It may have been a weekday noon Mass, but worshipers thronged St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland on Tuesday in numbers that could have rivaled an Easter service. The standing-room-only crowd of at least 1,500 converged on the cathedral for the one-day opportunity to be near a few bits of hair and cloth that would connect them with one of the most venerated Catholic saints of modern times — St. Pio of Pietrelcina, popularly known as Padre Pio.

Friars in brown habits, similar to that worn by Pio, a member of the Franciscan Capuchin order, mingled with nuns and a host of other faithful. Many came in wheelchairs or supported by canes, a reminder of Pio’s reputation as a healer.