Pope Leo XIV says "May we all truly be this sign of love...in the world! at Veneration of St. Augustine's Relics in Pavia - FULL TEXT Homily
Pope Leo XIV began his pastoral visit to Pavia, northern Italy, with a visit to the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Golden Sky (Basilica di San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro), the 8th-century church where St Augustine is buried. Gathered there were members of the Catholic faithful from Pavia and across the wider Lombardy region, as well as priests, religious, seminarians and bishops. After leading a short prayer and veneration of the relics of St Augustine, Pope Leo addressed those gathered.
CELEBRATION OF THE WORD AND VENERATION OF THE RELICS OF ST. AUGUSTINE - HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER
Basilica of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro (Pavia)
Saturday, June 20, 2026
_______________________________
Impromptu words from the Holy Father
Thank you, thank you! Good morning everyone!
If I stay thirty seconds longer I'll recognize many of you.
St. Augustine teaches us to live what Jesus Christ taught us: to love God, to love our brothers and sisters. When asked, "Which is more important of the two?" he replied, "According to what you wrote, to love God, but we don't know if we are loving God if we don't love our brothers and sisters." So fraternal love is so important! Charity toward all, today, is a message from St. Augustine, from Jesus Christ, very important for the world. May we all truly be this sign of love, of charity in the world! May we know how to live forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace!
God bless you all. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure to greet you and we bless you.
Blessing. Thank you, thank you! Best wishes!
______________________________
Full Homily of the Holy Father
Your Eminence,
Your Excellencies, dear brothers in the Episcopate,
dear priests and deacons,
dear men and women religious and seminarians,
my Augustinian brothers,
brothers and sisters,
I am happy to be here among you and I thank Bishop Corrado Sanguineti and Father Joseph Farrell, Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, for their words of welcome. I am pleased with what I have heard about this Church in Pavia: a community with an ancient tradition that remains alive and present in the city and its surrounding area, attentive to the signs of this time and its challenges, undaunted by the hardships, the secularized context, and the difficulties in transmitting the faith.
To avoid discouragement, we need a gaze animated by the spirit of faith, which helps us to read reality more deeply than what appears at first sight, and to avoid slipping into a negative , pessimistic attitude, incapable of generating new life. The gaze that is asked of us – and which the Holy Spirit gives us – is instead that of Jesus. In the midst of difficulties and misunderstandings, He sees the provident hand of the Father in the lilies of the fields , in the birds of the air (see Mt 6:28-29), nourishes hope in the small seed that grows (see Mk 4:30-33) and invites us to lift our eyes and see the fields already white for the harvest (see Jn 4:35). In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis encouraged us to this spiritual reading of reality, saying: "The gaze of faith is capable of recognizing the light that the Holy Spirit always spreads in the midst of darkness [...]. Our faith is challenged to glimpse the wine into which water can be transformed, and to discover the wheat that grows among the weeds" (n. 84).
Enlightened by the hope of the Gospel and taking inspiration from what the Apostle Peter told us in the Reading (see 1 Peter 2 :4-10), who calls the Lord's disciples "living stones," let us ask ourselves: how can we be a living Church today, here in Pavia?
The Apostle's first instruction is essential: to remain united with Christ, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God. Christ is the foundation of the spiritual edifice, the cornerstone placed as the basis of our ecclesial journey, of pastoral action and of evangelization (see vv. 4-5).
This being built and building in Christ protects us from the risk of becoming scattered and overworked in secondary matters, which may be good, but do not address the essential. Naturally, we are called to be realistic, and we know that in parish communities and in the life of a diocese, there are many urgent matters and commitments that require our presence and multiple activities. However, it is a matter of bringing everything back to the center, of always building from the cornerstone, of preventing our actions from becoming dispersive, focused solely on ourselves and our own efforts. Since Christ is the center, we all draw from this single source and subject our commitment to the discernment that comes from his light and his Word. Then let us build a Church in which we journey together, capable of renewing itself without dividing, in which all recognize one another as brothers and sisters and work joyfully in the service of the Kingdom of God.
This implies what your Bishop said at the beginning: we must learn to be Christian communities focused on the essentials, even if this means renouncing some of the structures and certainties of the past. The essential thing is to live with Christ, and spreading his Gospel is what we must care about. I recommend this first of all to priests, who can sometimes suffer from a sense of inner dispersion, weariness from multiple duties: always return to the center, unify everything in your relationship with the Lord, and in Him discover the joy of priestly fraternity and shared pastoral work with the laity. And I also recommend it to men and women religious, who often experience the difficulty of actualizing the charism to which they belong, but who always need to start anew from Christ and share the talents they have received both with other religious communities and with the diocesan Church as a whole.
Adhering to Christ, the cornerstone, also allows us to address today's issues regarding the transmission of the faith and religious practice. In a time when many people seem to have lost their spiritual zest or, for various reasons, are no longer able to find the Christian faith's appeal in their lives, we are called first and foremost to bring the Gospel message, a joyful and liberating message of Jesus Christ, which brings out the beauty of faith for our lives and for our society. Today, there is an ever greater need to accompany people in the discovery or rediscovery of faith. Therefore, we must proclaim the core of the Gospel, namely, Jesus, who in his incarnation, death, and resurrection reveals to us the mystery of God and, at the same time, the mystery of ourselves. "A pastoral ministry with a missionary focus […] focuses on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most attractive, and at the same time most necessary" ( Evangelii Gaudium , 35).
In this context, the figure of St. Augustine shines with a precious light. His thought, the story of his conversion, and his spirituality remind us of the value and primacy of interiority: "Do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: truth dwells within you" ( De vera religione , XXXIX, 72). The need to re-enter ourselves, to avoid being lost in external fragmentation, to seek and find a meaning that guides our lives and animates our relationships, is a need common to all: today it resurfaces in different ways even in the haste and dispersion of daily life, especially in the questions of the youngest.
When our witness of faith is consistent and passionate, we ourselves become "living stones" that compose the spiritual edifice that is the Church. The Christian way of life, which was new and astonishing in the beginning, compared to the Jewish and pagan worlds, must remain so today. United with Christ, we can express our holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices daily (cf. 1 Peter 2:5). Woven with prayer and service to others, this worship transforms our lives into a sign of the Gospel through our choices, actions, and relationships.
Dearest ones, like living stones, we are called to be a Church deeply rooted in the land, a Church that walks amid the struggles and hopes of the people, expert in the art of listening and accompanying, nurturing relationships with families, with those preparing to receive the Sacraments, and even with those who are occasional or distant from the life of faith.
I know you are already driven by this pastoral passion, and I invite you to cultivate it without discouragement, seeking to reach everyone with the joy of the Gospel, leveraging the best of your history—think of the oratories—and exploring new opportunities for encounter. Particular attention deserves the commitment to organizing the networks of small communities that meet in homes around the Gospel, open to serving the parish or pastoral community. Listening to the Word generates spiritual vitality, stimulates witness in everyday life, including through movements and associations, and encourages us to reach out to the poor. And, especially here in Pavia, I emphasize the importance of university ministry and dialogue with culture. Study and scholarly research encourage believers to develop a faith-based approach capable of illuminating the search for truth, justice, and beauty that moves the human soul. I know you have begun to take significant steps toward adopting a synodal approach to community life, integrating the traditional path of parishes with new evangelization initiatives. I therefore invite you to continue on this path, learning ever more to walk together, in common discernment and developing shared projects, cultivating fraternity and promoting co-responsibility.
Dear brothers and sisters, may Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Church, obtain for you the ardent desire to live and bear witness to the Gospel, in the fraternal charity that makes us one people on a journey toward God. Venerating the relics of the Holy Father Augustine, I ask that he, together with your Patron Saint Siro, always intercede for this Church and for the city of Pavia. Thank you!
________________________________
An impromptu word from the Holy Father
Good evening everyone! Hello, good evening!
Thank you for being here. You followed the entire ceremony in prayer outside. Now I also give you a blessing, asking that the Lord accompany you and protect you always.
Blessing.
Best wishes to you all! Thank you, thank you!
Translation from the Vatican News Bulletin with Cropped Vatican Media Image from June 20, 2026 in Pavia
Basilica of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro (Pavia)
Saturday, June 20, 2026
_______________________________
Impromptu words from the Holy Father
Thank you, thank you! Good morning everyone!
If I stay thirty seconds longer I'll recognize many of you.
St. Augustine teaches us to live what Jesus Christ taught us: to love God, to love our brothers and sisters. When asked, "Which is more important of the two?" he replied, "According to what you wrote, to love God, but we don't know if we are loving God if we don't love our brothers and sisters." So fraternal love is so important! Charity toward all, today, is a message from St. Augustine, from Jesus Christ, very important for the world. May we all truly be this sign of love, of charity in the world! May we know how to live forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace!
God bless you all. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure to greet you and we bless you.
Blessing. Thank you, thank you! Best wishes!
______________________________
Full Homily of the Holy Father
Your Eminence,
Your Excellencies, dear brothers in the Episcopate,
dear priests and deacons,
dear men and women religious and seminarians,
my Augustinian brothers,
brothers and sisters,
I am happy to be here among you and I thank Bishop Corrado Sanguineti and Father Joseph Farrell, Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, for their words of welcome. I am pleased with what I have heard about this Church in Pavia: a community with an ancient tradition that remains alive and present in the city and its surrounding area, attentive to the signs of this time and its challenges, undaunted by the hardships, the secularized context, and the difficulties in transmitting the faith.
To avoid discouragement, we need a gaze animated by the spirit of faith, which helps us to read reality more deeply than what appears at first sight, and to avoid slipping into a negative , pessimistic attitude, incapable of generating new life. The gaze that is asked of us – and which the Holy Spirit gives us – is instead that of Jesus. In the midst of difficulties and misunderstandings, He sees the provident hand of the Father in the lilies of the fields , in the birds of the air (see Mt 6:28-29), nourishes hope in the small seed that grows (see Mk 4:30-33) and invites us to lift our eyes and see the fields already white for the harvest (see Jn 4:35). In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis encouraged us to this spiritual reading of reality, saying: "The gaze of faith is capable of recognizing the light that the Holy Spirit always spreads in the midst of darkness [...]. Our faith is challenged to glimpse the wine into which water can be transformed, and to discover the wheat that grows among the weeds" (n. 84).
Enlightened by the hope of the Gospel and taking inspiration from what the Apostle Peter told us in the Reading (see 1 Peter 2 :4-10), who calls the Lord's disciples "living stones," let us ask ourselves: how can we be a living Church today, here in Pavia?
The Apostle's first instruction is essential: to remain united with Christ, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God. Christ is the foundation of the spiritual edifice, the cornerstone placed as the basis of our ecclesial journey, of pastoral action and of evangelization (see vv. 4-5).
This being built and building in Christ protects us from the risk of becoming scattered and overworked in secondary matters, which may be good, but do not address the essential. Naturally, we are called to be realistic, and we know that in parish communities and in the life of a diocese, there are many urgent matters and commitments that require our presence and multiple activities. However, it is a matter of bringing everything back to the center, of always building from the cornerstone, of preventing our actions from becoming dispersive, focused solely on ourselves and our own efforts. Since Christ is the center, we all draw from this single source and subject our commitment to the discernment that comes from his light and his Word. Then let us build a Church in which we journey together, capable of renewing itself without dividing, in which all recognize one another as brothers and sisters and work joyfully in the service of the Kingdom of God.
This implies what your Bishop said at the beginning: we must learn to be Christian communities focused on the essentials, even if this means renouncing some of the structures and certainties of the past. The essential thing is to live with Christ, and spreading his Gospel is what we must care about. I recommend this first of all to priests, who can sometimes suffer from a sense of inner dispersion, weariness from multiple duties: always return to the center, unify everything in your relationship with the Lord, and in Him discover the joy of priestly fraternity and shared pastoral work with the laity. And I also recommend it to men and women religious, who often experience the difficulty of actualizing the charism to which they belong, but who always need to start anew from Christ and share the talents they have received both with other religious communities and with the diocesan Church as a whole.
Adhering to Christ, the cornerstone, also allows us to address today's issues regarding the transmission of the faith and religious practice. In a time when many people seem to have lost their spiritual zest or, for various reasons, are no longer able to find the Christian faith's appeal in their lives, we are called first and foremost to bring the Gospel message, a joyful and liberating message of Jesus Christ, which brings out the beauty of faith for our lives and for our society. Today, there is an ever greater need to accompany people in the discovery or rediscovery of faith. Therefore, we must proclaim the core of the Gospel, namely, Jesus, who in his incarnation, death, and resurrection reveals to us the mystery of God and, at the same time, the mystery of ourselves. "A pastoral ministry with a missionary focus […] focuses on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most attractive, and at the same time most necessary" ( Evangelii Gaudium , 35).
In this context, the figure of St. Augustine shines with a precious light. His thought, the story of his conversion, and his spirituality remind us of the value and primacy of interiority: "Do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: truth dwells within you" ( De vera religione , XXXIX, 72). The need to re-enter ourselves, to avoid being lost in external fragmentation, to seek and find a meaning that guides our lives and animates our relationships, is a need common to all: today it resurfaces in different ways even in the haste and dispersion of daily life, especially in the questions of the youngest.
When our witness of faith is consistent and passionate, we ourselves become "living stones" that compose the spiritual edifice that is the Church. The Christian way of life, which was new and astonishing in the beginning, compared to the Jewish and pagan worlds, must remain so today. United with Christ, we can express our holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices daily (cf. 1 Peter 2:5). Woven with prayer and service to others, this worship transforms our lives into a sign of the Gospel through our choices, actions, and relationships.
Dearest ones, like living stones, we are called to be a Church deeply rooted in the land, a Church that walks amid the struggles and hopes of the people, expert in the art of listening and accompanying, nurturing relationships with families, with those preparing to receive the Sacraments, and even with those who are occasional or distant from the life of faith.
I know you are already driven by this pastoral passion, and I invite you to cultivate it without discouragement, seeking to reach everyone with the joy of the Gospel, leveraging the best of your history—think of the oratories—and exploring new opportunities for encounter. Particular attention deserves the commitment to organizing the networks of small communities that meet in homes around the Gospel, open to serving the parish or pastoral community. Listening to the Word generates spiritual vitality, stimulates witness in everyday life, including through movements and associations, and encourages us to reach out to the poor. And, especially here in Pavia, I emphasize the importance of university ministry and dialogue with culture. Study and scholarly research encourage believers to develop a faith-based approach capable of illuminating the search for truth, justice, and beauty that moves the human soul. I know you have begun to take significant steps toward adopting a synodal approach to community life, integrating the traditional path of parishes with new evangelization initiatives. I therefore invite you to continue on this path, learning ever more to walk together, in common discernment and developing shared projects, cultivating fraternity and promoting co-responsibility.
Dear brothers and sisters, may Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Church, obtain for you the ardent desire to live and bear witness to the Gospel, in the fraternal charity that makes us one people on a journey toward God. Venerating the relics of the Holy Father Augustine, I ask that he, together with your Patron Saint Siro, always intercede for this Church and for the city of Pavia. Thank you!
________________________________
An impromptu word from the Holy Father
Good evening everyone! Hello, good evening!
Thank you for being here. You followed the entire ceremony in prayer outside. Now I also give you a blessing, asking that the Lord accompany you and protect you always.
Blessing.
Best wishes to you all! Thank you, thank you!
Translation from the Vatican News Bulletin with Cropped Vatican Media Image from June 20, 2026 in Pavia
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