Padre Pio: A Catholic priest who worked miracles and bore the wounds of Jesus Christ on His Body

 

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Padre Pio: A Catholic Priest who worked miracles and bore the wounds of Jesus Christ on his body

              

Bro. Michael Dimond, O.S.B.

 

Padre Pio was a Franciscan Capuchin priest who bore the five wounds of Jesus Christ on his body visibly for more than fifty years.  Padre Pio was also a seer, mind-reader, prophet, miracle-worker, confessor, mystic, ascetic, and missionary on a world-wide scale.[i]  Hundreds of books and articles have been written about Padre Pio.  Lengthy articles about

him have appeared in many magazines including Newsweek, Time, and The New York Times Magazine.[ii]

 

    The event of receiving the Stigmata

 

Having the stigmata means having on one’s body the “marks resembling wounds on the crucified body of Christ.”[iii]  There have only been about sixty accepted instances of the stigmata in the Catholic Church’s history.[iv] 

 

Padre Pio was the first priest in the history of the Catholic Church to receive the visible stigmata.  He had the visible stigmata for over fifty years, and his loss of blood over the years was so great that, according to medical science, he could not have survived for very long – certainly not fifty years.[v]

 

Padre Pio actually received the stigmata invisibly on August 14, 1910.[vi]  Padre Pio prayed that his stigmata would remain invisible and hidden from the eyes of men.[vii]  But on September 20, 1918, while making his thanksgiving after a Mass, he received the visible stigmata.  He was commanded by his spiritual director to describe everything that happened

on that day.  Padre Pio described the event:

 

 “…I saw a mysterious visitor before me …feet and side were dripping blood.  The sight frightened me… Then the vision of the visitor passed away, and I saw that my hands, feet and side were pierced and dripping blood.  You will imagine the pain I felt then and that I kept experiencing almost every day continually.[viii]  The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday.  Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wound and the resulting embarrassment …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 because I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation.”[ix] 

 

His stigmata were very deep wounds at the center of his hands and feet and on the left side of his body.  His hands and feet were pierced all the way through; you could even see light through the membrane that covered his wounds.  He wore half-gloves over his hands (except during Mass), and stockings on his feet.[x]  Over the years, thousands of people saw Padre Pio’s wounds exposed at his Masses.[xi]  The bandage that was located on his side wound would become soaked with blood during the night, and had to be changed the following morning.  His stigmata was examined by doctors on several occasions.  The unbiased conclusion that they reached was that

his wounds were unexplainable.  Without direct permission of his superiors, no one was able to

see the wounds.[xii]

 

Dr. Bignami examined the wounds shortly after Padre Pio received them.  He stated: “…I do not understand how these wounds have persisted for nearly a year now without getting better or worse.”[xiii] 

 

Corroborating the conclusion of the doctors, that the presence of the stigmata was unexplainable and miraculous, was the fact that Padre Pio had operations for a hernia and for a cyst.  These conditions healed normally, but his stigmata didn’t heal normally.[xiv]  Amazingly, Padre Pio’s wounds on his hands were often open and exposed, but remained completely free from infection.  He lost about a cup-full of blood every day from the wound on his side, which was covered always by a linen cloth.[xv]

 

Another doctor, Dr. Sanguinetti, told a friend: “If you or I would suffer one-tenth of the pain that Padre Pio suffers from his wounds, we’d be dead.”[xvi] 

 

Padre Pio was asked why the wound in his side was in a slightly different place than the place where Our Lord’s wound was.  He responded: “It would be too much if it were exactly like the Lord’s.”[xvii]  Besides the stigmata, Padre Pio suffered the crowning with thorns and the flagellation almost once a week.[xviii]

 

The blood around the stigmata of Padre Pio gave off at times a pleasant fragrance “like a mixture of violets and roses.”  One doctor added, “One should consider that of all the parts of the human organism, blood is the quickest to decompose.  In any case blood never gives off a pleasant odor.”[xix]

 

This miraculous pleasant fragrance was also smelled on things that belonged to Padre Pio and on some things that he touched.  Some devotees of Padre Pio have smelled a pleasant fragrance, roses, wild flowers or a cigar smoke scent.  They believe this indicates his presence, a warning or a message of some kind.

 

In the archives at Our Lady of Grace Friary, there are volumes of testimonies from more than a thousand different people who were pronounced hopelessly ill by doctors, but were cured of incurable maladies and the effects of crippling injuries through the intercession of Padre Pio.[xx]  Padre Pio also caused numerous conversions to occur among unbelievers, atheists and agnostics – and people who claimed to be Catholics, but had lapsed in the practice of the Faith.[xxi]

 

    Padre Pio’s childhood

 

Padre Pio’s mother gave birth to eight children, three of whom died at a very early age.[xxii]  Padre Pio was born on May 25, 1887, named Francesco Forgione, and was baptized the following day.[xxiii]  At five years of age, Francesco was extremely sensitive to matters concerning God.  At this time, he began to have visions – visions of holy things as well as visions of very evil things.  These horribly evil visions scared him and caused him to cry.[xxiv]  Francesco (Padre Pio) didn’t like to go out and play with children his age because, as he said, “They are not honest; they use bad language, and they swear.”[xxv]

 

Francesco was a meditative and docile child.  At five years old, he said that he already pledged fidelity to St. Francis of Assisi; at nine years old his Mother discovered that he had been attempting to sleep on the hard, cold floor, with a stone for a pillow.[xxvi]  As a child, it had become second nature for Francesco, when around girls, to control his eyes modestly, keep his head somewhat inclined, act very reserved, and avoid becoming too familiar with them.[xxvii]  Every night Padre Pio’s family said the rosary together.  The Rosary held a special place in their home.  Other things could be sacrificed in their house, but not the Rosary.[xxviii]

 

One time, as a youngster, he saw a girl that he knew toiling away with her needle, sewing a band on a dress.  He told her: “Andrianella, today we don’t work.  It’s Sunday.”  Showing her annoyance, the girl replied: “Little boy, you are too small to talk like that.”  Francesco left her, and came back with a pair of scissors.  He then grabbed the band she had been working on and cut it into pieces.[xxix]  

 

When Francesco Forgione (Padre Pio) was fourteen (1901), he was sent to work on a high school program under the direction of Angelo Caccavo.  In 1902, Caccavo assigned Francesco the task of writing a paper entitled “If I Were King.”  This is what the fifteen year old Francesco Forgione wrote under the theme “If I Were King”:

 

“[If I Were King] I would fight, first against divorce, which so many wicked men desire, and make people respect as much as possible the sacrament of matrimony.  What happened to Julian the Apostate, who was brave, self-controlled, and studious, but who made the big mistake of denying Christianity, in which he was educated, because he decided to revive Paganism?  His life was wasted because he did not attain anything but the despicable name of apostate.”[xxx]

 

On January 6, 1903, Padre Pio entered religious life

as a Capuchin monk.[xxxi]  Padre Pio’s health was so bad that his theology professor said to him: “Your health is not good, so you cannot become a preacher.  My hopes for you are that you will be a great and conscientious confessor.”[xxxii]

 

The statement was prophetic, for it would be fulfilled in an incredible way.  Padre Pio was ordained as a priest of the Catholic Church on August 10, 1910.[xxxiii]

 

    Confessions

 

John 20: 21-23: “As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.  When He had said this, He breathed on them; and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.  Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” 

 

In the Gospel of John, we see the power to forgive sins conferred by Jesus Christ upon the Apostles.  The power to forgive sins conferred upon priests validly ordained by a bishop would play a prominent role in the life and miracles of Padre Pio.  From 1918 to 1923, Padre Pio heard confessions fifteen to nineteen hours every day.  In the 1940s and 1950s, he generally heard confessions somewhat less than that, but still five to eight hours every day.[xxxiv]

 

The average confession made to Padre Pio lasted only three minutes.  According to one estimate, Padre Pio heard a total of approximately five million confessions.[xxxv] 

 

So many people wanted Padre Pio to hear their confessions that they generally had to wait two or three weeks before their turn came.[xxxvi]  The number of people became so large that it was necessary to open an office to give tickets out.  The tickets were numbered; they indicated where people were in line for Padre Pio’s confessional.[xxxvii]  This numbering system began to be implemented in January, 1950.[xxxviii]  There was also a rule instituted that you couldn’t go to confession to Padre Pio more than once every eight days.

 

One man from Padua, who had gone to confession to Padre Pio, tried to go to confession again before the eight-day waiting period had elapsed.  In order to circumvent the waiting-period, he lied about the amount of days that had passed since his last confession to Padre Pio.  When he entered the confessional, Padre Pio sent him out and forcefully accused him of his lie.  After being kicked out, the man said with tears, “I’ve told many lies during my lifetime, and I thought I could deceive Padre Pio too.”[xxxix]  But Padre Pio had a supernatural knowledge of his action.

 

Padre Pio demanded that each confession be a true conversion.  He didn’t tolerate a lack of honesty in

the explanation of sins.  He was very hard on those who made excuses, spoke insincerely, or lacked a

firm resolution to change.  He demanded frankness and total honesty from the penitent.  He also required a true and sincere sorrow of heart, and an absolute firmness in a person’s resolutions for the future.[xl]

 

Many of Padre Pio’s penitents made the astounding statement that, when in his confessional, they would experience the awesome impression of being before the judgment seat of God.[xli] 

 

If the penitent wasn’t honest, or just read through the list of his or her sins without the firm resolution to change, Padre Pio would often growl “get out.”[xlii]  Many people said that Padre Pio was brusque and irate, that he would sometimes snap shut the panel in the penitent’s face.  Padre Pio would often denounce a penitent with a searing phrase.[xliii]

 

One man who was thrown out of the confessional by Padre Pio stated: “What kind of blackguardly monk is that?  He did not give me time to say a word, but straightway called me an old pig and told me to get out!”  Another person said to this man that Padre Pio probably had good reasons for calling him an old pig and treating him in this way.  “I can’t think why,” said the man who had been thrown out of the confessional; and then, after a pause, the man said: “unless it is because I happen to be living with a woman who is not my wife.”[xliv]

 

Padre Pio also threw certain priests and bishops out of his confessional.[xlv]  Padre Pio once told a priest: “If you knew fully what a fearful thing it is to sit in the tribunal of the confessional!  We are administering the Blood of Christ.  We must be careful that we do not fling it about by being too easy-going or negligent.”[xlvi]

 

Another man went to confession to Padre Pio in order to test him.  He wanted to see if Padre Pio could pick up that he was lying.  The man told Padre Pio that he wasn’t there to confess his sins, but to ask for prayers for a relative.  This wasn’t true, and Padre Pio knew it immediately.  Padre Pio struck him across the face and ordered him out of the confessional.[xlvii] 

 

One woman who came on a long trip to see Padre Pio said to him in confession, “Padre Pio, four years ago

I lost my husband and I haven’t gone to church since then.”  Padre Pio replied:  “Because you lost your husband, you also lost God?  Go away! Go away!”

as he quickly closed the door of the confessional. 

 

Shortly after this event, the same woman recovered her faith, attributing it to the way Padre Pio treated her – probably acknowledging how she had put her attachment to her husband above God.[xlviii]

 

Andre Mandato spoke about the time he went to confession to Padre Pio: “I had been going to church every Sunday but I had no strong belief in confession.  I went very seldom.  I started to believe in confession only after I went to Padre Pio.  The first time I confessed to him, he told me what sins I had committed.”[xlix]

 

Katharina Tangeri described going to confession to Padre Pio:

 

“…Padre Pio began with his asking us how long it had been since our last confession.  This first question established contact between Padre Pio and the penitent; it suddenly seemed as if Padre Pio knew everything about us.  If our [the penitent’s] answers were unclear or inexact, he would correct them; we would get the feeling that… his eye could see our soul as it really was before God.”[l]

 

Padre Pio commented on the amount of confessions he heard, and how he was able to do it: “There have been periods when I heard confessions without interruption for eighteen hours consecutively.  I don’t have a moment to myself.  But God helps me effectively in my ministry.  I feel the strength to renounce everything, so long as souls return to Jesus and love Jesus.”[li]

 

John McCaffery went to confession to Padre Pio, and he writes of his extraordinary experience.  McCaffery wanted Padre Pio to pray for some of his friends. 

 

McCaffery recalls: “So, during a pause, I began to say ‘And then, Padre…’,  but he interrupted me smilingly and said: ‘Yes, I shall remember your friends too!”[lii] 

 

A woman named Nerina Noe went to Padre Pio for confession.  She told him that she was thinking about giving up smoking; she didn’t anticipate the gruff reply Padre Pio gave her: “Women who smoke cigarettes are disgusting.”[liii]

 

Frederick Abresch was one of those penitents who had been converted after going to Padre Pio for confession. Here are some of the things he described about the story of his incredible conversion:

 

“In November of 1928, when I went to see Padre Pio for the first time, it had been a few years since I had passed from Protestantism to Catholicism, which I did out of social convenience.  I did not have the faith; at least now I understand that I was merely under the illusion of having it.  Having been raised in a highly anti-Catholic family and imbued with prejudices against dogmas to such a degree that a hasty instruction was unable to wipe out, I was always

avid for secret and mysterious things.

 

“I found a friend who introduced me into the mysteries of spiritism.  Quite quickly, however, I got tired of these inconclusive messages from beyond the grave; I went fervently into the field of the occult, magic of all sorts, etc.  Then I met a man who declared, with a mysterious air, that he was in possession of the only truth: ‘theosophy’.  I quickly became his disciple, and on our nightstands we began accumulating books with the most enticing and attractive titles.  With self-assurance and self-importance, I used words like Reincarnation, Logos, Brahma, Maja, anxiously awaiting some great and new reality that was supposed to happen.

 

“I do not know why, although I believe it was above all to please my wife, but from time to time I still continued to approach the holy Sacraments.  This was my state of soul when, for the first time, I heard of that Capuchin Father who had been described to me as a living crucifix, working continual miracles.

 

“Growing curious… I decided to go and see with my own eyes… I knelt down at the confessional [and told Padre Pio that]… I considered confession to be a good social and educational institution, but that I did not believe in the divinity of the Sacrament at all… The Padre, however, said with expressions of great sorrow, ‘Heresy!  Then all your Communions were sacrilegious… you must make a general confession.  Examine your conscience and remember when you last made a good confession.  Jesus has been more merciful with you than with Judas.’

 

“Then, looking over my head with a stern eye, he said in a strong voice, ‘Praised be Jesus and Mary!’ and went over to the church to hear the women’s confessions, while I stayed in the sacristy, deeply moved and impressed.  My head was spinning and I could not concentrate.  I still heard in my ears: ‘Remember when you last made a good confession!’  With difficulty I managed to reach the following decision: I would tell Padre Pio that I had been a Protestant, and that although after the abjuration I was rebaptized (conditionally), and all the sins of my past life were wiped out by virtue of holy Baptism, nevertheless, for my tranquility I wanted to begin the confession from my childhood.

 

“When the Padre returned to the confessional, he repeated the question to me: ‘So when was the last time you made a good confession?’ I answered, ‘Father, as I was…’ but at that point the Padre interrupted me, saying, ‘…you last made a good confession when you were coming back from your honeymoon, let’s leave everything else aside and begin from there!’

 

“I remained speechless, shaken with a stupor, and

I understood that I had touched the supernatural.  The Padre, however, did not leave me time to reflect.  Concealing his knowledge of my entire past, and in the form of questions, he listed all my faults with precision and clarity… After the Padre had brought all my mortal sins to light, with impressive words he made me understand the gravity of these faults, adding in an unforgettable tone of voice, ‘You have sung a hymn to Satan, while Jesus in His ardent love has broken His neck for you.’  Then he gave me my penance and absolved me… I believe not only in the dogmas of the Catholic Church, but also in the least

of its ceremonies… to take away this faith, one would have to take away my life as well.’’[liv]

 

Joe Greco, now a great devotee of Padre Pio, had a dream in which he met Padre Pio on a road and asked him to save his sick father.  Joe’s father suddenly recovered after the dream.  In order to thank Padre Pio, Joe decided to travel down to see him in person.  After waiting four days, Joe managed to go to Padre Pio for confession.  Joe described the meeting:

 

“This is what did it really, when Padre Pio saw me

he said: ‘Well your father is all right, then.’  Well it shattered me really because I never had been down

in San Giovanni Rotondo before.  I had never been down in that part of the world, nor did I know anyone down there.  And yet I posed in my mind a question to him, I was saying ‘was it you, was it you?’  And he replied, ‘in the dream, in the dream.’  Well, I started shaking, I was scared stiff to tell you the truth.  I said, ‘yes Father, in the dream, Father.’  I told him my sins, and before he gave me absolution he said to me: ‘now then, there is something else you know’ [that you didn’t mention in confession].  I said, ‘well Father, I can’t remember anything else.’  Padre Pio went on to describe an incident with a girl in the park when I was first in the army.  Well it all came back to me.  I wished the ground had opened up and swallowed me, I was so embarrassed.  I then said to Padre Pio, ‘Yes Father, it all comes back to me and I’m afraid I forgot to tell it in confession, I’m so ashamed.’  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you have been carrying this sin around with you ever since 1941, and the place was Blackburn to tell you the truth.’  And I got up to go and Padre Pio said, ‘There is something else you have forgotten,’ and there was a slight smile on his face.

I said, ‘Oh no Father, truly there is nothing else I can remember.’  I thought it was about some sin.  And he said: ‘look in your pocket.’  So I took my rosary beads out [of my pocket], I gave them to him, he blessed them and gave them back to me.  And that was it.”

 

One man said to Padre Pio in confession: “But I am attached to my sins, for me they are a necessary way of life.  Help me find a remedy.”  Padre Pio handed him a prayer to St. Michael the Archangel to be said every day for four months.[lv] 

 

Don Nello Castello, a priest from Padua, Italy, who had gone to confession to Padre Pio hundreds of times, recalled his incredible experiences:

 

“I went to confession to Padre Pio at least a hundred times.  I recall the first time, his words both jolted and enlightened me.  The counsels he gave me reflected exact knowledge of my whole life both past and future.  At times he would surprise me with suggestions unconnected with the sins confessed.

But later events made it clear that his counsel had been prophetic.  In one confession in 1957, he spoke five times with insistence on the same question, using different words, and reminding me of an ugly fault

of impatience.  Furthermore, he enlightened me on the underlying causes that provoked the impatience.  He described to me the behavior I should follow to avoid impatience in the future.  This happened without my having said a word about the problem.  Thus he knew my problems better than I did and advised me how to correct them.”[lvi]

 

Among those who came to see Padre Pio, there were professed unbelievers.  Some of them came to see him out of curiosity, others to mock both Padre Pio and God.

 

Two Freemasons, who were bitterly opposed to God and the Catholic Church, decided to make mock confessions to Padre Pio of sins they simply made up.  Their goal was to desecrate the Sacrament of Penance.  These men went to him at separate times.  As they began to confess their made up sins, Padre Pio stopped them, told them he knew what they were doing, and then began to tell each of them their real sins, as well as the time, the place and how they committed them.  The two men were so overwhelmed that a few days later they repented of their sinful lives and converted.[lvii]

 

An unbelieving Communist also came to Padre Pio for confession.  At the time he still hadn’t abandoned his evil beliefs.  Padre Pio chased him out of the confessional, saying: “What are you doing in front

of God’s tribunal if you don’t believe?  Go!  Go away!  You are a Communist!”[lviii]

 

In the confessional, Padre Pio would say things such as:

 

“Why did you sell your soul to the Devil? ... How irresponsible! ...You are on the way to Hell!”... O you careless man, go first and get repentance, and then come here…!”[lix]

 

One person in confession questioned the very existence of Hell.  Padre Pio responded, “You

will believe it when you get there.”[lx]

 

Padre Pio considered going to confession frequently to be something necessary for growth in the spiritual life.  He went to confession at least once a week.  He never wanted his spiritual children to go without confession more than ten days.[lxi]

 

One time Padre Pio was asked: “We confess everything that we can remember or know, but perhaps God sees other things that we cannot recall?”  He responded: “If we put into [our confession] all our good will and we have the intention to confess [all mortal sins]… all that we can know or remember – the mercy of God is so great that He will include and erase even what we cannot remember or know.”[lxii] 

 

For this reason one should say at the end of a confession, “and I confess any sins that I may have forgotten and did not mention in this confession.”

    

    Padre Pio on modern-day fashions

 

1 Timothy 2:9: “In like manner I wish women also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety…”

 

Galatians 5:19: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty…”