A Short History of the San Padre Pio International Shrine in Santo Tomas, Batangas

On September 23, 2026, the Parish and Shrine of Saint Padre Pio in Barangay San Pedro, Santo Tomas, Batangas, formally entered a new chapter in its relatively short history when it was solemnly declared an International Shrine. The declaration came after the Holy See, through the Dicastery for Evangelization, issued the decree granting the shrine international status on May 25, 2026 — the 139^th anniversary of the birth of Padre Pio¹.

The distinction is remarkable not only because the shrine is now the second international Catholic shrine in the Philippines, after the International Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo, but also because the Santo Tomas shrine had begun only a little more than two decades earlier as a small chapel in Barangay San Pedro. Its development from a modest local place of worship into a pilgrimage center of national and now international standing is, therefore, a relatively recent chapter in the religious history of Batangas.

The story is inseparable from the man to whom the shrine is dedicated. Francesco Forgione, later known as Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, was born on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, in the Italian archdiocese of Benevento. At sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, took the name Brother Pio, made his solemn profession in 1907, and was ordained a priest at Benevento on August 10, 1910. In 1916 he was sent to the Capuchin friary at San Giovanni Rotondo, where he would remain for the rest of his life².

Padre Pio became known throughout the Catholic world for his intense life of prayer, his ministry in the confessional and at Mass, his spiritual direction, and the stigmata that appeared visibly on his body in 1918. He also devoted himself to the sick and suffering, most notably through the establishment of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, or House for the Relief of Suffering, which opened in 1956. He died at San Giovanni Rotondo on September 23, 1968, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1999 before being canonized by the same pope on June 16, 2002³.

It was in the aftermath of that canonization that devotion to Padre Pio began taking institutional form in San Pedro, Santo Tomas. The shrine's own historical account, repeated in several published accounts of the parish, traces its beginnings to a small chapel along what was then the Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Pedro. The area was at the time under the pastoral care of the Parish of St. Thomas Aquinas in the poblacion of Santo Tomas⁴.

A significant early development was the arrival of a relic of Padre Pio. According to the historical account of the shrine, months after the saint's canonization in 2002, the first of his first-class relics was entrusted to the proposed parish by Capuchin priest Rev. Fr. Cesar Acuin, OFM Cap. The presence of a relic gave the developing community a tangible focus for the devotion that was already gathering around the newly canonized saint⁵.

On June 28, 2003, Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales of Lipa canonically erected the Parish of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. The new parish was the first parish in the Philippines placed under the patronage of the Capuchin saint, and Rev. Fr. Dale Anthony Q. Barretto-Ko became its first pastor⁶.

An AI-imagined image of pilgrims arriving at the San Padre Pio International Shrines in Batangas.

The available parish histories indicate that the parish began its life in a small chapel in Barangay San Pedro, although they do not establish a separate construction date for that original structure. What can be established is that the chapel eventually proved inadequate for the growing number of parishioners and devotees coming to it⁷.

The response was the acquisition of a much larger site. Ernesto and Adelaida Gonzaga, residents of the area, donated 1.6 hectares of agricultural land to the Archdiocese of Lipa for the construction of a new church and shrine. Dr. Isabel Malvar-Villegas subsequently donated land to provide a right of way from the barangay road to the new property⁸.

Groundbreaking at the new site took place in 2006. A temporary chapel made of bamboo and nipa was established there while preparations for the permanent church continued. The decision to build on a larger property was not simply a matter of replacing an old structure: it reflected the increasing number of parishioners and devotees who could no longer be accommodated by the original chapel⁹.

On December 23, 2008, Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles of Lipa elevated the parish church at the new site to the status of Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Padre Pio. The elevation was significant because, in Catholic usage, a shrine is not simply a church that happens to receive visitors. Canon 1230 of the Code of Canon Law defines a shrine as a church or other sacred place to which numerous members of the faithful make pilgrimage for a particular reason of piety, with the approval of the local ordinary¹⁰.

The development of the permanent shrine accelerated after Rev. Fr. Joselin “Jojo” Gonda became parish priest and shrine rector in 2009. Construction of the principal church and other facilities proceeded over the following years, with adjacent properties eventually acquired to enlarge the shrine complex. Contemporary reporting described the complex as including the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, Chapel of the Saints, belfry, parish rectory, Sanctuary of the True Cross of Christ and Chapel of Reconciliation, among other structures¹¹.

The principal church was formally dedicated on September 23, 2013, the feast of Saint Padre Pio. Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales presided over the dedication, while the Italian Capuchin priest Ermelindo Di Capua was present. Di Capua had served at San Giovanni Rotondo and had personally known Padre Pio, making his presence at the dedication an especially significant connection between the new Batangas shrine and the saint's Italian legacy¹².

The architecture of the church also reflected an intentional Filipino character. Contemporary reporting described a structure built around indigenous materials and a roof resembling the salakot, the traditional Filipino headgear associated with farmers and fishermen. Fr. Gonda explained that the concept was Filipiniana in character, while Batangueño architect Julius Pio Raña translated the design into the completed structure¹³.

By this time, the shrine was no longer merely a local parish church. In October 2015, The Philippine Star reported that Fr. Gonda estimated that between 25,000 and 35,000 devotees were coming to the shrine on Sundays. The same report noted that pilgrims were arriving from different parts of the Philippines and even from abroad, indicating the extent to which devotion to Padre Pio had already extended beyond Santo Tomas and the immediate province¹⁴.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines subsequently approved the shrine's elevation to national status. The CBCP's present Association of Catholic Shrines and Pilgrimages directory records September 14, 2015, as the declaration date of the Parish and National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio in Santo Tomas. The solemn declaration was led by Archbishop Socrates Villegas, then president of the CBCP¹⁵.

The distinction between 2013 and 2015 is important. The year 2013 marked the dedication of the permanent church, whereas 2015 marked its formal recognition as a national shrine. Confusing these two events has resulted in inconsistent dates appearing in some later accounts, but the current CBCP shrine directory supports September 14, 2015 as the national-shrine declaration¹⁶.

The shrine's growing importance was demonstrated dramatically in 2018 when an incorrupt heart relic of Padre Pio was brought to the Philippines for public veneration. The National Shrine in Santo Tomas was the first stop of the relic's Philippine tour, and the Philippine News Agency reported that more than 30,000 devotees and worshippers came to the shrine during its October 2018 visit¹⁷.

The shrine also became one of the venues associated with the 4^th World Apostolic Congress on Mercy held in the Philippines in January 2017. The event brought together Catholic participants and pilgrims from the Philippines and other parts of the world, further establishing Santo Tomas as a significant destination within the country's network of pilgrimage sites¹⁸.

There is, however, an important distinction between the popularity of a shrine and its canonical status. A place may attract large numbers of pilgrims without automatically becoming a national or international shrine. The Catholic Church's Directory on Popular Piety explains that canonical recognition is an official ecclesiastical recognition of a sacred place for the particular purpose of receiving pilgrims, and that recognition at the diocesan, national or international level requires approval from the appropriate ecclesiastical authority¹⁹.

This brings us to the meaning of the title “International Shrine.” The term does not simply mean that foreigners visit the place, nor does it mean that the shrine acquires jurisdiction over other churches or shrines around the world. Under Canon 1231 of the Code of Canon Law, a shrine may be called national with the approval of the bishops' conference, but an international shrine requires the approval of the Holy See²⁰.

The distinction is therefore juridical and ecclesiastical as well as devotional. Canon 1232 further provides that the statutes of a diocesan shrine are approved by the local ordinary, those of a national shrine by the bishops' conference, and those of an international shrine by the Holy See alone. Pope Francis' 2017 apostolic letter Sanctuarium in Ecclesia assigned responsibility for establishing international shrines and approving their statutes to the competent authority for shrines within the Holy See's evangelization structure²¹.

The elevation of the Santo Tomas shrine followed a formal application supported by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. In July 2024, the CBCP endorsed the petition to elevate the National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio to international status, after which the application proceeded to the Holy See²².

The Holy See granted the request on May 25, 2026, through a decree of the Dicastery for Evangelization. The date was the 139^th anniversary of Padre Pio's birth. The decree made the Santo Tomas shrine the second international shrine in the Philippines, following the International Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo City²³.

The canonical elevation was formally proclaimed on September 23, 2026, Padre Pio's liturgical feast day. Thus, a place that began with a small chapel in Barangay San Pedro in the early years of the twenty-first century had, within twenty-three years, passed through the stages of parish, archdiocesan shrine and national shrine before receiving the highest category of shrine recognized under the Church's law²⁴.

The history of the San Padre Pio International Shrine is consequently not an ancient one. Its significance lies precisely in how quickly a local devotion developed into an organized pilgrimage tradition, how the physical shrine grew in response to that devotion, and how successive levels of ecclesiastical recognition followed that development. From the chapel in San Pedro to the international shrine of 2026, its history is also a record of how a distinctly Batangueño place of worship became connected to a devotion that now extends far beyond the province and the Philippines.