About Today September 23 Saint Padre Pio Memorial “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14). Like the Apostle Paul, Padre Pio da Pietrelcina placed at the center of his life and apostolic work the Cross of his Lord as his strength, his wisdom and his glory. Inflamed by love of Jesus Christ, he became like him in the sacrifice of himself for the salvation of the world. This worthy follower of Saint Francis of Assisi was born on 25 May 1887 at Pietrelcina in the Archdiocese of Benevento, the son of Grazio Forgione and Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio. He was baptized the next day and given the name Francesco. At the age of twelve he received the Sacrament of Confirmation and made his First Holy Communion. On 6 January 1903, at the age of sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, where on 22 January he took the Franciscan habit and the name Brother Pio. At the end of his novitiate year he took simple vows, and on 27 January 1907 made his solemn profession. Filled with love of God and love of neighbor, Padre Pio lived to the full his vocation to work for the redemption of man, in accordance with the special mission which marked his entire life and which he exercised through the spiritual direction of the faithful: the sacramental reconciliation of penitents and the celebration of the Eucharist. For Padre Pio, faith was life: he willed everything and did everything in the light of faith. He was assiduously devoted to prayer. He passed the day and a large part of the night in conversation with God. He would say: “In books we seek God, in prayer we find him. Prayer is the key which opens God’s heart”. Faith led him always to accept God’s mysterious will.[1] Priest, Religious, Stigmatic and Confessor Born May 25, 1887 Pietrelcina, Benevento, Italy Died September 23, 1968 (aged 81) San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy Honored in Roman Catholic Church Beatified May 2, 1999, Rome, Italy by Pope John Paul II Canonized June 16, 2002, Rome, Italy by Pope John Paul II Major shrine San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy (where he lived and is now buried) Feast September 23 Patronage civil defense volunteers adolescents Dont Worry Be Happy Day (22 January) [1] Pio of Pietrelcina (Italian: Pio da Pietrelcina), O.F.M. Cap. commonly known as Padre Pio, (May 25, 1887 – September 23, 1968) was a friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic[1] of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Padre Pio became famous for bearing the stigmata for most of his life, which generated much interest and controversy around him. He is now venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. Pio was born Francesco Forgione, and given the name of Pius (Italian: Pio) when he joined the Capuchins. After his beatification in 1999, he was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II on June 16, 2002.[2] Early life Francesco Forgione was born to Grazio Mario Forgione (1860–1946) and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio Forgione (1859–1929) on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, a farming town in the southern Italian region of Campania.[3] His parents made a living as peasant farmers.[4] He was baptized in the nearby Santa Anna Chapel, which stands upon the walls of a castle.[5] He later served as an altar boy in this same chapel. His siblings were an older brother, Michele, and three younger sisters, Felicita, Pellegrina, and Grazia (who was later to become a Bridgettine nun).[4] His parents had two other children who died in infancy.[3] When he was baptized, he was given the name Francesco. He stated that by the time he was five years old he had already made the decision to dedicate his entire life to God.[3][5] He also began inflicting penances on himself and was chided on one occasion by his mother for using a stone as a pillow and sleeping on the stone floor.[6] He worked on the land up to the age of 10, looking after the small flock of sheep the family owned. This delayed his education to some extent.[6] Pietrelcina was a religious town. Feast days of saints were celebrated throughout the year, and religion had a profound influence on the Forgione family. The members of the family attended daily Mass, prayed the Rosary nightly, and abstained from meat three days a week in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.[5] Although Francescos parents and grandparents were illiterate, they memorized the Scriptures and narrated Bible stories to their children. His mother said Francesco was able to see and speak with Jesus, the Virgin Mary and his guardian angel, and that as a child, he assumed that all people could do so. According to the diary of Father Agostino da San Marco, who was his spiritual director in San Marco in Lamis, the young Francesco Forgione was afflicted with a number of illnesses. At six he suffered from a grave gastroenteritis, which kept him bedridden for a long time. At ten he caught typhoid fever.[citation needed] As a youth Francesco reported that he had experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies.[3] In 1897, after he had completed three years at the public school, Francesco was drawn to the life of a friar after listening to a young Capuchin friar who was, at that time, seeking donations in the countryside. When he expressed his desire to his parents, they made a trip to Morcone, a community 13 miles (21 km) north of Pietrelcina, to find out if their son was eligible to enter the Capuchin Order. The friars there informed them that they were interested in accepting Francesco into their community, but he needed more educational qualifications.[5] Francescos father went to the United States[7] in search of work to pay for private tutoring for his son, so that he might meet the academic requirements to enter the Capuchin Order.[3] It was in this period that Francesco received the sacrament of Confirmation on September 27, 1899. He underwent private tutoring and passed the stipulated academic requirements. On January 6, 1903, at the age of 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars at Morcone where, on January 22, he took the Franciscan habit and the name of Fra (Friar) Pio, in honor of Pope St. Pius I, whose relic is preserved in the SantAnna Chapel in Pietrelcina.[8] [5] He took the simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.[3] Priesthood The church in San Giovanni Rotondo, Pade Pios own church Commencing his seven-year study for the priesthood, he traveled to the friary of St. Francis of Assisi by oxcart.[5] Three years later on January 27, 1907, he made his solemn profession. At 17, he suddenly fell ill, complaining of loss of appetite, insomnia, exhaustion, fainting spells, and terrible migraines. He vomited frequently and could absorb only milk and cheese. The hagiographers say that it was during this time, together with his physical illness, that inexplicable phenomena began to occur. According to their stories, one could hear strange noises coming from his room at night – sometimes screams or roars. During prayer, Brother Pio remained in a stupor, as if he were absent. One of Pios fellow friars claims to have seen him in ecstasy, levitating above the ground.[9] In June 1905, Padre Pios health was so weak that his superiors decided to send him to a mountain convent, in the hope that the change of air would do him some good. His health got worse, however, and doctors advised that he return to his home town. But, even there, his health continued to worsen. In 1910, Brother Pio 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 Our Lady of the Angels. His health being precarious, he was permitted to remain with his family until 1916 while still retaining the Capuchin habit.[6] On September 4, 1916, Padre Pio was ordered to return to his community life. Thus he was moved to an agricultural community, Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, located in the Gargano Mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo in Foggia. At that time with Father Pius, the community numbered seven friars. He stayed at San Giovanni Rotondo until his death, except for military service. Padre Pio celebrated the Mass in Latin.[10][11] Military service When World War I started, four friars from this community were selected for military service. At that time, Padre Pio was a teacher at the seminary and a spiritual director. When one more friar was called into service, Padre Pio was put in charge of the community. On November 15, 1915, he was drafted into the Italian army and on December 6, assigned to the 10th Medical Corps in Naples. Due to poor health, he was continually discharged and recalled until on March 16, 1918, he was declared unfit for military service and discharged.[12] In all, his military service lasted 182 days.[13] Stigmata On September 20, 1918, while hearing confessions, Padre Pio had his first occurrence of the stigmata: bodily marks, pain, and bleeding in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ. This phenomenon continued for fifty years, until the end of his life. The blood flowing from the stigmata smelled of perfume or flowers, a phenomenon mentioned in stories of the lives of several saints and often referred to as the odour of sanctity. Though Padre Pio would have preferred to suffer in secret, by early 1919, news about the stigmatic friar began to spread in the secular world. Padre Pio’s wounds were examined by many people, including physicians.[4] People who had started rebuilding their lives after World War I, began to see in Padre Pio a symbol of hope.[13] 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 (one account states that Padre Agostino recorded one instance in which Padre Pio was able to subsist for at least 20 days at Verafeno on only the Eucharist without any other nourishment), the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions, and the fragrance from his wounds.[14] His stigmata, regarded as evidence of holiness, were studied by physicians whose independence from the Church is not known.[15] The observations were unexplainable and the wounds never became infected.[16][17] His wounds healed once but reappeared.[18] They were examined by Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the City Hospital of Barletta, for about one year. Dr. Giorgio Festa, a private practitioner, also examined them in 1920 and 1925. Professor Giuseppe Bastianelli, physician to Pope Benedict XV, agreed that the wounds existed but made no other comment. Pathologist Dr. Amico Bignami of the University of Rome also observed the wounds but could make no diagnosis.[19] Both Bignami and Dr. Giuseppe Sala commented on the unusually smooth edges of the wounds and lack of edema. Dr. Alberto Caserta took x-rays of Padre Pios hands in 1954 and found no abnormality in the bone structure.[20] However, this condition is said to have caused him great embarrassment, and most photographs show him with red mittens or black coverings on his hands and feet where the bleeding occurred.[16] At the time of Padre Pios death, his body appeared unwounded, with no sign of scarring. There was a report that doctors who examined his body found it empty of all blood.[21] Those, both religious and non-religious, who have accused Padre Pio of faking his stigmata, often say Padre Pio used carbolic acid to self-inflict the wounds. The sole piece of evidence for this is a single document found in the Vaticans archive — the report of pharmacist Maria De Vito, from whom he requested four grams of the acid. This letter was among the material gathered by those who disputed Padre Pios stigmata at the time. According to De Vito, Padre Pio asked her to keep the order secret, saying it was to sterilize needles (he also asked for other things, such as Valda pastilles).[22][23] The document was examined but dismissed by the Catholic Church during Padre Pios beatification process.[22] A 2007 book by Sergio Luzzatto contended that Padre Pio faked his wounds was dismissed by the Catholic Anti-Defamation League, which said Luzzatto was spreading anti-Catholic libels.[22] One commentator expressed the belief that the Church dismissed the claims based on the accounts of witnesses who stated the acid was in fact used for sterilization. The boys had needed injections to fight the Spanish Flu which was raging at that time. Due to a shortage of doctors, Padres Paolino and Pio administered the shots, using carbolic acid as a sterilizing agent.”[22][24] Furthermore, carbolic acid is a caustic substance that causes rotting of the flesh and eats away at biological tissue, which was not consistent with Pios wounds which were localized for over sixty years.[25] Transverberation and visible stigmata Based on Padre Pios correspondence, even early in his priesthood he experienced less obvious indications of the visible stigmata for which he would later become famous.[27] In a 1911 letter, Padre Pio wrote to his spiritual advisor, Padre Benedetto from San Marco in Lamis, describing something he had been experiencing for a year: Then last night something happened which I can neither explain nor understand. In the middle of the palms of my hands a red mark appeared, about the size of a penny, accompanied by acute pain in the middle of the red marks. The pain was more pronounced in the middle of the left hand, so much so that I can still feel it. Also under my feet I can feel some pain.[27] His close friend Padre Agostino wrote to him in 1915, asking specific questions such as when he first experienced visions, whether he had been granted the stigmata, and whether he felt the pains of the Passion of Christ, namely the crowning of thorns and the scourging. Padre Pio replied that he had been favoured with visions since his novitiate period (1903 to 1904). He wrote that although he had been granted the stigmata, he had been so terrified by the phenomenon he begged the Lord to withdraw them. He did not wish the pain to be removed, only the visible wounds, since at the time he considered them to be an indescribable and almost unbearable humiliation.[27] The visible wounds disappeared at that point, but reappeared in September 1918. He reported, however, that the pain remained and was more acute on specific days and under certain circumstances. He also said that he was indeed experiencing the pain of the crown of thorns and the scourging. He was not able to clearly indicate the frequency of this experience, but said that he had been suffering from them at least once weekly for some years.[27] These experiences are alleged to have caused his health to fail, for which reason he was permitted to stay at home. To maintain his religious life as a friar while away from the community, he said Mass daily and taught at school. St. John of the Cross describes the phenomenon of transverberation as follows: The soul being inflamed with the love of God which is interiorly attacked by a Seraph, who pierces it through with a fiery dart. This leaves the soul wounded, which causes it to suffer from the overflowing of divine love.[4] World War I was still going on, and in July 1918, Pope Benedict XV, who had termed the World War the suicide of Europe, appealed to all Christians urging them to pray for an end to the World War. On July 27 of the same year, Padre Pio offered himself as a victim for the end of the war. Days passed and between August 5 and August 7, Padre Pio had a vision in which Christ appeared and pierced his side.[4][13] As a result of this experience, Padre Pio had a physical wound in his side. This occurrence is considered as a transverberation or piercing of the heart indicating the union of love with God. (On 8 August, the Allies began the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice with Germany and the end of the war.) As a side-note, a first-class relic of Padre Pio, which consists of a large framed square of linen bearing a bloodstain from the wound of the transverberation of the heart in Padre Pios side, is exposed for public veneration at the St. John Cantius Church in Chicago.[28] With his transverberation began another seven-week long period of spiritual unrest for Padre Pio. One of his Capuchin brothers said this of his state during that period: During this time his entire appearance looked altered as if he had died. He was constantly weeping and sighing, saying that God had forsaken him.[4] In a letter from Padre Pio to Padre Benedetto, dated 21 August 1918, Padre Pio writes of his experiences during the transverberation: While I was hearing the boys’ confessions on the evening of the 5th [August] I was suddenly terrorized by the sight of a celestial person who presented himself to my mind’s eye. He had in his hand a sort of weapon like a very long sharp-pointed steel blade which seemed to emit fire. At the very instant that I saw all this, I saw that person hurl the weapon into my soul with all his might. I cried out with difficulty and felt I was dying. I asked the boy to leave because I felt ill and no longer had the strength to continue. This agony lasted uninterruptedly until the morning of the 7th. I cannot tell you how much I suffered during this period of anguish. Even my entrails were torn and ruptured by the weapon, and nothing was spared. From that day on I have been mortally wounded. I feel in the depths of my soul a wound that is always open and which causes me continual agony.[28] On September 20, 1918, accounts state that the pains of the transverberation had ceased and Padre Pio was in profound peace.[4] On that day, as Padre Pio was engaged in prayer in the choir loft in the Church of Our Lady of Grace, the same Being who had appeared to him and given him the transverberation, and who is believed to be the Wounded Christ, appeared again and Padre Pio had another experience of religious ecstasy. When the ecstasy ended, Padre Pio had received the visible stigmata, the five wounds of Christ. This time, however, the stigmata were permanent and would stay on him for the next fifty years of his life.[13] In a letter from Padre Pio to Padre Benedetto, his superior and spiritual advisor, Padre Benedetto from San Marco in Lamis dated October 22, 1918, Padre Pio describes his experience of receiving the stigmata as follows: On the morning of the 20th of last month, in the choir, after I had celebrated Mass I yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep. [...] I saw before me a mysterious person similar to the one I had seen on the evening of 5 August. The only difference was that his hands and feet and side were dripping blood. This sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable. I thought I should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest. The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood. Imagine the agony I experienced and continue to experience almost every day. The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday. Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wounds and the resulting embarrassment I feel deep in my soul. I am afraid I shall bleed to death if the Lord does not hear my heartfelt supplication to relieve me of this condition. Will Jesus, who is so good, grant me this grace? Will he at least free me from the embarrassment caused by these outward signs? I will raise my voice and will not stop imploring him until in his mercy he takes away, not the wound or the pain, which is impossible since I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation.[28] He quoted, the pain was so intense that I began to feel as if I were dying on the cross. Poor health In addition to his childhood illnesses, throughout his life Padre Pio suffered from asthmatic bronchitis. He also had a large kidney stone, with frequent abdominal pains. He further suffered from a chronic gastritis, which later turned into an ulcer. He also suffered from inflammations of the eye, nose, ear, and throat, and eventually formed rhinitis and chronic otitis.[citation needed] In 1925, Padre Pio was operated on for an inguinal hernia, and shortly after this a large cyst formed on his neck that was surgically removed. Another surgery was required to remove a malignant tumor on his ear. After this operation Padre Pio was subjected to radiological treatment, which was successful, it seems, after only two treatments.[29] In 1956, he came down with a serious case of exudative pleuritis. The diagnosis was certified by Professor Cataldo Cassano, who personally extracted the serous liquid from the body of Padre Pio.[citation needed] He remained bedridden for four consecutive months. In his old age Padre Pio was tormented by a painful arthritis. Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest Lectionary: 450 Reading 1 PRV 21:1-6, 10-13 Like a stream is the king’s heart in the hand of the LORD; wherever it pleases him, he directs it. All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the LORD who proves hearts. To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart– the tillage of the wicked is sin. The plans of the diligent are sure of profit, but all rash haste leads certainly to poverty. Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue is chasing a bubble over deadly snares. The soul of the wicked man desires evil; his neighbor finds no pity in his eyes. When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser; when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge. The just man appraises the house of the wicked: there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin. He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also call and not be heard. Responsorial Psalm PS 119:1, 27, 30, 34, 35, 44 R. (35) Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. Blessed are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds. R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. The way of truth I have chosen; I have set your ordinances before me. R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. Give me discernment, that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart. R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. Lead me in the path of your commands, for in it I delight. R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. And I will keep your law continually, forever and ever. R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands. Gospel LK 8:19-21 The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 09:24:39 +0000
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