A Pilgrimage Weekend In cammino verso Dio: Journeying Toward the Face of God with Sts. Michael the Archangel and Padre Pio AARON SALVAN ’24, ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK
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NAC spiritual director Fr. Randy Soto C'98, C'02 (New York) led the College's first pilgrimage weekend in two years. The pilgrims first visited the Sanctuary of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy. They venerated the veil believed to be one of the burial cloths that covered the face of our Lord Jesus in the tomb. From a distance, the relic is almost transparent. When viewed up close, however, the viewer sees a bearded man with eyes open, almost as if waking from sleep— recalling the Lord’s resurrection. Faculty, student-priests, and seminarians then descended the cave of St. Michael the Archangel on Mount Gargano. Fr. Soto celebrated Holy Mass for the group within the “Celestial Basilica.” Tradition holds that the Archangel appeared three times in the cave promising protection from harm and forgiveness of sins to the faithful. Popes, saints, emperors, and many other pilgrims have visited the site since the first apparition in the 5th century.
The pilgrims stayed at San Giovanni Rotondo, where the Capuchin friar and stigmatist St. Padre Pio ministered to countless faithful. After seeing the holy sites and venerating his relics, the group concluded their pilgrimage at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace, where Fr. John Cush '98, C'15 (Brooklyn) celebrated Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the King. n
ROMAN ECHOES 2022 • VOLUME 26: ISSUE 2
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