A Day Trip to the National Shrine of Padre Pio
Today we visited the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, PA. It was a beautiful shrine, and we were able to attend their first Traditional Latin Mass.
When planning our visit, the Latin mass was not listed on the site, but we checked their events calendar and were delighted to discover that it happened to be held the day we hoped to visit.
The low mass was lovely, and well attended. The docent let us know that the shrine was happy to host visiting Latin mass priests, if a tour group wanted to arrange a pilgrimage.
After the mass we explored the adoration chapel, which housed the confessional used by Saint Padre Pio. I was amazed at the size, much smaller than I expected! The chapel was beautiful and we prayed for friends and lit a candle.
Next door was a building with a museum, coffee shop, and gift shop. The museum did not allow photographs which I questioned at first, but it is full of truly beautiful items and relics that are worth making the trip to visit in person.
They have displays of rooms set up like those that Padre Pio lived in, photographs (many of which I had never seen, a cloth that had his blood, albs, and more.
In the gift shop we found several small items to bring home and gift to friends, and on little pilgrimages like this we always get a rosary to take home and add to our collection.
The nearby town of Boyertown, PA had a great brewery called The Other Farm & Forge where we enjoyed lunch. The cheeseburger was great, kids pizza was large enough to share, and the hard cider was delicious.
