Padre Pio, whose real name was Francesco Forgone was born on May 25, 1887 in Pietralcina, a small town in southern Italy. Every since he was a child he has always showed love towards the religious life. It is said that at the age of 5 Padre Pio had already dedicated his life to God. He had an extreme love for prayer. At the age of sixteen he entered the ‘Capuchin Friars’ which are a religious order in memory of St.
Francis of Assisi. From the first time Padre Pio had entered into the Friary he was already recognized by his teachers as someone special. “There was something which distinguished him from the other students, whenever I saw him he was always humble and silent”, one of his peers had said. What struck them most was Padre Pio’s love for prayer.
In the year 1910 at the age of 23 Padre Pio had been ordained a priest. Besides the Mystery of God taught by Padre Pio, he had his own mysteries. After celebrating a Mass on September 20, 1918, he had received the “Stigmata.” His hands, side and feet were scarred with the same wounds of Christ; he was the first priest ever to have received the gift of Stigmata along with other gifts which later declared him a Saint. The news of this spread all over the world and people flocked to witness this miracle.
Scientists had examined the wounds over and over but could never come up with an explanation. He had performed many miracles which included curing a blind little girl without pupils in her eyes to see again, and she is still alive today to tell her story. Padre Pio was also rewarded by God with other magnificent gifts such as bi location which was Padre Pio’s ability to visit and needy in far places from where he was without ever leaving, also the gift of perfume which was the beautiful odor of roses that marked Padre Pio’s presence, and the gift of conversion which was his ability to make remarkable conversions of peoples choices or views. Throughout the life of Padre Pio, God was no mystery to him because it seemed as if he already knew the mystery of God. He once said “the pivot of perfection is love, he who lives in love lives in God, because God is love, as taught by the apostles”, which simply those who do not love cannot be completely connected to God. Padre Pio believed that a person who desired perfection needs to take internal and external actions.
In order to achieve this eternal perfection we must love and practice the virtue of charity. He also taught that those who choose to love their money and other possessions or positions do not always contain what they love, but those who choose to love God possess Him at once. Padre Pio encouraged people to practice externally to be humble, kind, courteous, and agreeable, and when those who do not respond to these acts we must be patient with, because patience maintains the order in ones life. When these acts are acted upon one another it helps people to imitate what is happening, in which he thought could eventually make this world a better place.
To Padre Pio charity was the queen of all virtues, he once said “As the pearls are held together by a thread, thus the virtues are held together by charity; as the pearls fall when the thread breaks, thus virtues are lost if charity diminishes.” Padre Pio’s provision to help or relieve the poor was most important to obtain the rest of the virtues. He used charity as a foundation to begin to keep things in order. When he mentioned charity he didn’t always mean relieving the poor but also that love is to be directed first toward God but also towards oneself and one’s neighbor as objects of God’s love. Benevolence or generosity towards others can change this world around.
In recent weeks the Catholic Church has encountered a tragedy. The death of Pope John Paul the II has marked history in our lives and the world. Before becoming Pope, the young Polish priest visited Padre Pio on numerous occasions and even receiving confession from him. In 1962, when the young Polish priest received news that a friend in Poland was seriously ill with throat cancer and had very little chance of survival, he thought about Padre Pio.
He later wrote a letter to Padre Pio in Latin about his friend back in Poland. Eleven days after Padre Pio received the letter, the future Pope discovered that his friend was suddenly cured from her illness right before entering the operation room. Many people say that Padre Pio foretold that Karol Wojtyla was going to become Pope, in which he did and later canonized Padre Pio a saint in the year 2000 were hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims traveled to the Vatican to witness this spectacular event. I chose Padre Pio because the capuchin priest was a very mysterious man. Growing in an Italian family he was a very popular person.
After reading many books about Padre Pio, I can honestly say I have learned a lot of the mystery of God through him. Saint Pio who bore the wounds of Christ taught many people throughout his day and continues to teach now that God exists. People use Saint Pio as a verification of the existence of God because of the mysterious things he accomplished on earth. He received letters from believers all over the world who asked for his counsel in their times of misfortune or distress. Because Saint Pio was so close to our times, and committed so many mysterious miracles it brought many back to their faith.
Those who were able to attend Padre Pio’s masses said they would never forget it. It is said he saw the entire Passion, and we know that he physically suffered the wounds of Jesus so intensely that often he cried during the readings. Biographers would say that the saint was motionless for long moments at the offering of bread and wine, “as if nailed by a mysterious force. He suffered during the Consecration and he glowed during Communion.”.