Saint Padre Pio, the priest with the stigmata

Saint Padre Pio, the priest with the stigmata français Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, one of the greatest saints of all times On June 16, 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized in Rome Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, one of the greatest saints of all times. There are saints who have been known for healing; there are saints who could "read" souls; there are saints who were known for levitation; there were saints who bore the stigmata, or were seen in apparition, or who had the “odor of sanctity.” There are saints who could understand languages they didn't know. But Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who died on September 23, 1968, had all these charisms, and more. In fact, not since St. Francis of Assisi has there been such a miracle-worker. And as a matter of fact, Padre Pio was the first priest to bear the stigmata — the holy wounds of Christ — just like St. Francis of Assisi. Saint Pio is a man who healed literally thousands — while he was still alive; who could read souls — knowing in case after case exactly what a person in Confession had done; who was seen in dozens of cases in bilocation (appearing far from where he actually was). There were accounts that defy the belief of even the most ardent believer: a sighting of him at the Vatican, even though he never left the San Giovanni monastery; the transfiguration of his face into that of Jesus' during the Consecration; a worker named Giovanni Savino who lost an eye that later materialized under the bandages after Pio visited him in bilocation. Like the Apostle Paul, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina placed at the centre of his life and apostolic work the Cross of his Lord as his strength, his wisdom and his glory. Inflamed by love of Jesus Christ, he became like Him in the sacrifice of himself for the salvation of the world. This worthy follower of Saint Francis of Assisi was born on May 25, 1887, at Pietrelcina, in the Archdiocese of Benevento, Italy, the son of Grazio Forgione and Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio. He was baptized the next day and given the name Francesco. At the age of twelve, he received the Sacrament of Confirmation and made his First Holy Communion. On January 6, 1903, at the age of sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, where on January 22 he took the Franciscan habit and the name Brother Pio. At the end of his novitiate year, he took simple vows, and on January 27, 1907 made his solemn profession. After he was ordained a priest on August 10, 1910 at Benevento, he stayed at home with his family until 1916 for health reasons. In September of that year, he was sent to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, and remained there until his death, in 1968. The demons, furious at seeing him so devoted to the Lord, left him no respite, and disturbed him continuously as their worst enemy. Unable of diverting him from his holy resolutions with their Satanic threats and trickery, they waged against him at night a fiery fight, of which the invincible soldier of Christ kept more than once the visible marks on his body. These diabolical scenes were often followed by ineffable celestial visions that put on his face the reflection of a high spirituality. On the level of social charity, he committed himself to relieving the pain and suffering of many families, chiefly through the foundation of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (House for the Relief of Suffering), opened on May 5, 1956. For Padre Pio, Faith was life: he willed everything and did everything in the light of Faith. He was assiduously devoted to prayer. He passed the day and a large part of the night in conversation with God. He would say: “In books we seek God, in prayer we find Him. Prayer is the key which opens God's heart.” Faith led him always to accept God's mysterious will. When he celebrated Holy Mass, one could see Padre Pio's stigmata. The stigmata It was in Pietrelcina on September 17, 1915 — the same date as St. Francis Assisi — that Padre Pio received the first invisible stigmata. These signs of the Passion of Our Lord gave him so cruel pains some days, and especially on Fridays, that his confessor, the only other person to know about his stigmata, thought it wise to excuse him from saying the Mass. However, Padre Pio did not use this dispensation, and continued to celebrate Holy Mass in an old chapel dedicated to Saint Pius, martyr. Three years later, in 1918, after his transfer from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo, the wounds of Christ appeared visibly on the hands and feet of Padre Pio, who was from now on no longer able to hide them. He relates himself the event (as reported by Bernard Ruffin in his book “Padre Pio: The True Story.”): “I was hearing the confession of our boys when suddenly I was filled with extreme terror at the sight of a heavenly Being who presented himself to the eye of my intellect. He held some kind of a weapon in His hand, something like a long, sharp-pointed steel blade, which seemed to spew out fire. At the very instant that I saw this, I saw that Personage hurl the weapon into my soul with all His might.” That was on August 5, 1918, and it was the onset of Pio's side wound. His hands and feet were pierced later – on September 20: "Between nine and ten in the morning, while my students were taking their recreation in the garden, I was alone in the choir, sitting on the bench in the spot reserved for the vicar,” he wrote. “I was there making my thanksgiving after Holy Mass. All of a sudden, a great light shone round about my eyes. In the midst of this light, there appeared the wounded Christ. He said nothing to me before He disappeared.” The crucifix in the choir, he said, had transformed itself into the Being. The hands, feet, and side of the Being were dripping blood. And the countenance terrified Pio. “From Him there came forth beams of light with shafts of flame that wounded me in the hands and feet. My side had already been wounded on the fifth of August of the same year.” Padre Pio would bear the wounds for fifty years. A few minutes after his death, they mysteriously vanished. The Mass of Padre Pio Filled with love of God and love of neighbour, Padre Pio lived to the full his vocation to work for the redemption of man, in accordance with the special mission which marked his entire life and which he exercised through the spiritual direction of the faithful: the sacramental reconciliation of penitents and the celebration of the Eucharist. The pinnacle of his apostolic activity was the celebration of Holy Mass. The faithful who took part witnessed the summit and fullness of his spirituality. Michael Brown, of Spirit Daily, wrote: “Pray to Pio for healing. Pray to him when seeking relief from the devil. And follow his standard of Mass. This was where his true colors became most pronounced. So intense was Padre Pio during Mass that many claimed his face transfigured into that of Christ's, especially during the Consecration. At times, St. Pio held the Host up for more than ten minutes, seeing a reality others could no see, feeling One with Jesus, realizing the Real Presence. So prolonged were such moments that his Mass typically lasted more than two hours (without a homily, which he rarely gave).” “Whoever attended just one Mass of his, never forgot it,” noted a friend of his, Padre Alberto D'Apolito. “It produced such an impression that time and space between the altar and Calvary disappeared. The Mass of Padre Pio visibly reproduced the Passion of Christ, not only in a mystical form, but also physically, in his body. Waves of emotion made Padre Pio tremble at the altar as if the struggle with invisible persons filled him, time after time, with fear, joy, sadness, anguish, and pain. From the expression on his face, one could follow the mysterious dialogue.” It is said he saw the entire Passion, and we know that he physically suffered the wounds of Jesus — so intense that often he wept during the readings. Notes another biographer, the saint was motionless for long moments at the offering of bread and wine, “as if nailed by a mysterious force,” eyes moist, staring at the Crucifix. During the Consecration, St. Pio's hands sometimes jerked back with pain (the Consecration lasting several times longer than normal) and after, he seemed exhausted from the suffering, leaning over the altar for minutes at a time to commune with the Lord. He suffered during the Consecration. He glowed during Communion. He saw angels and saints. He saw the splendor of God and Paradise open. Throughout Mass, St. Pio seemed to be peering into another dimension. At the side, he said he could see the Blessed Mother. Was the Madonna present at every Mass, he was asked? “Yes.” Did angels always attend? “The whole celestial court is present.” Whoever doubted the Real Presence, says D'Apolito, had only to assist at St. Pio's Mass. In his homily for the beatification of Padre Pio, on May 2, 1999, Pope John Paul II said: “I am going to prepare a place for you ... that where I am you may be also”.(Jn 14:2) What other purpose was there for the demanding ascetical practices which Padre Pio undertook from his early youth, if not gradually to identify himself with the Divine Master, so that he could be ‘where he was’? Those who went to San Giovanni Rotondo to attend his Mass, to seek his counsel, or to confess to him, saw in him a living image of Christ suffering and risen. The face of Padre Pio reflected the light of the Resurrection. His body, marked by the `stigmata', showed forth the intimate bond between death and resurrection which characterizes the paschal mystery. Blessed Pio of Pietrelcina shared in the Passion with a special intensity: the unique gifts which were given to him, and the interior and mystical sufferings which accompanied them, allowed him constantly to participate in the Lord's agonies, never wavering in his sense that ‘Calvary is the hill of the saints’.” The “flying http://www.michaeljournal.org/stpio.htm