Francesco Forgione hailed from a poor family and grew up as a normal lad. He joined the Capuchin Order at the age of fifteen and took up the religious name Pio. It was in 1910 that he was ordained priest. After serving in the Italian army during World War I, in 1917 Padre Pio was assigned to the friary of San Giovanni Rotundo, situated in Southern Italy. He was one among so many friars in the community and nothing extraordinary could be noticed in his life style. However, in 1918 he had a vision of Jesus who marked him with stigmata on his hands, feet and side. The wounds were open, bleeding and extremely painful. As if to compensate for this agony, he was blessed with miraculous powers of healing, reading the hearts and of bilocation. News of these developments travelled fast and thousands of people began to flock to the monastery for prayer, blessing, confession and healing.
In the meanwhile Ecclesiastical and medical investigations were under way. To the Capuchins, Padre Pio was an embarrassment and an unwanted celebrity while to many priests he was a pitiful victim of demoniac possession. Under these circumstances, he was forbidden to celebrate Mass and hear confessions in public. However, all bans were lifted when crowds of people gathered around asking for blessing, confession and healing. For fifty years he exercised the sacramental ministry of penance. This holy man of God spent hours together in the confessional, reconciling men with God and leading them to paradise. Mysteriously enough, shortly before his death in 1968, Padre Pio’s wounds were miraculously healed. He was canonized in 2002. It is amazing that a modern saint had all the traits of a medieval one – a fact that silences even sceptics and atheists.
Reflection: Padre Pio was a great apostle of the confessional. This was the acid test of his glory. Pope Pius XII asked Bishop Andrea Caesarano in 1947: “What does Padre Pio do?”
The reply was: “Your Holiness, he takes away the sins of the world.”
Souls are not given as a gift; they are bought. Don’t you know what they cost Jesus?
(St. Padre Pio)
