The Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina is located
in San Giovanni Rotondo, Province of Foggia, Italy.

Later his superior said that his head fell gently to his chest and that "he died like a little bird." For a few moments his cell was blooming with the heavenly fragrance that so often came from his wounds during his fifty years of suffering. It was estimated that about 100.000 attended his funeral. Most of them had come to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his stigmata. They did not realize they would be witnesses to a great event in Church history - the "going home" of a future saint.