celebrated mass and met with various people, including with the sick and the employees of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza. Pope Francis has also supported popular devotion to Padre Pio. During the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, he requested that Padre Pio's relics be exposed for veneration in St. Peter's Basilica from 8 to 14 February 2016. On 17 March 2018, he visited both Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his death. Exhumation On 3 March 2008, the body of Pio was exhumed from his crypt, forty years after his death, so that his remains could be prepared for display. A church statement described the body as being in "fair condition". Archbishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio, Papal legate to the shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, stated "the top part of the skull is partly skeletal but the chin is perfect and the rest of the body is well preserved". Archbishop D’Ambrosio also confirmed in a communiqué that "the stigmata are not visible." He said that Pio's hands "looked like they had just undergone a manicure". It was hoped that morticians would be able to restore the face so that it would be recognizable. However, because of its deterioration, his face was covered with a lifelike silicone mask. This mask was made from a 1968 photograph of Padre Pio's body by the London-based Gems Studio, which usually works for wax museums and ethnological museums. Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, celebrated Mass for 15,000 devotees on April 24 at the Shrine of Holy Mary of Grace, San Giovanni Rotondo, before the body went on display in a crystal, marble, and silver sepulcher in the crypt of the monastery. Padre Pio is wearing his brown Capuchin habit with a white silk stole embroidered with crystals and gold thread. His hands hold a large wooden cross. 800,000 pilgrims worldwide, mostly from Italy, made reservations to view the body up to December 2008, but only 7,200 people a day were able to file past the crystal coffin. Officials extended the display through September 2009. Pio's remains were placed in the church of Saint Pio, which is beside San Giovanni Rotondo. In April 2010 they were moved to a special golden crypt. Worldwide devotion Padre Pio has become one of the world's most popular saints. There are more than 3,000 "Padre Pio Prayer Groups"