"Making Saints, (Re-)Making Towns:

Pilgrimage and Revitalization in the Land of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina"

Stemming from a long engagement with the Italian province of Benevento and a deep interest in religious movements, Michael is currently conducting ethnographic research in Pietrelcina—the birthplace of the popular 20th century saint, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

Building on Michael's academic work on heritage, tourism and development, this project ethnographically examines material and cultural revitalization in the small Italian village of Pietrelcina, particularly in the unique ways the population negotiates the tension between fostering transformation and maintaining tradition. Set within the context of a rapidly transforming European Union, this research speaks to the larger pressures associated with the changing nature of local identity. 

Beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002 by then-Pope John Paul II, Padre Pio is a twentieth-century Capuchin monk who has become one of the Catholic world’s “most popular saints” for his Christ-like suffering, supernatural visions and stigmata, and poverty alleviation through the foundation of the technologically advanced research hospital, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza. Popularly considered a “living saint” during his lifetime, masses have flocked to his home on the Gargano Peninsula, San Giovanni Rotondo. Today, San Giovanni Rotondo is one of the largest and most-visited Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. While San Giovanni's growth into an international pilgrimage center is a long and relatively well-documented story, Pietrelcina's transformations (and that of its provincial capital, Benevento) are still in their early stages.

Instead of viewing the changes to Pietrelcina's urban landscape in economic terms as a development initiative, Michael argues that such changes are of a more totalizing nature, indicative of a "revitalization movement" (Anthony Wallace 1956). It seems to be an organic reformulation of Pietrelcinese identity based on locals' connection with Padre Pio, and driven by locals’ interactions with pilgrims, tour operators, Church representatives and international Padre Pio prayer groups and associations (a Bourdieuian "field of production"). Conversely, the pilgrim experience with Pietrelcina can deepen, enhance, or otherwise change the meaning of Padre Pio devotion for the pilgrim. It is this exchange of meanings that ultimately fuels both the town's revitalization, as well as the global Padre Pio movement.

Part of this research involves the collection of oral histories by devotees of Padre Pio who have had experiences with the Saint, who passed away in 1968.

Another aspect involves interviews with pilgrims who plan to, or who have previously made, a visit to Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo.

If you or anyone you know has a story about Padre Pio to share,

or if you are traveling on a Padre Pio pilgrimage,

 This research is on-going until December 2010.

This research is being supported by the Hannah Holburn Gray - Mellon Foundation Fellowship for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences; a University of Chicago Overseas Dissertation Research Grant; and a University of Chicago Department of Anthropology Leiffer Fellowship.