Catholic Priest Returns To Vatican Nearly 50 Years After His Death. ( See Photos)

The body of a revered Roman Catholic monk said to have suffered from the stigmata phenomenon has been exhumed and is to be transported to the Vatican in a crystal coffin. Partially reconstructed with a life-like silicone mask and preserved in a temperature-controlled shrine, the mystic monk Padre Pio has officially begun his journey to St Peter's Basilica.

Although he died in 1968, the popular Capuchin monk was declared a saint in 2002 and exhumed from his grave in 2008 to go on display in his hometown of San Giovanni. The monk spent most of his life in the small, southeastern Italian town where yesterday his body was moved to San Lorenzo Basilica in Rome. Tomorrow, he will be taken to the Vatican.