Thoughts to live by: St. Pius of Pietrelcina

Monday, 23 September, 25th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings: Prv. 3:27-34; Ps. 15:2-3, 3-4, 5; Lk. 8:16-18.

Note from ORDO: From 23-29 September, we shall celebrate National Laity Week.

1. Some Notes on St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic (1887-1968) — His name was Francesco Forgione, born in Pietrelcina, a town in the province of Benevento, region of Campania. He grew up in a devout family. They went to Mass daily, prayed the Rosary nightly, and abstained from meat three days a week in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. His parents were illiterate but they narrated Bible stories to the children.

He had an older brother and 3 younger sisters, one of whom became a Bridgettine nun. At age 5, he consecrated himself to Jesus and later became an altar boy. He became a shepherd of the small flock of sheep the family owned.

2. To qualify to become a seminarian, he received private tutoring. At 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Order, received the Franciscan habit, and took the name Pio in honor of Pope Pius I, whose relic is preserved in Pietrelcina. As a seminarian, Pio was sickly. He had fainting spells and migraines, and vomited frequently.

3. During prayers, he would be seen in ecstasy and in levitation above the ground. He reported that, as a youth, he had experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies.

4. In 1905, his health worsened. He was sent to a mountain convent to recover. Two years later he made his solemn profession as an Augustinian monk. He was ordained a priest in 1910, and received for the first time the "stigmata," the bodily marks of the wounds of the Crucified Lord, though the wounds eventually healed.

5. Because of his health, he stayed in Pietrelcina until 1916. During these years, he wrote mystic letters to his two spiritual directors, friars from the Capuchin monastery in Lamis. He was drafted into the Italian military in 1915 for medical service during World War I, but was shortly discharged because of poor health. In 1916, he was assigned to the mountain Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in the province of Foggia. He would remain there until his death in 1968.

6. He was devoted to Rosary meditations and self-examination. He would advice people, "Pray, hope, and do not worry." He directed pilgrims to recognize God in all things and to desire above all things to do the will of God.

7. He received the stigmata again in 1918, and this time they remained with him until his death. He reported to his confessor that the wounds caused a lot of pain and that he begged the Lord to withdraw the stigmata.

A few weeks before he received the stigmata, he had an extraordinary spiritual experience. He felt being pierced and burnt spiritually and physically. It lasted for two days. It was an experience of "transverberation," similar to that of St Teresa of Avila.

Padre Pio reported that the mystical experience left a physical wound on his left side, similar to the side of Christ pierced by a lance.

8. Padre Pio also had a gift of bilocation, being in two places at the same time. He also had the gift of levitation, of being lifted up during prayer, and the gift of healing and prophecy. He practiced extraordinary abstinence from both sleep and nourishment. One account said that Padre Pio abstained from both sleep and food for 20 days, sustained only by the Holy Eucharist. He also had the gift to read hearts, the gift of tongues and pleasant smelling wounds. His reported supernatural experiences included celestial visions, communication with angels and physical combats with Satan and demons, similar to those of St John Marie Vianney.

9. Many would flock to Pietrelcina to see him, receive his blessing, or be healed.

So controversial were Padre Pio's mystical experiences that from 1921 to 1922 he was prevented from publicly performing his priestly duties. At the same tine, the Vatican was skeptical.

10. He was noted for his charity. He founded a medical clinic that grew into a hospital, supported by a medical foundation.

Padre Pio's health deteriorated in the 1960s, but he continued his spiritual works.

11. On September 22, 1968, with a large number of pilgrims attending, he celebrated a Solemn High Mass to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his receiving the stigmata. He was extremely weak and nearly collapsed after the Mass while walking down the altar steps. This was his last celebration of Holy Mass. Early in the morning of Sept 23, he made his last confession and renewed his religious vows. At around 2:30 AM, Sept 23, as he repeated the words "Gesu, Maria," Jesus, Mary, he died in his cell in San Giovanni Rotondo. He was 81 yrs old. A few days before dying, the stigmata had disappeared. The wounds had completely healed, without any trace of scar.

12. The funeral ceremony on 26 Sept was attended by an estimated 100,000 people. Padre Pio was buried in the crypt in the Church of Our Lady of Grace. His relics are exposed in the sanctuary of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, next to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo, now a major pilgrimage site. He was beatified by John Paul II in 1999 and canonized by the same saintly Pope in 2002, with about 300,000 attending.

St. Pius of Pietrelcina has become one of the world's most popular Saints.

13. Prayer — Almighty ever-living God, you gave St. Pius, by the singular grace of his stigmata, a share in the Cross of Christ and, by his ministry, you renewed the wonders of your mercy. Grant, we pray, that, through the intercession of St. Pius, we may also be united constantly to the sufferings of Christ and so brought happily to the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayers, best wishes, God bless!