Padre Pio
Pio of Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio '' was an Italian friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, priest, stigmatist and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, and his feast day is celebrated on 23 September.
Francesco joined the Capuchins at 15, and spent most of his religious life in the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. As Padre Pio, he was known throughout his life for numerous instances of supernatural phenomena, most notably stigmata—wounds like those of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion—on his hands and feet. Several investigations into the phenomena were conducted by the Vatican; and although they led to temporary sanctions on his ministry, his reputation for sanctity continued to increase during his lifetime. He was also renowned for other mystical phenomena, and many other forms of spiritual outreach to individuals.
After his death, devotion to Padre Pio has continued to spread among believers worldwide, and especially throughout the Mezzogiorno. He was beatified on 2 May 1999 and canonised on 16 June 2002 by Pope John Paul II. His relics are exposed in the sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, next to the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, which is now a major pilgrimage site. His legacy also includes the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, a hospital built near the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo.
Life
Early life
Francesco Forgione was born on 25 May 1887 to Grazio Mario Forgione and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio, in Pietrelcina, a small town located in the province of Benevento, in the Southern Italian region of Campania. His parents were peasant farmers. He had an older brother, Michele, and three younger sisters, Felicita, Pellegrina, and Grazia. Two other children born to his parents died in infancy.Francesco was baptised in the nearby Santa Anna Chapel, which stands upon the walls of a castle, and where he later served as an altar boy. At his baptism, he was christened Francesco, in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. By the time he was five years old, he had already made the decision to dedicate his life to God, according to his own account. He worked on the land up until the age of 10, looking after his family's small flock of sheep.
The Forgione family was deeply religious, attending Mass daily, praying the Rosary nightly and abstaining from meat three days a week in honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Although both Francesco's parents and grandparents were illiterate, they narrated Bible stories to him and his siblings.
According to the diary of Father Agostino da San Marco, who later became his spiritual director in San Marco in Lamis, the young Francesco was afflicted with a number of illnesses, suffering from severe gastroenteritis at six years old and typhoid fever at ten.
As a young boy, Francesco reported that he had experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies. In 1897, after he had completed three years at a public school, he was said to have been drawn to the life of a friar after listening to a young Capuchin from Sant'Elia a Pianisi who was in the countryside seeking donations. When Francesco expressed his desire to his parents, they traveled to Morcone, a community north of Pietrelcina, to find out if their son was eligible to enter the order. After meeting Francesco, the friars informed his parents that they were interested in accepting him into their community, but that he first needed to be better educated.
Accordingly, Francesco's father went to the United States in search of work to pay for private tutoring in order for his son to meet the academic requirements to enter the Capuchin Order. During this period, Francesco prepared to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, which occurred on 27 September 1899. He also underwent private tutoring and passed the stipulated academic requirements. On 6 January 1903, at the age of 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars at Morcone. A few weeks later, on 22 January, he took the Franciscan habit and the name of Fra Pio, in honour of Pope Pius I, whose relic is preserved in the Santa Anna Chapel in Pietrelcina, with the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Priesthood
Commencing his seven-year study for the priesthood, Padre Pio travelled to the friary of Saint Francis of Assisi in Umbria. At 17, he fell ill, experiencing loss of appetite, insomnia, exhaustion, fainting spells, and migraines, vomiting frequently and being able to digest only milk and cheese. Religious devotees point to this time as when inexplicable phenomena began to occur. During prayers, for example, he appeared to others to be in a stupor, as if he were absent from his body. One of his fellow friars later claimed to have seen him in ecstasy as well as levitating above the ground.In June 1905, Padre Pio's health worsened to such an extent that his superiors decided to send him to a mountain monastery in the hope that change of air would do him good. This had little impact on his health, however, and doctors advised that he return home. Even there his health failed to improve, yet he still made his solemn religious profession on 27 January 1907.
In August 1910, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Paolo Schinosi at the Cathedral of Benevento. Four days later, he offered his first Mass at the parish church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Because of his precarious health, Padre Pio was permitted to remain with his family in his hometown of Pietrelcina while still retaining the Capuchin habit. He stayed in Pietrelcina until 1916, due to his health and the need to take care of his family when his father and brother briefly emigrated to the United States. During these years, he frequently wrote mystic letters to his spiritual directors, Fathers Agostino and Benedetto, both friars from the Capuchin monastery of San Marco in Lamis.
Arrival at San Giovanni Rotondo
On 4 September 1916, Padre Pio was ordered to return to his community life. He moved to an agricultural community, the Convento dei Cappuccini di Santa Maria delle Grazie, located in the Gargano mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo in the Province of Foggia. At that time the community numbered seven friars. He remained in San Giovanni Rotondo until his death in 1968, except for a period of military service. During his priesthood, Padre Pio was known to have made a number of successful conversions to Catholicism.Among his spiritual practices were rosary meditations, to which he was deeply devoted. He compared 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 recognise God in all things and to desire above all things to do God's will.
Many people who heard of Padre Pio travelled to San Giovanni Rotondo to meet him and confess to him, ask for help, or satisfy their curiosity. His mother died in the village surrounding the monastery in 1928. Ten years later, he brought his elderly father Grazio to live with him, letting him stay in a small house outside the monastery until his death in 1946.
World War I and aftermath
At the start of World War I, four friars from Padre Pio's community were selected for military service in the Italian army. At that time, he was a teacher and spiritual director at the seminary. When one more friar was called into service, he was put in charge of the community; but on 15 November 1915, he too was drafted and on December 6, assigned to the 10th Medical Corps in Naples. Due to poor health, however, he was continually discharged and recalled, until 16 March 1918, when he was declared unfit for service and given a full discharge.In September of the same year, Padre Pio began to display the permanent wounds on his hands and feet known as "stigmata". In the following months, his reputation for sanctity grew rapidly in the regions surrounding San Giovanni Rotondo, attracting hundreds of believers to come see him each day.
People who had started rebuilding their lives after the war began to see in Padre Pio a symbol of hope. Those close to him have attested that he began to manifest several spiritual gifts, including healing; bilocation; levitation; prophecy; miracles; reading of hearts; speaking in tongues; making conversions; the odour of sanctity; and extraordinary abstinence from both sleep and nourishment: one account from a Capuchin friar even states that Padre Pio, during his stay at a convent in Venafro, was able to subsist for at least 20 days on only the Holy Eucharist without other nourishment).
Padre Pio's fame grew exponentially among the wider populace. He became a spiritual director, and it was around this time that he developed his five rules for spiritual growth: weekly confession, daily Communion, spiritual reading, meditation, and examination of conscience.
La Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza hospital
By 1925, Padre Pio had converted an old convent building into a medical clinic with a few beds, intended primarily for people in extreme need. In 1940, a committee was formed to establish a larger clinic and donations started to pour in. Construction began in 1947.According to Italian historian, the bulk of the money came from Emanuele Brunatto, a keen follower of Padre Pio, who had made his fortune in the black market in German-occupied France. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration also contributed 250 million Italian lire. UNRRA's engagement was facilitated by Lodovico Montini, head of the Christian Democracy party, and his brother Giovanni Battista Montini.
The hospital was initially to be named "Fiorello LaGuardia", but was eventually presented as the work of Padre Pio himself, opening as La Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in 1956. Padre Pio handed direct control over to the Holy See, but Pope Pius XII granted him a dispensation from his vow of poverty in 1957 so he could directly supervise the project. Some of Padre Pio's detractors subsequently suggested there had been misappropriation of funds.