“I need to love You more and more, but I don’t have any more love in my heart. I have given all my love to You. If You want more, fill my heart with Your love, and then oblige me to love You more and more and I will not refuse you.”
He was praying before a wooden crucifix on September 20, 1918, when he was overwhelmed by numbness, drowsiness and fell asleep on the floor. When he woke up, he dragged himself to his cell and in horror examined his wounds. “Soaking in his own blood, he praised and thanked the Lord.”
Padre Pio’s stigmata became the core of controversy that divided the religious and other people, friends or foes.
On July 26, 1933, after “11 years of persecution and 25 months of absolute isolation,” he celebrated Mass publicly. On March 25, 1934, he was permitted to hear confessions of men and then women on May 12, 1934.
Born holy
“Peppa, the child was born wrapped in white veil and that’s a good sign. He will be holy,” said the midwife to Giuseppa when she lifted the new-born baby in the afternoon of May 25, 1887.
The next day, the baby was baptized in Saint Mary of the Angels Parish. He was named Francesco Forgione in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Ma. Giuseppa, her mother.
Quiet, shy and deeply religious, Pio avoided games and arguments. When he heard others blaspheme God or the Blessed Mother, he would run off and hide weeping and kneel to pray.
Pio described himself that from childhood he was “Un macherone senza sale [A noodle without salt].” A colorless character.
His diary recorded how he suffered from the gruesome appearances of the devil, who beat him. An entry stated, “I didn’t know what saint to turn to. I called out to my guardian angel. And after having to wait a little, he finally came to my aid.”
He also recounted that the devils come when his mother puts off the light in his room.
Fr. Charles Mortimer Carty in Padre Pio, The Stigmatist, narrated what he said to his mother when asked why he was waving his hands continuously: “Stinging pains on my hands.”
It was the day the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi was being commemorated.
Fr. Salvatore Pannullo, pastor of the parish in Pietrelcina, recounted that he saw the stigmata on Father Pio’s hand on September 7, 1910, and Pio implored that they pray together for God to remove the visible signs but not the suffering.
On September 8, 1911, Fr. Pio wrote his spiritual director Father Benetto of San Marco in Lamis about “sharp strong pains in the middle of the palms of his hands and on his feet.”
Be ordained before death
He was 15 when Pio entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Marcone, Benevento. Two weeks after, he wore the Franciscan habit, was named Fra. Pio in honor of Pope Saint Pius V, the patron saint of Pietrelcina. On January 27, 1907, he made his final solemn profession of vows.
At 17 he suddenly fell ill. He was tormented with “intestinal irritability and terrible headaches, fevers, coughs, chest pains, fainting spells and cold sweats. Doctors were puzzled about his illnesses.
“I am a mystery to myself,” he emphasized.
“He no longer entertained hopes to get well. He even welcomed death…. He had only one remaining desire: to be ordained a priest before he died,” noted Renzo Allegre in Padre Pio: Man of Hope.
He was ordained on August 10, 1910, in the Cathedral of Benevento. He celebrated his Mass at the church where he was baptized on August 14, 1910. As a monk, he was granted dispensation to live outside the monastery because of his precarious health. He was allowed to celebrate Mass in the parish and help in parish work but disallowed to hear confession to avoid contaminating others with his tuberculosis.
From 1910 to 1916 he lived in Pietrelcina except for a few months when he was drafted to serve in the military since Italy was involved in World War I. He was discharged from military service on July 22, 1916, due to poor health.
Beyond reality
Church history is replete with stories about saints with stigmata, who accepted the wounds joyfully and with resignation. But Father Pio did not only try to hide it initially. He, likewise, prayed to have its physical features hidden.
Renzo Allegri included a chapter in a biography of Father Pio on his conversation with Jesus. “Let me suffer and let me die from suffering. But take away these signs that cause me so much embarrassment, Pio was quoted as saying.
Jesus said: “You will bear them from 50 years, and then you will see me.”
To Modesto Vinelli, a photographer who had photos of the stigmata in 1918, Father Pio shared his 50 years life. “Modesto, we have 50 years ahead of us.”
Every year, on September 20, Modesto wished him well, and the Pio answered him in scrabbled words concerning time.
On the 25th anniversary of his stigmata, he said, “Modesto, remember that we still have 25 years.”
On September 20, 1968, Pio declared: “Modesto, the 50 years are over.”
Padre Pio was not only gifted to read the future. He was also endowed with the grace to reconcile people with God, communicate with angels, speak and understand other languages, bilocation (be in two or more places at the same time) and levitation (raise himself from the ground).
His presence can also be felt by sweet smell of flowers. Doctors attest that he abstained from sleep and food beyond man’s natural capacities.
Contemplation under the stars
The Capuchin fathers organized a big affair to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Father Pio’s stigmatization, which he vehemently disapproved.
Since September 20 was a Friday, the affair was moved to September 22, a Sunday.
Although he was not feeling well, he was ordered by the superior to celebrate a Mass with singing. He obeyed. Exhausted, he was unable to sing. At the end of the Mass, he collapsed on the altar, and was wheeled to the sacristy. It was his last Mass.
At dawn Father Pio requested Father Pellegrino, who was entrusted to care for him, to hear his confession, renew his act of profession as a religious monk and accompany him to the veranda for a few minutes of contemplation under the stars.
Back to his room, he kept saying “Jesus, Mary” in ecstasy, in a voice that became steadily fainter.
The doctors rushed to answer Father Pellegrino’s call for help. But Father Pio was already dead when they arrived. Heaven welcomed him at 2:10 a.m. on September 23, 1968.
Fifteen years after his death, the process for his beatification started on March 20, 1983, and was closed on January 21, 1990. The oral and written testimonies were compiled in 104 volumes.
Padre Pio whose only desire was “to be a poor friar who prays,” was beatified on May 2, 1999, and canonized on June 16, 2002, in Rome by Pope John Paul II.
When his body was exhumed on March 3, 2008, 40 years after his death it was in fair condition. His beard has grown long, too.
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Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.