PAVIA, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV encouraged Italians on Saturday to rediscover their lagging Catholic faith during a visit to northern Italy where he prayed before the relics of St. Augustine, the intellectual giant of the early Christian church and inspiration of his religious spirituality.Leo traveled by helicopter to Pavia, near Milan, where the remains of the fifth-century saint are kept. Leo prayed quietly before the small gold-rimmed glass box containing the remains that had been brought to the altar of the San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro basilica for the occasion.Leo’s day trip, during which he was also due to honor the first American saint, Mother Frances Cabrini, marked the midway point of his summer 2026 grand tour of Italy. The American pope has scheduled a series of Saturday day trips up and down the peninsula and its islands to get to know his new flock.
The visit to Pavia was a required stop for history’s first Augustinian pope. Leo proclaimed himself a “son of St. Augustine” on the night of his election and has cited Augustine prolifically in his first year, making clear that the saint is the guiding inspiration of his pontificate.
In his remarks to the faithful in the basilica, Leo urged Italians to discover or rediscover their faith and pointed to Augustine as a model. Like many once-Christian strongholds in Europe, Italy has seen its churches empty in recent years amid secularizing trends, with fewer and fewer Italians getting married in the church or going to Mass regularly.
