Padre Pio: Difference between revisions

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
Confessor
Born	May 25, 1887 Pietrelcina, Italy
Died	September 23, 1968 San Giovanni Rotondo
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	2 May,1999, Rome, Italy by Pope John Paul II
Canonized	June 16, 2002, Rome, Italy by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	San Giovanni Rotondo (where he lived and is now buried)
Feast	23 September [1][2]
Patronage	civil defense volunteers, unofficial patron of stress relief and New Year Blues

Francesco Forgione (25 May 1887 – 23 September 1968), canonized Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, was an Italian priest. He took the name Pio when he joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, and was popularly known as Padre Pio after his ordination to the priesthood. He became famous not only for his piety, but for stories of supernatural events which became attached to him.

Francesco Forgione was born to Grazio Mario Forgione (1860-1946) and Maria Guiseppa de Nunzio Forgione (1859-1929) on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina, a farming town in Italy . His parents made a living as shepherds.^[3] He was baptized in the nearby Santa Anna Chapel, which stands upon the walls of a castle.^[4] He later served as an altar boy in this same chapel. Restoration work on this chapel was later undertaken by the Padre Pio Foundation of America based in Cromwell, Connecticut.^[5] His siblings were an older brother, Michele and three younger sisters: Felicita, Pellegrina and Grazia (who was later to become a Bridgettine nun ^[6]). His parents also had two other children who died in infancy. When he was baptised, he was given the name Francesco, which was the name of one of these two.^[7]By the time he was five years old, he had already taken the decision to dedicate his entire life to God. He also began inflicting penances on himself, and on one occasion, was chided by his mother for using a stone as a pillow and sleeping on the stone floor. He worked on the land up to the age of ten, looking after the small flock of sheep the family owned. This delayed his education to some extent.^[8]

Pietrelcina was a religion-centric town (feast days of saints were celebrated throughout the year) and religion also had a profound influence on the Forgione family.The members of the family attended Daily Mass, prayed the Rosary nightly and abstained from meat three days a week in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.^[9] Francesco's parents and the generation before them were illiterate. Even so, they memorised the Scriptures and narrated Bible stories to their children. It can be said that this set the foundation for his piety even at a young age. It is believed that he was able to see and speak with Jesus, the Virgin Mary and his Guardian Angel,^[10] and that as a child, he assumed that all people could do so.

As a youth he experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies. In 1897, after he had completed three years at the public school, Francesco was drawn to the life of a friar after listening to a young Capuchin friar who was, at that time, seeking donations in the countryside. When he expressed his desire to his parents, they made a trip to Morcone, a community thirteen miles north of Pietrelcina, in order to find out if their son was eligible to enter the Capuchin Order. The monks there informed them that they were interested in accepting Francesco into their community, but he needed more educational qualifications. ^[11]

Francesco's father went to America in search of work to pay for private tutoring for his son Francesco, in order that he might meet the academic requirements to enter the Capuchin Order. It was in this period that Francesco took his Confirmation on September 27, 1899.^[12] He underwent private tutoring and passed the stipulated academic requirements. On 6 January 1903, at the age of fifteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, where on 22 January he took the Franciscan habit and the name of Fra (Brother) Pio in honor of Saint Pius V, the patron saint of Pietrelcina.^[13] He took the simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. During his novitiate, it is believed he was subjected to attacks by the Devil, who once even appeared in his cell in the form of a monstrous black dog with red eyes.^[14][15]

To commence his six year study for priesthood and to grow in community life, he travelled to the friary of St. Francis of Assisi by oxcart.^[16] Three years later on 27 January, 1907 he made his solemn profession. In 1910, Brother Pio was ordained a priest by Archbishop Paolo Schinosi at the Cathedral of Benevento. Four days later, he celebrated his first Mass at the parish church of Our Lady of the Angels.^[17] His health being precarious, he was permitted to remain with his family until early 1916 while still retaining the Capuchin habit.^[18]

On the the 20th of September, 1918, as Pio was kneeling in the chapel of Our Lady of Grace, it is believed that he had a mystic experience. Roughly a month later, he described this experience in a letter to his spiritual advisor, Padre Benedetto from San Marco in Lamis as follows:

"It all happened in a flash. While all this was taking place, I saw before me a mysterious Person, similar to the one I had seen on August 5th, differing only because His hands, feet and side were dripping blood. The sight of Him frightened me: what I felt at that moment is indescribable. 'I thought I would die, and would have died if the Lord hadn't intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest. The Person disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were pierced and were dripping with blood" ^[19]

and in another of his letters, written in 1911 and addressed to the same person, describing something he had been experiencing for a year, he says,

"Then last night something happened which I can neither explain nor understand. In the middle of the palms of my hands a red mark appeared, about the size of a penny, accompanied by acute pain in the middle of the red marks. The pain was more pronounced in the middle of the left hand, so much so that I can still feel it. Also under my feet I can feel some pain" .^[20]

Replying to a letter from a beloved friend Padre Agostino who had written to him in 1915, asking him specific questions such as when he first experienced visions, whether he had been granted the stigmata, and whether he felt the pains the Passion of Christ, namely the crowning of thorns and the scourging, Padre Pio says that he was favoured with visions since his noviciate peroid (1903 to 1904), that he had been granted the stigmata, but that he was so terrified in the face of this phenomenon that he begged the Lord to withdraw them. He did not wish the pain to be removed, only the visible wounds, since, at the time he considered them to be an indescribable and almost unbearable humiliation.^[21] From then on, it is believed, the visible wounds disappeared, and reappeared only in September 1918. Their pain, however, remained and was felt more acutely on specific days and under certain circumstances. He also said that he was indeed experiencing the pain of the crown of thorns and the scourging. He was not able to clearly indicate the frequency of this experience, but said that he had been suffering from them at least once weekly for some years.^[22]

These are said to be the reasons that caused him to fail in health, because of which he was permitted to stay at home. To maintain his friar life while away from the community, he said Mass daily and taught at school.

.

On the fourth of September , 1916, Padre Pio was ordered to return to his community life. Thus he was assigned to an agricultural community, Our Lady Of Grace Capuchin Friary, located in the Gargano Mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo.Along with Padre Pio, the community had seven friars. He stayed at San Giovanni Rotondo till his death, except for his military service.

When World War I started, four friars from this community were selected for military service. At that time, Padre Pio was a teacher at the Seminary and a spiritual director. When one more friar was called into service, Padre Pio was put in charge of the community. Then, in the month of August 1917 Padre Pio was also called to military service. He was assigned to the 4th Platoon of the 100th Company of the Italian Medical Corps. He was sad and not in good health.^[23] Though hospitalised by mid-October, he was not discharged until March 1918, whereupon he returned to San Giovanni Rotondo and was assigned to work at Santa Maria degli Angeli (Our Lady of the Angels) in Pietrelcina. Later, in response to his growing reputation as a worker of miracles, his superiors assigned him to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo. In all, his military service lasted 182 days^[24].

Padre Pio then became a Spiritual Director, guiding many spiritually, considering them his spiritual daughters and sons. He had five rules for spiritual growth, namely:^[25]

1. weekly confession
2. daily Communion
3. spiritual reading
4. meditation
5. examination of conscience

He compared weekly confession to dusting a room weekly, and recommended the performance of meditation and self-examination twice daily: once in the morning, as preparation to face the day, and once again in the evening, as retrospection. His advice on the practical application of theology he often summed up in his now famous quote, "Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry" . He directed Christians to recognize God in all things and to desire above all things to do the will of God.^[26][27]

Padre Pio's life was one of suffering. He came to believe that the love of God was inseparable from suffering. He considered that suffering all things for the sake of God was the way for the soul to reach God. It is considered that the soul of Padre Pio was purified by the sufferings he bore.^[28] He felt that his soul was lost in a chaotic maze, plunged into total desolation, as if he were in the deepest pit of hell^[29]. During this period of spiritual suffering, it is believed that Padre Pio was frequently attacked by the Devil, both physically and spiritually.^[30] It is believed that the devil also used diabolical tricks in order to increase Padre Pio's torments. These included apparitions as an "angel of light" and the alteration or destruction of letters to and from his spiritual directors.^[31] Padre Augustine confirmed this when he said:

"The Devil appeared as young girls that danced naked, as a crucifix, as a young friend of the monks, as the Spiritual Father or as the Provincial Father; as Pope Pius X, a Guardian Angel, as St. Francis and as Our Lady.”^[32]

In a letter to Padre Agostino dated 13 February, 1913, Padre Pio writes:

“Now, twenty-two days have passed, since Jesus allowed the devils to vent their anger on me. My Father, my whole body is bruised from the beatings that I have received to the present time by our enemies. Several times, they have even torn off my shirt so that they could strike my exposed flesh.”^[33]

Fr. Gabriele Amorth, senior exorcist of Vatican City stated in an interview that Padre Pio was able to distinguish between real apparitions of Jesus, Mary and the Saints and the illusions created by the Devil by carefully analysing the state of his mind and the feelings produced in him during the apparitions^[34]. In one of Padre Pio's Letters,^[35] he states that he remained patient in the midst of his trials because of his firm belief that Jesus, Mary, his Guardian Angel, St. Joseph and St. Francis were always with him and helped him always.

St. John of the Cross describes the phenomenon of transverberation as follows:

"the soul being inflamed with the love of God which is interiorly attacked by a Seraph, who pierces it through with a fiery dart. This leaves the soul wounded, which causes it to suffer from the overflowing of divine love." ^[36].

World War I was still going on, and in the month of July 1918, Pope Benedict XV who had termed the World War as "the suicide of Europe"^[37] appealed to all Christians urging them to pray for an end to the World War. On the 27th of July, of the same year, Padre Pio offered himself as a victim for the end of the war. Days passed and between August 5 -7, Padre Pio had a vision in which Christ appeared and pierced his side^[38][39]. As a result of this experience, Padre Pio had a physical wound in his side. This occurance is considered as a "transverberation" or piercing of the heart indicating the union of love with God.

As an interesting side-note, a first-class relic of Padre Pio, which consists of a large framed square of linen bearing a bloodstain from "the wound of the transverberation of the heart" in Padre Pio's side is exposed for public veneration at the St. John Cantius Church in Chicago^[40].

With his transverberation began another seven-week long period of spiritual unrest for Padre Pio. One of his Capuchin brothers said this of his state during that period:

"During this time his entire appearance looked altered as if he had died.He was constantly weeping and sighing, saying that God had forsaken him."^[41]

In a letter from Padre Pio to Padre Benedetto, dated Aug. 21, 1918 Padre Pio writes of his experiences during the transverberation:

“While I was hearing the boys’ confessions on the evening of the 5th [August] I was suddenly terrorized by the sight of a celestial person who presented himself to my mind’s eye. He had in his hand a sort of weapon like a very long sharp-pointed steel blade which seemed to emit fire. At the very instant that I saw all this, I saw that person hurl the weapon into my soul with all his might. I cried out with difficulty and felt I was dying. I asked the boy to leave because I felt ill and no longer had the strength to continue. This agony lasted uninterruptedly until the morning of the 7th. I cannot tell you how much I suffered during this period of anguish. Even my entrails were torn and ruptured by the weapon, and nothing was spared. From that day on I have been mortally wounded. I feel in the depths of my soul a wound that is always open and which causes me continual agony.”^[42]

On September 20, 1918, accounts state that the pains of the transverberation had ceased and Padre Pio was in "profound peace"^[43]. On that day, as Padre Pio was engaged in prayer in the choir loft in the Church of Our Lady of Grace, the same Being who had appeared to him and given him the transverberation, and who is believed to be the Wounded Christ,^[44] appeared again and Padre Pio had another experience of religious ecstasy. When the ecstasy ended, Padre Pio had received the Visible Stigmata, the five wounds of Christ. This time, however, the stigmata was permanent and would stay on him for the next fifty years of his earthly life^[45][46].

In a letter from St. Padre Pio to Padre Benedetto, his superior and spiritual advisor, dated Oct. 22, 1918, Padre Pio describes his experience of receiving the Stigmata as follows:

“On the morning of the 20th of last month, in the choir, after I had celebrated Mass I yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep. [...]I saw before me a mysterious person similar to the one I had seen on the evening of 5 August. The only difference was that his hands and feet and side were dripping blood. This sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable. I thought I should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest. The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood. Imagine the agony I experienced and continue to experience almost every day. The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday. Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wounds and the resulting embarrassment I feel deep in my soul. I am afraid I shall bleed to death if the Lord does not hear my heartfelt supplication to relieve me of this condition. Will Jesus, who is so good, grant me this grace? Will he at least free me from the embarrassment caused by these outward signs? I will raise my voice and will not stop imploring him until in his mercy he takes away, not the wound or the pain, which is impossible since I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation.”^[47]

Though Padre Pio would have preferred to suffer in secret, by early 1919, news about the stigmatic friar began to spread in the secular world. Padre Pio’s wounds were examined by many people, including physicians.^[48] People who had started rebuilding their lives after WWI began to see in Padre Pio a symbol of hope.^[49] Those close to him attest that he began to manifest several spiritual gifts including the gifts of healing, bilocation,levitation, prophecy, miracles, extraordinary abstinence from both sleep and nourishment (One account states that Padre Agostino recorded one instance in which Padre Pio was able to subsist for at least 20 days at Verafeno on only the Eucharist without any other nourishment^[50]), the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions, and the fragrance from his wounds.^[51][52]

As Padre Pio's fame grew, his ministry began to take the center-stage at the friary. Many pilgrims flocked to see him and he spent around nineteen hours each day saying Mass, hearing confessions and corresponding, often sleeping not even two hours per day.^[54] His fame had the negative side-effect that accusations against him made their way to the Holy Office in Rome (since 1983, known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith ^[55]), causing many restrictions to be placed on him. His accusers included high-ranking archbishops, bishops, theologians and physicians.^[56] They brought several accusations against him, including insanity, immoral attitude towards women ^[57] - claims that he had intercourse with women in the confessional ^[58] - misuse of funds and deception - claims that the stigmata were induced with acid in order to gain fame - and that the reported odor of sanctity around him being the result of self-administered eau-de-cologne. ^[59] The founder of Rome's Catholic university hospital concluded Padre Pio was "an ignorant and self-mutilating psychopath who exploited people's credulity." ^[60] In short, he was accused of infractions against all three of his monastic vows: poverty, chastity and obedience.^[61][62] In 1923, he was forbidden to teach teenage boys in the school attached to the monastery because the Holy See considered him "a noxious Socrates, capable of perverting the fragile lives and souls of boys." ^[63] He was subjected to several investigations. Fearing local riots, a plan to transfer Padre Pio to another friary was dropped and a second plan was aborted when a riot almost happened.^[64] In the period from 1924 to 1931 the Holy See made various statements denying that the happenings in the life of Padre Pio were due to any divine cause.^[65][66] At one point, he was prevented from performing all his priestly duties (such as hearing confessions), except for saying Mass, and even that was to be done in private. By 1933, the tide began to turn, with Pope Pius XI ordering the Holy See to reverse its ban on Padre Pio’s public celebration of Mass. The Pope said, "I have not been badly disposed toward Padre Pio, but I have been badly informed."^[67] In 1934, he was again allowed to hear confessions. He was also given honourary permission to preach despite never having taken the exam for the preaching licence.^[68] Pope Pius XII, who assumed the papacy in 1939, encouraged devotees to visit Padre Pio.

In 1940, Padre Pio began plans to open a hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, to be named the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza or "Home to Relieve Suffering".^[69] The hospital opened in 1956, and is today considered one of the most efficient hospitals in Europe. Barbara Ward, a British humanitarian and journalist on assignment in Italy,^[70] played a major role in obtaining for this project a grant of $325,000 from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). In order that Padre Pio might directly supervise this project, Pope Pius XII, in 1957 granted him dispensation from his vow of poverty.^[71][72] Padre Pio's detractors used this project as another weapon to attack him, charging him with misappropriation of funds. When it seemed to the public that Padre Pio would be forever in public disgrace,^[73] it was Pope Paul VI who, in the mid 1960s, firmly dismissed all accusations against Padre Pio.

The deterioration of Padre Pio's health started during the 1960s in spite of which he continued his spiritual works. On the day after the fiftieth anniversary of his receiving the Stigmata, he experienced great tiredness. On September 22 his voice was weak when he said Mass. Early in the morning of September 23, 1968, Padre Pio made his confession and renewed his Franciscan vows.^[74] As was customary, he had his Rosary in his hands, though he had not the strength to say the Hail Marys.^[75] Till the end, he repeated over and over the words: Gesú, Maria – Jesus, Mary. At around 2:30AM, he said,"I see two mothers" (taken to mean his mother and Mary).^[76] At 2:30AM breathed his last in his cell in San Giovanni Rotondo with his last breath whispering, "Maria!".^[77] His mortal remains were buried on September 26th in a crypt in the Church of Our Lady of Grace, and his funeral was attended by over a hundered thousand people. He was often heard to say, "After my death I will do more. My real mission will begin after my death."^[78] The accounts of those who stayed with Padre Pio till the end state that the stigmata had completely disappeared without even leaving a scar . Only a red mark "as if drawn by a red pencil" remained on his side which also then diappeared.^[79]

Padre Pio acquired fame as a miracle worker, and, like John Vianney, was purported to have the gift of reading souls. He is alleged to have been able to bilocate according to eyewitness accounts.^[80]

In 1962, Bishop Karol Wojtyła, who would later become Pope John Paul II wrote to Padre Pio to ask him to pray to God for Dr. Wanda Poltawska, a friend in Poland who was suffering from cancer. Later, Dr. Poltawska's cancer was found to have regressed; medical professionals were unable to offer an explanation for the regression. It is also rumored that during this time, or perhaps some years earlier, Padre Pio predicted that Wojtyła would someday become Pope; however this rumour remains unproven.

Because of the unusual abilities Padre Pio was alleged to possess, and his sometimes extreme signs of devotion, such as self-flagellation, the Holy See twice instituted investigations of the stories surrounding him. However, the Church has since formally approved his veneration with his canonization in 2002.

In the 1999 book, Padre Pio: The Wonder Worker, a segment by Irish priest Malachy Gerard Carroll describes the story of Gemma di Giorgi, a Sicilian girl whose blindness some believe was corrected during a visit to the Capuchin priest. The young girl, who was brought to San Giovanni Rotondo in 1947 by her grandmother, was born without pupils. During her trip to see Padre Pio, the little girl reportedly began to see objects including a steamboat and the sea. Gemma's grandmother did not believe the child had been healed. After Gemma forgot to ask Padre Pio for Grace during her Confession, her grandmother reportedly implored the priest to ask God to restore her sight. Padre Pio, according to Carroll, told her, "The child must not weep and neither must you for the child sees and you know she sees." The section goes on to explain that oculists were unable to determine how she gained vision. Padre Pio is believed to have waged physical combat with Satan, similar to incidents described concerning St. John Vianney, from which he sustained extensive bruising. He is said to have possessed the ability to communicate with guardian angels, often granting favors and healings prior to any written or verbal request.

On 20 September 1918, while kneeling before a cross, Padre Pio had his first occurrence of stigmata - bodily marks, pain, and bleeding in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ. This phenomenon followed for fifty years until the end of his life. The blood flowing from the stigmata is said to have smelled of perfume or flowers, a phenomenon mentioned in stories of the lives of several saints and known as the odor of sanctity.

His stigmata, regarded as evidence of holiness, was studied by numerous physicians. The observations reportedly were unexplainable and the wounds never infected. It was reputed, however, that his condition caused him great embarrassment, and most photographs show him with black coverings on his hands and feet where the bleedings occurred. On 22 October 1918, in a letter to his spiritual advisor, Padre Benedetto, Pio wrote

"Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wounds and the resulting embarrassment I feel in my soul. I am afraid I shall bleed to death if the Lord does not hear my heartfelt supplication to relieve me of this condition. Will Jesus, who is so good, grant me this grace? Will he at least free me from the embarrassment caused by these outward signs? I will raise my voice and will not stop imploring him until in his mercy he takes away, not the wound or the pain, which is impossible since I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation" (Letters 1, No. 511). ^[81]

At Padre Pio's death in 1968, his body appeared unwounded, with no sign of scarring. There was even a report that doctors who examined his body found it empty of all blood.^[82] Photos taken of his bare feet and hands during his funeral procession created some scandal with allegations of stigmata fraud, although believers cited it as yet another miracle.

Padre Pio was considered exceptionally holy even during his lifetime. In 1971, Pope Paul VI, speaking to the superiors of the Capuchin Order, said of him:

Look what fame he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? Perhaps because he was a philosopher? Because he was wise? Because he had resources at his disposal? Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was–it is not easy to say it–one who bore the wounds of our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering.

In 1982, the Holy See authorized the archbishop of Manfredonia to open an investigation to discover whether Padre Pio should be considered a saint. The investigation went on for seven years, and in 1990 Padre Pio was declared a Servant of God, the first step in the progression to canonization.

Beginning in 1990, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints debated how heroically Padre Pio had lived his life, and in 1997 Pope John Paul II declared him venerable. A discussion of the effects of his life on others followed, including the cure of an Italian woman, Consiglia de Martino, which had been associated with Padre Pio's intercession. In 1999, on the advice of the Congregation, John Paul II declared Padre Pio blessed.

After further consideration of Padre Pio's virtues and ability to do good even after his death, including discussion of another healing attributed to his intercession, the Pope declared Padre Pio a saint on 16 June, 2002. Half a million people were estimated to have attended the announcement ceremony.

On July 1, 2004, Pope John Paul II dedicated the Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church in San Giovanni Rotondo to the memory of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina.^[83]

A statue of Saint Pio in Messina, Sicily attracted attention in 2002 when it allegedly wept tears of blood. ^[84]

In the year 2006, the Catholic Enquiry Office (CEO) in London declared Saint Pio as the patron saint of stress relief and the January blues, ^[85][86][87] following scientific research by Dr. Cliff Arnall of Cardiff University's Centre for Lifelong Learning that concluded that Monday, January 23, 2006 would be the most depressing day of the year^[88]. The CEO launched Don't Worry Be Happy Day to counter the effect of this depression and declared St. Pio as the patron saint of this day. Clare Ward, spokesperson of the CEO explained that this decision was based on their belief that Padre Pio's famous spiritual advice "Pray, Hope and Don't Worry!" would help drive out despair from the minds of people.

• List of people on stamps of Ireland (Padre Pio was featured on an Irish postage stamp issued in 2002)
• Weeping statue

• Vatican biography
• Catholic Web Services:Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
• EWTN biography
• Padre Pio: The Wonder Worker

• Padre Pio Foundation of America
• Padre Pio Devotions
• Biography at Catholic-Forum.com
• Template:It icon "Home for the Relief of the Suffering" Hospital
• Fortean Times on Padre Pio
• EWTN's web-pages on Padre Pio.
• Portrait Painting of Padre Pio by Catholic Artist Mark Sanislo
• Stigma - New Testament Greek Lexicon based on Strong's Concordance