Padre Pio of Pieterlcina arrived at the friary of the Capuchin Friars Minor in San Giovann Rotondo for the first time on 28th July 1916. He found a small, very modest church, consecrated in 1676 to our Lady of Grace; much bigger but today inadequate for the uninterrupted flow of pilgrims, now numbering in the millions, who come throughout the year to pray, to seek blessings and to offer thanks to the Lord, to the Blessed Virgin and to Padre Pio.
Each visitor to the shrine enters through the large central doors of theBasilica-Sanctuary, like all of the devout pilgrims who burn with the desire to encounter the mystery of holiness and accept the mystery of suffering and of the Cross. With this desire in your heart, you too may enter into this "house".
