and later – after the wife overcame cancer – passed it on to Cindy Russo, leader of the Padre Pio Prayer Group in the Diocese of Cleveland.

Russo, who is devoted to Padre Pio, shared her conviction that the saint has interceded for her and many people of her acquaintance over the years. She has made it her mission share the relic with as many people as possible, drove the cup non-stop from Cleveland to Barnegat.

She did so at the invitation of parishioner Joseph Morici who is striving to establish a Padre Pio Prayer Group in St. Mary Parish. If the group receives permission from Bishop David M. O'Connell, C.M., to form the group and Pietrelcina concurs, Morici said, they will join together on the first Saturday of each month with their priest-coordinator for benediction and a holy hour.

According various sites on the Internet, the group would be one of 3,000 attended around the globe by some three million faithful. 

Speaking softly as those who had come to venerate the chalice reached out reverently to touch it, Morici explained that he had met Russo at St. Padre Pio Parish in Vineland and the shrine dedicated to him when she brought the chalice there.

He invited her to bring the chalice to Barnegat where there are many people devoted to him and well as to the saintly cause of Maria Esperanza, who is believed to have witnessed 31 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 15 years. Esperanza, who was beloved in the parish, was warmly welcomed there and died there in 1990.

Morici called it a “wonderful thing,” to have Russo bring the chalice and said that he was thrilled to have hosted her and the chalice in his house during the visit. “The Lord has been so good to me. When I first met Cindy, I held the chalice and put everything in God's hands.

It's an amazing journey.”