Some came to pray for a miracle. Others looked for inspiration or simply wanted to show reverence. Whatever their reasons, hundreds of devout Catholics flocked to St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday to touch and kiss relics that belonged to St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

It was part of a special Mass commemorating the revered Italian Capuchin monk’s 130th birthday, which was May 25, and the 15th anniversary of his canonization. The Mass included renditions by the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel Choir. Timothy Cardinal Dolan personally escorted two cancer patients and prayed before Padre Pio’s cloak and several silver reliquaries containing his glove, a lock of his hair and a handkerchief that he held on his deathbed.