Feast Day: September 23

1887–1968
Patron Saint of adolescents and civil defense volunteers
Invoked by those in need of stress relief, spiritual healing, and for January blues
Canonized by Pope John Paul II on June 16, 2002

Saint Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione in the rural town of Pietrelcina, Italy. Called Franci (Frankie), he was the third of five surviving children. Town life centered around the local church of Saint Anna with feasts, Masses, processions, novenas, and parish festivals. Early on, Franci exhibited great piety, dedicating himself to God and the Blessed Virgin at age five. He suffered from nightmares as a toddler and later believed that they were evidence of the devil already tormenting him. His three years of public schooling were interrupted by various illnesses.

When ten-year-old Franci met a bearded Capuchin friar, he told his parents, “I want to be a friar with a beard!” To pay for the better education Franci would need, his father worked in America for three years, sending home nine dollars each week. At fifteen, Franci entered the Capuchins, receiving the name Pio, possibly after Pope Pio I, whose relics were in Saint Anna Church.

Five days before joining the Capuchins, Pio had a vision in prayer. A “majestic Man” led him to do battle with a “mysterious creature.” When the creature fled, Pio received a beautiful crown. He was told that he must continually fight the creature but would always win with the majestic Man’s help. Three days later, after receiving the Eucharist, Pio realized that the creature was from hell, but the Man at his side was Christ. In a vision two days later, Jesus and Mary consoled and strengthened Pio. At age nineteen, Pio took his final vows, and was ordained a priest at twenty-three. 

The barefoot friars gathered to pray seven times a day, spent long hours studying, lived in simple cells, fasted, and engaged in manual labor. Continually in poor health, Pio regularly fell into ecstasy in prayer, levitating at times, weeping at others, often losing track of time and place. Once ordained, he lived with his family until his health improved. In 1916, he was sent to Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, in San Giovanni Rotondo, where he lived the rest of his life.

Padre Pio soon became known as a mystic. His ecstasies made his Masses long and devout. He heard confessions and counseled many, often with “pray, hope, and don’t worry.” On September 20, 1918, while praying after Mass, Jesus’ wounds pierced Pio’s body. He openly carried the stigmata for exactly fifty years, and no doctor could explain the wounds. People flocked to see the living saint and mystic. He manifested the charisms of healing, bilocation, levitation, and prophecy. Foreign visitors heard him speak in their own language. He could read hearts, spent weeks at a time eating only the Holy Eucharist, and slept little or not at all. Miraculous conversions resulted from his ministry.

While these miraculous events inspired many Catholics, they concerned some Church authorities. In 1931, the Holy See banned Padre Pio from public ministry as a lengthy  investigation began. Thirteen years later, Pope Pius XI reversed the restrictions. Pope Paul VI fully exonerated Padre Pio in 1963. On September 22, 1968, Padre Pio celebrated a televised solemn Mass that thousands attended to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his reception of the stigmata. The next day, his wounds disappeared and he passed to Heaven. An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral.

Saint Padre Pio, you loved God with all your heart and bore Christ’s wounds on your body. Through you, many lives were converted, hearts healed, and sins forgiven. Please pray that I will receive the healing I need to more fully devote myself to God’s will and serve Him with all my might. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.

Prayer: Saint Padre Pio, you loved God with all your heart and bore the wounds of Christ on your body. Through you, many lives were converted, hearts healed, and sins forgiven. Please pray for me, that I will receive the healing I need so that I will more fully devote myself to the will of God and serve Him with all my might. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.