THE
PADRE PIO
Five bronzes tracing one saint’s whole spiritual life.
COLLECTION
Sculptures
5
LOCATION
Italy & United States
OVERVIEW
The Padre Pio Collection is Timothy Schmalz’s tribute to his favorite saint: a set of five highly interactive bronze sculptures tracing St. Pio of Pietrelcina’s life from confessor to spiritual warrior to devoted son. Each piece pulls from a different chapter of Padre Pio’s story: his decades in the confessional, his family’s sacrifice to get him there in the first place, his legendary battles against evil, and his lifelong devotion to Mary and to the Church’s protection.
LOCATION
Italy & United States
Inspiration & Meaning
The whole collection traces back to something personal. During a hard stretch in his own life, Schmalz prayed intensely to Padre Pio for his family’s health — and felt a peace afterward he’s since called the saint’s real, daily miracle. He’s said the only way he knew to properly thank a saint was the way he thanks anyone: by sculpting them.
“When I pray, I am very physical in my thoughts and that’s why, in a sense, I do sculpture. And to have a sculpture of this beautiful, amazing, my favorite saint with his hands out in prayer—one can grab those hands while they’re in prayer and have that connection physically.
It’s like a rosary in a sense, where, sure, you can say a rosary without the beads but, aren’t the beads an added bonus, right?”
– Timothy Schmalz
LOCATIONS AT A GLANCE
Pietrelcina, Italy — Padre Pio’s hometown, where I Embrace You stands in a public square as a piece anyone in town can walk past on an ordinary day. A second cast, the only replica of this piece, stands at St. Mary Church–Holy Spirit Parish in New Castle, Pennsylvania.
Significant Milestones
A Public Square in Pietrelcina. On September 23, 2021 — the 53rd anniversary of Padre Pio’s death — I Embrace You was installed in Pietrelcina. The piece carries a dedication to “the People of the United States of America,” honoring a debt that runs through Padre Pio’s own life story: his father, Grazio Forgione, emigrated to America to earn the money for his son’s private tutoring — the education Pio needed to meet the Capuchin Order’s academic requirements.
A Homecoming in Pennsylvania. On March 9, 2024 — the 125th anniversary of Grazio Forgione’s arrival in the United States — the only 10-foot replica of I Embrace You was installed at St. Mary Church–Holy Spirit Parish in New Castle, Pennsylvania, bringing the piece back, in a sense, to the country its dedication honors.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Timothy Paul Schmalz has spent over three decades translating Scripture into bronze.
