St. Padre Pio

Francesco Forgione was born on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, a small farming village in the Campania region of southern Italy. He was the second of eight children born to Grazio Maria Forgione and Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio, a devout Catholic family who relied on the land for their livelihood. From a young age, Francesco reported mystical experiences and expressed a clear desire to dedicate his life to God. At fifteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Franciscans in Morcone, taking the name Pio in honor of Pope Pius I, patron of his home town.

He was ordained a priest in 1910 at the Cathedral of Benevento, but poor health delayed his assignments for several years. He was eventually assigned to the Capuchin monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in San Giovanni Rotondo, in the Gargano region of Puglia, where he would spend most of the rest of his life. On September 20, 1918, while praying before a crucifix after Mass, he received the visible stigmata — the five wounds of the crucified Christ — which he bore for roughly fifty years until his death. The phenomenon was examined by physicians and Church authorities at the time, and many contemporaries attested to having seen the wounds.

Padre Pio became widely known for his extraordinary ministry in the confessional, where he reportedly could discern the state of souls and their unspoken sins. Crowds grew around the monastery, and to accommodate the pilgrims he founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (Home for the Relief of Suffering) in 1956, a hospital that continues to serve the sick. Among the spiritual gifts attributed to him were healings, the ability to read hearts, and reports of bilocation — being seen in more than one place at the same time. He also served as a spiritual director to many, and his correspondence has been preserved as a notable body of spiritual writing.

He endured decades of restrictions imposed by the Holy See, including periods during which he was forbidden from celebrating Mass publicly or hearing confessions. These limitations, which lasted from the late 1950s until the early 1960s, were eventually lifted, and Padre Pio resumed his public ministry until his health declined. He died on September 23, 1968, at San Giovanni Rotondo, at the age of eighty-one. His funeral drew enormous crowds, and his remains are venerated in the crypt of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in San Giovanni Rotondo; the remains were moved to a specially prepared glass and marble tomb there in 2010.

Pope John Paul II canonized him on June 16, 2002, after approving a miraculous cure attributed to his intercession. Padre Pio is the patron of civil defense volunteers, those suffering from stress, adolescent children, the sick, and those facing life-threatening illnesses. He is remembered as a confessor of rare depth, a stigmatist whose wounds were witnessed by many, and a friar who combined intense personal suffering with tireless pastoral charity. His feast day is celebrated on September 23 throughout the universal Church.