Saint Padre Pio understood the difficulties of physical pain and sickness, as he was frequently ill through most of his life. With the help of sponsors, he was able to fulfill his desire of building a hospital. The hospital sits atop a hill overlooking San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Starting with only about beds and just enough equipment, the hospital is now known for its state-of-the-art facilities and services.
As a child, Padre Pio reportedly saw angels and spoke with holy entities, having visions of Jesus and Mary. Aside from stigmata manifestations, Padre Pio was also remembered for having performed bilocation, the ability to appear in two places at once.
He was also known for his miracles of healing, such as the restoration of sight of Giovanni Savino, whose right eye had been blown out due to a dynamite blast, and the healing of a year-old with severe back deformities due to typhoid fever in His incorrupt body is now displayed in San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy. On a blisteringly hot day, cheers,applause and bells rang out, not just in the Vatican but in many other towns in Italy, including Padre Pio's birthplace of Pietrelcina in Campania and also in San Giovanni Rotondo in Puglia, home of the Capuchin monastery where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
Despite looking his now customary frail self, the year-old Pope presided over the entire service. He took time at the end to issue a multi-lingual Angelus greeting to the pilgrims of many different nationalities Ireland included , before an extended drive around in his Popemobile. Earlier, in his trembling voice, the Pope had read out the Latin formula which declares sainthood, saying:.
Padre Pio, who died in at the age of 81, is known to millions of Catholics worldwide for his holiness and for the stigmata Greek for marks or bodily signs of Christ's passion which he bore for the last 40 years of his life. Even though he was treated with distrust by a series of high-ranking Vatican officials, many of whom doubted the authenticity of his stigmata, he became increasingly ever more venerated by ordinary Catholic faithful.
One person who believed in the holiness of Padre Pio, however, was Pope John Paul who yesterday recalled that he had had the "privilege" of having had his confession heard by Padre Pio when he visited San Giovanni Rotondo as a young newly ordained priest in Even before his canonisation, Padre Pio's former monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo had become a major site of pilgrimage for Catholics from around the world.
His shrine there receives eight million visitors a year. Pio's image is displayed in homes, shops, garages - even on the backs of trucks - in many parts of Italy. John Paul II was said to have a special affection for Padre Pio, and as a young man travelled to his monastery in southern Italy for confession. The approval of Padre Pio's sainthood took place in record time, but during his lifetime many in the Church doubted claims of his miraculous cures and suggested he was a fraud. Pio was said to have known what penitents would confess to him.
He reportedly wrestled with the devil in his cell. In granting him sainthood, the Church officially recognised two of his miracles: the curing of an year-old boy who was in a coma and the medically inexplicable recovery of a woman with lung disease. This followed research from a health psychologist at Cardiff University that named 22 January as the single most depressing day of that year.
The formula is based on the poorest weather, seasonal debt, the anti-climax after Christmas, the abandonment of New Year's resolutions and the dates when motivation levels hit rock bottom - and the date chosen is always a Monday.
His parishioners were deeply impressed by his piety and one by one they began to come to him, seeking his counsel. For many, even a few moments in his presence, proved to be a life changing experience. As the years passed, pilgrims began to come to him by the thousands, from every corner of the world, drawn by the spiritual riches which flowed so freely from his extraordinary ministry. Padre Pio is understood above all else as a man of prayer. He prayed almost continuously.
His prayers were usually very simple. He loved to pray the Rosary and recommended it to others. When he speaks or is spoken to, we are aware that his heart and mind are not distracted from the thought and sentiment of God. Padre Pio suffered from poor health his entire life, once saying that his health had been declining from the time he was nine years old.
After his ordination to the priesthood, he remained in his hometown of Pietrelcina and was separated from his religious community for more than five years due to his precarious health. Although the cause of his prolonged and debilitating illnesses remained a mystery to his doctors, Padre Pio did not become discouraged. He offered all of his bodily sufferings to God as a sacrifice, for the conversion of souls.
He experienced many spiritual sufferings as well. Shortly after his ordination, he wrote a letter to his spiritual director, Father Benedetto Nardella, in which he asked permission to offer his life as a victim for sinners.
This desire has been growing continually in my heart so that it has now become what I would call a strong passion.
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