St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968)

Feast Day: September 23rd
Canonization: June 16th, 2002
Patron of Pietrelcina, Civil Defense Volunteers, and Adolescents.

Padre Pio was a 20th-century Italian Franciscan friar and priest with mystical gifts including bilocation, ability to read hearts in the confessional, transverberation (having piercings like Christ’s), and the odor of sanctity.

Born Francesco Forgione to peasant farmers in Pietrelcina, southern Italy, he reported heavenly visions as a youth. At 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars taking the name Pio. Seven years later in 1910, he was ordained a priest.

On Sept. 20, 1918, after saying Mass Padre Pio had a vision of Christ. When it ended, he bore stigmata in his hands, feet and side. Amid suspicions from Church authorities, he was suspended several times from publicly celebrating Mass or hearing Confessions – but he humbly endured the suspensions, which were always lifted.

Faithful came from everywhere to see him at San Giovanni Rotondo. He heard Confessions nearly ten hours a day, and many reported cures through his intercessory prayers. At Padre Pio’s urging, a hospital was built near the friary.

He died Sept. 23, 1968, after making his last Confession and renewing his Franciscan vows. Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio in 1999, and canonized him in 2002.