Saint of the Day - St. Pio of Petrelcina (September 23rd)
Channel: House of Prayers for Everyone (HOPE)
Date: 2023-09-22

On Sept. 23, the Catholic Church remembers the Italian Franciscan priest St. Pio of Petrelcina. “Padre Pio” is well-known for his humility, stigmata, and miracles.

Early Life

Francesco Forgione was born to peasant parents Grazio Mario Forgione and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, a town in the province of Benevento, in the Southern Italian region of Campania. His parents had seven children, two of whom died in infancy.

He was baptized in the nearby Santa Anna Chapel, given the name Francesco. As early as five years old, Francesco already made the decision to dedicate his entire life to God. He later served as an altar boy in this same chapel.

As a youth, Francesco reported that he had experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies. At age 10, he was inspired by a young Capuchin Franciscan and told his parents that wanted to be a friar. Francesco’s father worked in America to finance his education so he could enter the religious life.

Padre Pio

On Jan. 22, 1903, Francesco donned the Franciscan habit for the first time, took the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and took the new name Pio in honor of Pope St. Pius V. 

Pio traveled to the friary of Saint Francis of Assisi in Umbria commencing his seven-year study to become a priest. It was during this time that inexplicable phenomena began to occur. One of Pio's fellow friars later claimed to have seen him in ecstasy and levitating above the ground.

In June 1905, Pio's health worsened. Despite this, he still made his solemn profession on January 27, 1907. In August 1910, Pio was ordained a priest. Four days later, he offered his first Mass at the parish church of Our Lady of the Angels.

He stayed in Pietrelcina until 1916, due to his poor health and the need to take care of his family. On 4 September 1916, Pio was ordered to return to his community life. He moved to an agricultural community, Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, located in the Gargano Mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo in the Province of Foggia.

Stigmata and Miracles

In September 1918, Pio began to display permanent wounds on his hands and feet, known as stigmata in reference to Christ's wounds. In the next months, his reputation of sainthood grew rapidly in the region of San Giovanni Rotondo, attracting hundreds of believers at the monastery coming each day to see him.

People who had started rebuilding their lives after the war began to see Pio as a symbol of hope. Those close to him attest that he began to manifest several spiritual gifts, including the gifts of healing, bilocation, levitation, prophecy, miracles, extraordinary abstinence from both sleep and nourishment, the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions, and pleasant-smelling wounds.

Death

His health started to deteriorate in the 1960s, but he still continued his spiritual works. On September 22, 1968, Padre Pio celebrated the mass to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his receiving the stigmata. His voice was weak and after the Mass had concluded, he nearly collapsed while walking down the altar steps. This was the last time he celebrated a mass.

Early in the morning of September 23, 1968, Pio made his last confession and renewed his Franciscan vows. As was customary, he had his rosary in his hands, though he did not have the strength to pray the Hail Marys aloud, instead repeating the words Gesù, Maria ('Jesus, Mary').

At around 2:30 a.m., he died in his cell in San Giovanni Rotondo. Examining Padre Pio's body, the doctor who was present at his deathbed observed that the wounds of the stigmata were completely healed, without any trace or scar. 

The funeral ceremony was held on September 26th with an estimated 100,000 people in attendance. After a funeral procession in San Giovanni Rotondo and the funeral mass, the body was buried in the crypt in the Church of Our Lady of Grace.

Canonization

In 1990, Pio was declared a Servant of God, the first step in the process of canonization. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints debated how Padre Pio had lived his life, and in 1997 Pope John Paul II declared him venerable. In 1999, John Paul II declared Padre Pio blessed and set September 23 as the date of his liturgical feast.

John Paul II promulgated the decree of canonization on February 28, 2002. The mass for the canonization was celebrated by John Paul II on June 16, 2002, at St. Peter's Square in Rome, with an estimated 300,000 people attending the ceremony.

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