By Fr Paul Melwyn D’Souza

Mangaluru, Sep 23: A Catholic priest died on September 23, 1968, at the age of eighty-one. When he died in his monastery in southern Italy, large numbers of people from every corner of the world came to the Church of Our Lady of Grace to pay him tribute and to request him to pray for them. In fifty-two years, this priest had never left his monastery but had touched millions of people. He had never travelled far from the region of his birth. The farthest that he went to in his lifetime was to Rome, in May 1917. Prior to dying, he sighed aloud at his last breath, “Gesu, Maria, Gesu, Maria”. He was a mystic, a miracle worker or just a curiosity to some, but to the masses, he was a pious and holy priest who could help them to experience God’s mercy and forgiveness and brought about a spiritual and moral transformation in them.

Who is this priest?

Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. He is one of the greatest saints of all time in the Catholic Church and a remarkable Capuchin. A worthy follower of St Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio was born on May 25, 1887, at Pietrelcina , in southern Italy, the son of Grazio Forgione and Maria Giuseppe De Nunzio.

Baptized the day after his birth, he was christened Francesco, a presage of his Franciscan vocation, which was to be initiated on the occasion of a visit from a Capuchin monk begging food for the convent. In 1903, he entered the novitiate, an initial stage of Capuchin formation at the age of 16.Above the door of the cloister, as a welcome, he read the sign: “Do penance or perish”. After he was ordained a priest on 10 August 1910 at Benevento, he stayed at home with his family until 1916 due to health reasons. In September of that year, he was sent to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo and remained there until his death in 1968.

Padre Pio bore wounds of Christ for 50 years

In the history of the Catholic Church, there were saints who have been known for healing; there were saints who could read souls; there were saints who were known for levitation; there were saints who bore the stigmata, or were seen in apparition, or who had the odor of sanctity; there were saints who could understand languages they did not know and there were saints who had the gift of bilocation that is physically to be in two places at the same time. Padre Pio had a fine combination of all these extraordinary gifts and charismas.

He was the first priest to bear the stigmata – the holy wounds of Christ – just like St Francis of Assisi, who was a deacon and was also the first person to bear the wounds of Christ’s passion. While St. Francis of Assisi bore the wounds of Christ just for two years, Padre Pio would bear the wounds for fifty years and they mysteriously vanished a few minutes after his death. Like the Apostle Paul, Padre Pio placed at the center of his life and apostolic work the Cross of Jesus as his strength, his wisdom and his glory. Being inflamed by love for Jesus Christ, he became like Him in the sacrifice of himself for the salvation of the world. In his following and imitation of the Crucified Christ, he was so generous and perfect that he could have said: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”. (Gal 2:20). He accepted the wounds of Christ as a gift from God and preferred to suffer the pains of Christ’s passion without the world knowing.

Man of prayer and suffering

Being filled with the love of God and neighbour, Padre Pio’s entire life was marked by the sacramental reconciliation of penitents and the celebration of the Eucharist. The pinnacle of his apostolic activity was the celebration of Holy Mass. The faithful who took part in these Masses witnessed the depth and fullness of his spirituality. In 1971, Pope Paul VI, speaking to the Superiors of the Capuchin order, said of Padre Pio, “what fame he had. How many followers from the world. Why? Was it because he was a philosopher, a scholar, or because he had means at his disposal? No, it was because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from morning until night and was a marked representative of the stigmata of our Lord. He was truly a man of prayer and suffering.” No doubt, Padre Pio will be remembered in history as “a great apostle of the confessional”. Similar to St. John Mary Vianney, he spent over twelve hours a day in the confessional box, to hear confessions.

Rules of spiritual growth

He sincerely thought of himself as useless, unworthy of God’s gifts, full of weakness and infirmity, and at the same time blessed with divine favours. Amidst so much admiration all around him, he would say: “I only want to be a poor friar who prays.” He followed five rules of spiritual growth: weekly confession, daily communion, spiritual reading, meditation and examination of conscience. In explaining his spiritual growth rules, Padre Pio compared a dusting room, used or unused on a weekly basis, to weekly confession. Confession was for him a kind of ‘soul’s bath’. His motto, “pray, hope and don’t worry” is the synopsis of his application of theology into daily life. A Christian should recognize God in everything and offer everything to Him saying “Thy will be done”. In addition, all should aspire to heaven and put their trust in Him and not worry about what one is doing, so long as it is done with a desire to please God. On the social charity level, he committed himself to relieving the pain and suffering of many families, chiefly through the foundation of the ‘House for the Relief of Suffering’. He was canonized as a saint in 2002 by Pope John Paul II and remains one of the most popular saints. His feast is celebrated on the 23rd of September.

Devotion

Around the world, hundreds of thousands of people invoke the name of the Padre Pio, patron saint of prayer, hope and the easing of worries. The shrine of Padre Pio at St Anne’s Friary, Bejai in Mangaluru attracts hundreds of devotees. Each Wednesday, there is a devotion and novena to Padre Pio, which is a powerful and moving way to come closer to Jesus Christ. Padre Pio, pray for us.