ANOTHER FRANCIS: A Contemplation of the Life of St Pio by Revend Brother Mark, OFM, Cap

Francesco Forgione unlike his namesake St. Francis of Assisi, shunned merry company in his youth, moreover as a teenager he lived a very solitary life divided between his studies and the local church, where he was an altar boy.  Even at the tender age of five he had conceived the idea of joining a religious order.  Not far from his home town of Pietrelcina was a Capuchin friary at Morcone, and a Brother Camillo from this friary would visit Pietrelcina at regular intervals, begging for alms.  The young Francesco was attracted by the fervour and kindness of this Franciscan and discussed his intended vocation with his parish priest, his uncle and his mother, his father being away at the time.

By the time he was fifteen preparations were made for his entry into the Capuchin Order.  His uncle wrote to the Capuchin Minister Provincial to be told that the noviciate was full up and Francesco would have to wait.  Meanwhile his uncle suggested the Benedictines, adding that they were well-clothed and prosperous, but the young Francesco was not attracted by them.  His uncle even suggested the Redemptorists and alternative Franciscans, who at least did not look consumptive like the Capuchin friars at Morcone, but Francesco was adamant about joining the friars with beards (the Capuchins).  Two months passed and the Capuchin Provincial wrote to say there was, at last, a vacancy for Francesco.

At this early stage Francesco was vilified by two jealous contemporaries, but he bore no malice, showing considerable spiritual maturity he simply prayed for them.  In the end he entered the Capuchin Order on the 22nd of January 1903, taking the name of Brother Pio of Pietrelcina.  Like St. Francis of Assisi his love for the crucified Christ deepened and intensified, until he came to offer himself as a victim to the point of desiring to share his sufferings.  His desire was to become holy in order to help others to become holy.

After a year he took simple vows and left the noviciate house for a house of study in Sant ‘Elia in Panisi where he was taught philosophy, and from thence he went to Serracapriola, Montefusco and Gesualdo for the study of theology.  All these places fell within the Capuchin Province of Foggia which extended across southern Italy.  It was at Sant’ Elia that Fra. Pio took solemn vows in 1907.  Outwardly there was nothing exceptional about him except his delicate health and his proneness to bouts of high fever.  However his confreres, when reminiscing, spoke of his love of prayer and the fact that he never complained about meagre food or about bitter cold and never criticized the actions of his superiors, but when others did so he would rebuke them or leave their company.

He had barely passed his eighteenth birthday when he received a vision indicating he was to be given the gift of bilocation. He was ordained to the priesthood on the 10th of August 1910 at Benevento Cathedral.  He noted as a souvenir of his ordination the following lines: “Jesus my heart’s desire and my life, today as I raise you up in trembling hands in a mystery of love , may I be with you , the way, the truth and the life for the world, and for you a holy priest , a perfect victim.”   Later he was to appear hundreds of miles to the north of Italy where he reconciled a dying man while freemasons tried to prevent a priest from entering the dying man’s room. At the moment of his death the man’s wife gave birth to a daughter whom Padre Pio baptized after reconciling her father.  Years later as a young woman of eighteen she entered St. Peter’s Basilica to make her confession.  She saw a young Capuchin enter one of the confessionals and followed, made her confession and had all her problems of faith resolved.  As she left she saw the priest’s side of the confessional was empty, years later she met Padre Pio who explained he had been the mysterious confessor.

The souvenir of his ordination indicated his desire to be a victim soul, to suffer for sinners especially the souls in Purgatory.  Pio had wanted to go on the missions but his delicate health prevented any such aspirations.  Moreover his frailty caused his superiors to send him back to his native Pietrelcina as the air seemed to revive him. His mysterious illnesses may have been in response to his desire to suffer for Christ.  He was to remain in that place, apart from a few intervals, for seven years.  During this time his medical condition remained a mystery, whereas his spiritual life burgeoned in isolation and prepared him for his great mission to souls.

In a letter dated the 8th of September 1911, which Pio wrote to his spiritual director, he described for the first time red patches on the palms of his hands and pain in his hands and feet which filled him with embarrassment.  Supernatural gifts began to abound in him and when Padre Agostino wrote to him in French and Greek Pio read them with ease despite his lack of education.  He said that his guardian angel acted as an interpreter and later on when he heard confession in many languages his gift of tongues became well attested.

His absence from his community became a bone of contention with his Minister Provincial and it was suggested that he seek temporary exclaustration, finally Padre Agostino prevailed upon him to return to conventual life.  This had disastrous results and he fell dangerously ill and so was returned to Pietrelcina in five days.  Finally Pope Benedict XV granted him the faculty to remain outside the cloister as long as necessary, while continuing to wear the habit of his order.” In his reply to the Pontiff Padre Pio explained that Jesus had not allowed him to devote himself entirely to his province but he had offered himself as a victim for the good of the province.

At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 Padre Pio was still in Pietrelcina and in August of 1917 he was called up for military service.  He spent several months with the Tenth Medical Corps and upon being demobbed he went to St. Anne’s Friary at Foggia.  Here the oppressive heat so endangered his health that he was sent to San Giovanni in Rotundo where his great mission began.  From the moment he entered the Capuchins he began his spiritual ascent and it was on the 24th of January 1915 he first wrote about receiving an interior wound in which a seraph pierced his heart, as in the manner of St. Teresa of Avilla.  Then by September of 1918 the patches on his palms and the pain in his hands and feet became the unmistakable wounds of our Lord’s Passion.  The transverberation, or piercing of the heart, was the prelude to the stigmata.

Padre Pio’s fifty tear ministry at San Giovanni in Rotundo became marked by his dedication to the reconciliation of sinners.  He frequently heard confessions for fifteen hours a day and sometimes for up to nineteen hours a day.  It has been estimate that over this period he reconciled over two million souls.  His supernatural gifts included bilocation, levitation, prophecy, healing, discernment and the gift of tongues.  His miraculous cures are legion, but all his gifts were used for the salvation of souls.  Above all he was a victim soul, who like St. Paul (cf.Colossians 1:24) sought to make up the suffering of Christ in his own body.  Not that anything is lacking in the suffering of Christ, but many sufferings are wanting in his Body the Church.  Thus St. Pio sought to co-operate with Christ in the great work of redemption.  This is to pay back to Christ the price of human redemption, the ransom from sin.

This co-operation in redemption is a response to a deep love for Christ and therefore St. Pio’s desire to share his Lord’s suffering was out of love for his supreme sacrifice. He was also to experience the pain of the crown of thorns and the scourging.  He once prophesied that he would be much more busy after death, no longer confined by the earthly coil, and since his death on the 23rd of September 1968 miracles and appearances still abound.  He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on the 2nd of May 1999 and canonized by him on the 16th of June 2002.