The Italian town where St Padre Pio is buried has been angered by the Vatican naming a commissioner to oversee the saint's lucrative shrine.
People in the small southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo took to the streets in solidarity with Capuchin monks, whose leader accused the Vatican of instigating a "climate of persecution" by stripping them of effective control of the shrine.
Padre Pio, who was made a saint last year, is big business. Some eight million pilgrims visit the town each year and can buy everything from Padre Pio pens and statues to telephone cards featuring the the world-famous mystic monk.
Yesterday, residents parked about 10 earth movers, cranes and bulldozers in the square in front of the church where Padre Pio is buried. Police forced the owners of the heavy vehicles to move them but the climate was so tense that the mayor had to appeal for calm.
Youths blew whistles in front of the church to support the monks and said they would protest during a planned visit by the newly named overseer.
Pope John Paul at the weekend gave the bishop of the nearby city of Manfredonia ultimate authority over the shrine and some linked activities, including a large hospital.
Italian media said the Vatican was concerned about excessive commercialisation surrounding the saint and possible financial irregularities in plans for a new, bigger church.
Padre Pio, who died in 1968 at the age of 81, had the stigmata - bleeding wounds in the hands and feet similar to those of Christ. Scientists could not explain the wounds.
He was also was said to have wrestled with the devil in his monastery cell, predicted events in the lives of visitors, known what penitents were about to confess and been seen in two places at once. The Pope made him a saint in 2002.