Biography of Padre Pio
(1887-1968) His feast is celebrated on September 23
Biography
Francisco Forgione (Saint Pio of Pietrelcina) was born into a humble and religious family, on May 25, 1887 at 5 pm Padre Pio was born in a small village in the South of Italy, called Pietrelcina, a small town in the province of Benevento, Italy. His parents, Grazio Forgione and Maria Giuseppa de Nunzio Forgione, both farmers, entrusted the protection of their newborn to Saint Francis of Assisi, for this reason they baptized him with the name of Francis the day after his birth.
The Forgione family lived in the poorest sector of Pietrelcina. Francisco was poor, but as he himself would later say, he never lacked for anything… Values were different at that time; a child was considered happy if he had the basics to live. He was a very sensitive and spiritual child.
Home of your extraordinary experiences
His life was spent in the surroundings of the Santa María de los Ángeles Church, which we could say was like his “home”. Here he was baptized, he made his First Communion, his Confirmation, and precisely here, at five years of age, he had an apparition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Lord placed his hand on Francis’s head and he promised Saint Francis that he would be a faithful follower of his. The course of his life and his vocation would henceforth be sealed. Padre Pio offers himself at such a young age as a victim. This year would mark Francisco’s life forever; he begins to have apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, which would continue for the rest of his life. He also had a family relationship with his guardian angel, with whom he had the grace to communicate throughout his life and who served greatly in the mission that he would receive from God.
He was a quiet, different and shy child, many say that at such a young age he already showed signs of a deep spirituality. He was pious, spending long hours in church after Mass. He even made arrangements with the sacristan to allow him to visit the Lord in the Eucharist, at times when the church was closed.
A miracle in his presence
One day, when he was still little, he accompanied his father, Grazio, on a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of San Peregrino. The church was full of worshipers from all over. Francis knelt to pray in front of the Sanctuary and observed the anguish of a mother who approached the altar with a deformed child in her arms and implored the Saint to intercede for the healing of her son.
As his father prepared to leave the Church, Francisco did not move in deep prayer of intercession for the child. His mother, in a fit of despair, said out loud in front of the image of the Saint: “Heal my son, if you don’t want to heal him, take him, I don’t want him” and saying this, threw the child on the altar . At the precise moment the child touched the altar, he was completely healed. This experience of the power of prayer greatly strengthened Francis’ confidence in the power of the intercession of the Saints.
First studies
Francisco had a great thirst for learning. Because there were no schools in the village, some farmers volunteered to teach the children of the area. His greatest ambition was that children could learn to read and the brightest to write. Teaching was carried out at night because of the existing need to work, both adults and children during the day. Francisco studied during this time. Other children preferred to play, but this was not one of his priorities. His preference was always to spend most of his time in prayer and study in the time set aside for learning. Padre Pio was a disciplined child, who understood the sacrifice it was for his parents to sponsor his learning time.
Studies to prepare you for Religious Life
The time has come when Francis will express his desire to be a religious. His father, seeing the existing limitation of education in the town, emigrated to the United States and Jamaica looking for better economic solvency that would allow him to defray the educational expenses for Francisco. His parents, although humble, received great wisdom from the Lord to see the path that his son would follow. They made great sacrifices to make it possible.
It was during this time that his mother, Giuseppa, arranged for her son to receive the necessary training to enter the seminary.
Doña Giuseppa sought out the teacher Angelo Cavacco to entrust him with the training of her son. With him, the young Francisco advanced with great speed and showed great ability.
Preparation for the Novitiate
The day before entering the Seminary, Francisco had a vision of Jesus with his Blessed Mother. In this vision, Jesus places his hand on Francisco’s shoulder, giving him courage and strength to move forward. The Virgin Mary, on her part, speaks softly, subtly and maternally to him, penetrating to the depths of his soul.
Entry into the Morcone Novitiate
Padre Pio always walked the narrow path, not allowing himself luxuries or anything that could divert him from his relationship with Jesus. At 15 years of age, Francisco had advanced enough to enter the Seminary; he would be a Capuchin Friar. He entered the Franciscan Order of Morcone on January 3, 1902. Fifteen days after his entry, on January 22, 1902, Francisco received the Franciscan habit that is made in the shape of a cross and he realized that from that moment his life would be “crucified in Christ”, he also took, by religious name, Fray Pío de Pietrelcina in honor of Saint Pius V.
The Capuchin Fraternity into which he entered was one of the most austere in the Franciscan Order and one of the most faithful to the original rule of Saint Francis of Assisi. Fasting and penance were common practices. Friar Pio embraced all forms of self-deprivation, always eating very little, on one occasion he ate only the Eucharist for 20 days and although physically weak, he showed up to classes with illustrious joy. It was one of the best times of his life: “I am immensely happy when I suffer, and if I consented to the impulses of my heart, I would ask Jesus to give me all the suffering of men.”
first bilocation
In 1905, just two years after entering the Seminary, Friar Pio experienced bilocation for the first time. Praying accompanied by another friar in the choir, one cold night in January, around 11 p.m., he found himself far away, in a very elegant house in which a father of a family was dying at the same moment as his daughter. was born Our Blessed Mother appeared to Friar Pio saying: “I entrust this creature to your care; it is an unpolished precious stone. Work on it, polish it, make it shine as much as possible, because one day I want to adorn myself with it.” To which he replied, “How can this be possible if I am a poor student, and I still don’t even know if I will have the fortune to become a priest? And if I don’t become a priest, how can I take care of this child while so far?”. The Virgin replied: “Do not hesitate. It will be she who comes to you, but you will meet her beforehand in Saint Peter’s Basilica.” He immediately found himself back in the choir where he had been praying minutes before.
Eighteen years later this girl showed up at St. Peter’s Basilica, overwhelmed and looking for a priest with whom she could confess and receive spiritual direction. It was already late and the Basilica was going to close, she looked around her and saw a friar enter the confessional and close the door. The young woman approached him and began to share her problems with him. The priest absolved her sins and gave her the blessing. The young woman in gratitude wanted to kiss her hand, but when she opened the confessional she only found an empty chair.
A year later, the young woman went on a pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo. Padre Pio walked through the corridors of the cells full of pilgrims and when he saw the young woman among them, he pointed to her saying: “I know you, you were born the day your father died”, the young woman, surprised, waited a long time to be able to confess with the Father and clarify their concerns. Padre Pio receives her in her confessional with these words: “My daughter, you have finally come; I have been waiting for you for so many years!” Even more surprised, the young woman told him that he was wrong, this being the first time she had visited San Giovanni. To which Padre Pio replied: “You already know me, you came to me last year in Saint Peter’s Basilica.”
The young woman became his spiritual daughter, always obeying his advice. She married and raised a strong and exemplary Christian family.
Priestly Ordination
On August 10, 1910, Padre Pio is ordained a priest in the Cathedral of Benevento, Italy. On the evening of that day, he writes this prayer: “O Jesus, my breath and my life, I ask you to make me a holy priest and a perfect victim.”
On the day of his ordination, his father was in America, but his mother, his brother Miguel and his wife, and his three sisters accompanied him on that special day. At the end of Holy Mass, his mother and her brothers approached the railing to receive his first blessing. Her mother could not hold back her tears, both from emotion and pain at the thought of the absence of her husband, whose sacrifice had made her son’s ordination possible.
As was the custom, the new Father would celebrate his first Mass in the church of his town, in Santa María de los Ángeles. In the same church where he had been baptized 23 years earlier, where he had received First Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Back to Pietrelcina
The higher the young priest climbed towards perfection, the more he was stalked by the demon. And the more tormented he was by Satan, the more he grew in faith and love for the Lord.
Shortly after his ordination, the fevers and ailments that had always afflicted him during his studies returned, and he was sent to his village, Pietrelcina, to recover his health.
Every time an attempt was made to return him to religious life within the monastery, it failed, as his health worsened. His priestly life in Pietrelcina included much prayer accompanied by many religious functions, as well as theological studies, catechism for the children of the town, and meetings with families.
First appearance of stigmata
During his first year of priestly ministry, in 1910, Padre Pio manifested the first symptoms of the stigmata. In a letter he wrote to his spiritual director, he described them thus: “A red spot, the size of a penny, appeared in the middle of my hands, accompanied by intense pain. I also feel pain under my feet.” These pains in the hands and feet of Padre Pio are the first signs of the stigmata that were invisible until the year 1918. In this year, Padre Pio received the stigmata of Jesus Crucified, who in an apparition invited him to join in His Passion to participate in the salvation of the brothers, especially of…