Padre Pio's body exhumed

"The body of St Padre Pio, one of Italy's most popular saints, was exhumed last night to be prepared for public veneration next month marking the 40th anniversary of his death and the 90th anniversary of the first appearance of stigmata on his hands and feet.

Capuchin friars at the sanctuary at San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy, where Padre Pio's tomb is visited by seven million pilgrims annually, said that 'parts of the body' had been found to be 'intact', but did not immediately elaborate. The friars denied that the remains would be transferred from the sanctuary crypt to a new spacious and ultra modern church nearby at San Giovanni Rotondo designed by the world renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano."