Overview: Padre Pio was born of simple, hardworking farming people on 25 May, 1897 in Pietrelcina, southern Italy. He was tutored privately until his entry to the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at the age of 15. Of feeble health but strong will, with the help of grace he completed the required studies and was ordained a priest in 1910.

On September 20, 1918 the five wounds of Our Lord's Passion appeared on his body, making him the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Church. Countless numbers were attracted to his confessional and many more received his saintly counsel and spiritual guidance through correspondence. His whole life was marked by long hours of prayer and continual austerity. His letters to his spiritual directors reveal the ineffable sufferings physical and spiritual, which accompanied him all through his life. They also reveal his very deep union with God, his burning love for the Blessed Eucharist and Our Blessed Lady. Worn out by over half a century of intense suffering and constant apostolic activity in San Giovanni Rotondo, he was called to his heavenly reward on September 23, 1968. After a public funeral which attracted almost 100,000, his body was entombed in the crypt of Our Lady of Grace Church. Increasing numbers flock to his tomb from all parts of the world and many testify to spiritual and temporal graces received. On February 16, 1973, the Archbishop of Manfredonia, Mgr. Valentino Vailati, consigned the documentation to the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints so as to obtain the "nihil obstat" for the beginning of the process of his Beatification. On May 2, 1999 in Rome Pope John Paul II beatified the now Blessed Padre Pio.

Padre Pio's Life and Spiritual Rules: The name of Padre Pio is familiar to millions of Catholics, many of whom know him as a beloved friend who has brought them closer and closer the Lord God. He is also known for the many miracles of spiritual and physical healing wrought through his intercession.

Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione in Pietrelcina, Italy. As a child, he was different from other children and displayed a recollection of the spirit and a love for the things of God that set him apart. He enjoyed the clouds and the stars and other things of nature, seeing in them the greatness of God in a true Franciscan spirit. Through these early meditations of his, he developed a strong concept of good and evil, of the pure and the impure. At first everyone thought he was rather unintelligent because he did not do well in his studies. His parents hired a private tutor for him but Francesco did badly. It was only after he switched tutors that he was found to have a lively intelligence.

By Fall of 1902, he was ready to enter the monastery of Morcone as a novice. The young Francesco was suddenly terrified. He loved the things of this world. Not the wild, lurid pleasures one would imagine, but the ordinary and normal pleasures of living and he was scared at the thought of giving them up for the austerity of the friary.

Today, we have lost the very strict and strong sense of the penitential that pervaded the monasteries before Vatican II and find it difficult to comprehend such a strict and ordered life as the young Francesco was subjected to. Even when walking in the countryside with his classmates, he never saw the countryside because they were all obliged to keep their eyes on the ground. But his obedience to his superiors, which was being formed, became one of the great strengths of his life.

His goal in life, to perfect his nature and live more and more in harmony with his ideals, angered the evil one who began to temp him with great temerity and to attack him on other fronts as well.

Even before he entered the novitiate, he was accused of sleeping with the daughter of the local station master. The parish priests were impressed by the accusation and suspended him from his parish duties. Francesco, even then imitating his Savior Who did not reply to His accusers, did not even ask the reason for his suspension from duties. His pastor after a thorough investigation, revealed the lies and identified the liars, commending Francesco for his docility and patience and declaring the way was now open for him to enter the Capuchin novitiate in Morcone.

This was the first of the many accusations of sexual scandal that plagued his life and brought about the severe restrictions that beset him as priest and confessor. In a climate of acrimony, he became the victim of these accusations and many others, such as claiming the stigmata were self-induced. These accusations were accepted by the Church and he was restricted by Rome from saying Mass in public and even forbidden to hear confession. Eventually, little by little the restrictions were lifted and he was allowed to hear the confessions of men and then finally all the priestly faculties were returned to him.

On New Year's Day, 1903, Francesco was given an intellectual vision (one which is seen with the eyes of the soul rather than with the physical senses). In it, he was shown two groups of men. One group was beautiful and dressed in snow-white garments, the other was hideous and they were dressed in black "like so many dark shadows."

Francesco's soul was urged by "a majestic man of rare beauty, resplendent as the sun" to fight the protagonist of the hideous group. His soul was terrified and tries to escape but his guide who was beside his soul urged him forward, promising his would be with him and promising him a crown to adorn his brow after his victory. He fought victoriously and was presented with the crown but the crown was withdrawn and his guide promised him an even more beautiful one if he would continue fighting the hideous being for the rest of his life. His guide promised his support saying he would always be close at hand and that Francesco would always win.

And so Francesco received his mandate from Heaven. Six days later, he left Pietrelcina for Morcone and the Friary without shedding a tear because Jesus and His Blessed Mother appeared to him in all their glory to encourage and strengthen him.

An hour after leaving Pietrelcina, he arrived at Morcone and entered into a life of suffering and service.

So much is known of the miracles of Padre Pio that it is easy to view him as leading a charmed life. But this would be far from the truth.

He was subject to bouts of terrifyingly undiagnosable illness which almost cost him his vocation as a Capuchin Friar. He was also prey to grave doubts about the state of his own soul and it was only the words of his spiritual director, which he was ordered to hold as true under his vow of obedience, that gave him stability and peace in his own spiritual pilgrimage. He spent many years in dryness, able only to know about what the Lord wanted for other people but not for himself,

He reached out to everyone especially the sick and raised money for a hospital to be built in San Giovanni Rotondo where he spent most of his life at the Capuchin Friary. It was also in San Giovanni Rotondo that he received the stigmata of Christ, the first priest to be given them. Padre Pio lost about a cupful of blood each day from the wound in his side and his halting gait evidenced the pain he experienced from the other wounds. Once, when asked if the stigmata were painful, he laughed and said, "Do you think that the Lord gave them to me for a decoration?"

Padre Pio had a number of spiritual children, mostly women including Mary Adelia Pyle, a wealthy America who moved to San Giovanni Rotondo and handled his correspondence, played the organ in the church and opened her home to pilgrims as well as Padre Pio's parents who both died in her house. He imposed upon these spiritual children of his five rules for spiritual growth: weekly confession, daily Communion, spiritual reading, meditation and examination of conscience. And he always urged everyone to study Scripture. And enjoined them to follow the same ten points by which he tried to live. They were:

• Put your trust in Christ as your personal Savior. He counseled one woman to say repeatedly throughout the day to Christ, "Whom have I on earth besides Thee, Whom in Heaven but Thee, my Jesus! Thou art the God of my heart and my inheritance Whom I desire eternally!"
   
• Know that you have no righteousness of your own. He taught:
  • Never be pleased with yourself.
  • Do not complain about offenses perpetrated against you.
  • Forgive everyone with Christian Charity.
  • Always groan as a poor wretch before your God.
  • Never marvel at your own weakness, but recognize yourself for what you are, blush over your inconstancy and faithlessness to God, and confide in Him, tranquilly abandoning yourself to the arms of the Heavenly Father like a babe in the arms of his mother.
   
• Remember that good works come only through Christ. All our actions are contaminated by pride, vanity, self-love, etc... But if our motives are God centered and consecrated to God, they can be accepted and used for His glory.
   
• Recognize that the devil is a real individual, bent on destroying you. But do not fear him. Do not let the devil disturb you. It is his job to keep you from your Heavenly prize. Remember that Jesus is with you and will give you all the help that you need to vanquish the devil.
   
• Always pray to God and say, in every circumstance, 'Thy will be done.' He advised people to pray the words, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven' in every circumstance of life. He said the ejaculation would be "your anchor and salvation."
   
• Love the cross. He taught that Christians must humbly accept suffering because it is through suffering that we come to be most like Jesus. "Religion is a hospital for spiritually sick people who want to be healed. To be healed they submit themselves to suffering, namely, to bloodletting, to the lance, to the razor, to the probe, to the scalpel, to the fire and to all the bitterness of medicine. In order to be spiritually cured, we have to submit to all the tortures of the Divine Physician."

  He used the following analogy to explain the need for patience and acceptance in suffering: There's a woman who is embroidering. Her son, seated on a low stool, sees her work, but in reverse. He sees the knots of the embroidery, the tangled threads... He says, 'Mother what are you doing? I can't make out what you are doing!' Then the mother lowers the embroidery hoop and shows the good part of the work. Each color is in place and the various threads form a harmonious design. So, we see the reverse side of the embroidery because we are seated on the low stool.

• Offer every action up to God. "Let's refer everything to God and live and move in Him." The Christian was to offer his sufferings as a sacrifice, but he did not necessarily advise that everyone should offer himself as a victim.
   
• Never worry. Pray, hope, and don't worry--this is the phrase for which Padre Pio is famous. Worrying, he taught, can deprive us of many graces through a lack of holy confidence in God.
   
• Aspire to the Heavenly prize. This was the prize for which we are all bidden to strive and thus "fervently despise the comforts and the affairs of this mortality."
   
• Rejoice in the Lord. He advised the singing of little songs to drive away melancholy. "Joy, with peace, is the sister of charity..Serve the Lord with hilarity!" He was known for his jokes and his attempts to get people laughing.  

By the time Padre Pio died in 1968, he had suffered the stigmata for 50 years. He had been consulted by peasant, king and president, and he had brought spiritual solace to countless thousands who would line up daily to go to confession with the unique padre who knew their sins better than they did and who helped them come closer to Jesus. Now, since his death, he has become a dear friend to many thousands more whom he has helped on the road to healing and conversion. This is what he promised when he told people that he would be able to do far more for people once he had died.

 

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