Saint Padre Pio

Feast Day: 23 September

  • Francesco Forgione was born in Pietrelcina, Italy on May 25, 1887 and raised within a devout Catholic family.
  • Francesco demonstrated an affinity for his faith at a young age. He loved to go to church and pray and could see and communicate with his guardian angel.
  • Francesco was tutored privately until age 15, a great financial burden on a family with humble resources. He was a sickly child and suffered sickness throughout his adult life.
  • Francesco entered as a novitiate in the Capuchin Order of Friars Minor at age 15. His peers noticed his exceptionally pious and prayerful demeaner.
  • He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1910 taking the name Padre Pio.
  • Padre Pio’s masses in Pietrelcina started drawing attention with parishioners as they sometime lasted up to three hours, but parishioners were astounded and were drawn into the mystery.
  • Padre Pio's prayer life centered on the Eucharist. By age 30 he had already reached the summit of prayer life called the "unitive way," a spiritual union with God.
  • On September 20, 1918, the five wounds of Christ appeared on Padre Pio’s body. He received the “stigmata” wounds at age 31 and they remained with him until his death at age 81. He was the first priest to receive the stigmata in Catholic history.
  • Padre Pio was blessed with “many extraordinary spiritual gifts and charisms including the gift of healing, bilocation, prophecy, miracles, discernment of spirits, the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues (the ability to speak and understand languages that he had never studied), the gift of conversions, the grace to see angelic beings in form, and the fragrance which emanated from his wounds and which frequently announced his invisible presence.” Retrieved from https://padrepiodevotions.org/a-short-biography/.
  • Amazing stories of Padre Pio’s intervention in people’s lives are too numerous to count. Reports from WWII Allied pilots from various nationalities and religions seeing a “monk” in the sky above the Gargano region, near San Giovanni Rotondo, that forbid them to drop their bombs there. One Italian Air Force General, disbelieving his men’s reports, took to the sky on the next bombing mission to San Giovanni Rotondo to destroy a German ammunitions depot there. Leading his squadron toward the Gargano region he was met in the air by Padre Pio with his arms outstretched. Subsequently, the bombs dropped by themselves into a forest below and the airplanes turned around without pilot intervention. After the war, the General returned to the region to find Padre Pio. Padre Pio recognized him, put his hand on the General’s shoulder and said “So it was you who wanted to kill us all.” They became friends and the General, a protestant, converted to Catholicism.
  • Padre Pio had a special devotion to the Rosary and praying for the poor souls in Purgatory. He was heard to have spoken "we must empty Purgatory with our prayers."
  • Padre Pio's poor health led him to offer his bodily sufferings to God as a sacrifice for the conversion of souls. He also established a hospital called the “The Home for the Relief of Suffering” and prayer groups all around the world. Through it all he remained humble, living his Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
  • He was often heard saying “After my death I will do more. My real mission will begin after my death” and “Pray, Hope & Don’t Worry.”
  • On September 23, 1968 Padre Pio died at San Giovanni Rotondo. Over 100,000 mourners attended his public funeral.
  • Over 500,000 admirers attended Padre Pio’s canonization on June 16, 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
  • Padre Pio is the patron saint of civil defense volunteers, adolescents, and the village of Pietrelcina.
  • Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Pray for Us!