Posted on 09/23/2013 4:11:32 AM PDT by markomalley
Today is the feast-day of St Pius of Pietrelcina – better known as Padre Pio, the Capuchin friar who was privileged to receive the stigmata in 1918. In his book, Year of the Lord’s Favour Volume 1, Aidan Nichols OP writes, “The Church understands the stigmata, when authentic, as, along with other physical phenomena of mysticism, a sign of credibility in the given mission of some holy person to the Church and the world. On his deathbed, Pius’ stigmata, which had been deep wounds that never formed scabs nor ulcerated, but gave off a discernible perfume, are said to have disappeared. It was a sign that his mission was coming to an end. What had his mission been? Surely it was the mission of St Pius of Pietrelcina to bear witness to supernatural realism in a period of scepticism in Western culture, in an age of doctrinal reductionism in the Church.”
Well, it hardly needs pointing out that we are still in that age and that period. According to Nichols, Padre Pio’s “intercession remains equally needed so long as this period lasts”; in other words, we need to keep praying to him for our benighted times – and also for the Church, that other men and women might be raised up in the mould of this great saint. Incidentally, I once had a novena prayer-card to him; its great merit in my eyes, I am ashamed to admit, was that it was a short novena rather than a long one. I have lost it so if anyone reading this blog knows what I am talking about, I would be delighted if they could put a link to where I might find it again.
A Catholic friend emailed me not long ago to say that she was “sceptical” about Padre Pio’s stigmata, that he had been investigated and the circumstances of his wounds were suspicious and so on. I replied that the Church would hardly have raised him to the altars as a saint if this were true. I find the problem with Catholics is that they tend to be either over-devout and accept all manner of suspicious phenomena (rosaries turning to gold is one of them) or over-sceptical, looking askance at someone like Padre Pio who was obviously not an intellectual like themselves.
He was what he was: deeply humble, charitable, holy – and straight-talking. Someone once asked him, “Do the stigmata hurt you?” “Do you think God gave them to me as an ornament?” was his brusque rejoinder. He would spend 15 hours or more a day in the confessional where, like the Cure of Ars, he was gifted with supernatural insight into souls. Nichols writes that “his bilocations, levitations and the miracles he worked read like the more colourful passages in Butler’s Lives of the Saints.” When he celebrated Mass it could last for hours; doubtless this helped those participating to realize that the Mass is a real sacrifice, not merely a theatrical reproduction.
Frank Rega’s book Padre Pio and America, which the author kindly sent me, also describes other, darker phenomena associated with this saint: he not only had visions of heavenly beings such as his guardian angel, but also diabolical ones: according to Rega’s account, “The demons would appear to Padre Pio disguised as beings of light, often posing as saints, but he always experienced a feeling of disgust at these counterfeit visions. To test the spirits he would ask them to praise Jesus, and if they refused he knew they were devilish. Once found out, they would leave him alone for a time.”
All this is a far cry from the lives of ordinary Catholics. But thank God for saints like St Pio of Pietrelcina who fight (in Padre Pio’s case the Devil used to literally buffet and strike him) in the front line of the mortal combat for souls. They remind us that all the things that so often take up our time and attention – such as intrigues and scandals of others in the Church, who’s in who’s out and the rest – are trivial and unimportant compared with the goal of getting to heaven.
I met a Italian priest who met Padre Pio when he (the priest) was a boy. He remembered the astonishing scent of the wounds.
It is a battleground. Even the great of the earth, those who plot and plunder are on one side or the other.
It is headlines like these that ground me and have me scratching my head over the pride infecting humanity, my own included, and causing untold misery:
“Forbes Calls Goldman CEO Holier Than Mother Teresa.”
As my grandmother said, “A shroud has no pockets.”
I would add that all graves hold decaying remains. Not all the power, money, prestige, influence, appearance can stop that.
St. Pio is a great witness to God’s majesty and grace.
Wow! I only know Padre Pio as an icon of Italian-American bakeries!
If you act now you should have plenty of time to get your idol before Christmas.
http://www.ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/devotional/096.html
http://www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/Home+Page/SPECIALTY/Dolls/ST+PADRE+PIO+DOLL.axd
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. (Ephesians 4:8-11)
Padre Pio: Powerful Saint or Prosthetic Fraud
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=52908441350
i had his biography, i need to reread it...he has watched over me and my family, and continues to do so, my prayers through him have always been answered...sometimes not the way i wanted, but nonetheless.
thank you God for Padre Pio
Wow!
It’s hard to imagine how difficult his life must have been. Physically battling the devil...
exactly, the bio i read, it is excruciating what he went thru, for his Love of God, a lesson to be learned for all of us....
especially me and my whining over the most trivial of matters it seems....
bookmark
Some relatives on my father’s side of the family came to America from the same town as Padre Pio (Pietrelcina).
When I was a kid in the 1960’s, we visited my father’s aunt in the borough of Queens, NY. She was an elderly woman, but I remember her talking about Padre Pio. She said his wounds smelled “like flowers.”
Mark, Thank you for posting this. Padre Pio is well deserved of sainthood.
Last Friday a few mothers from our homeschool association met at a local park. One family had a little boy named Pio, who is a year old today.
how wonderful....
St Gemma Galgani, a young woman who lived in Lucca Italy from 1878 to 1903, also received physical beatings from the devil.
Do you have a picture of your parents in your house?
That’s how Catholics view a picture or icon — a picture of a friend.
Not many people know how he bilocated during the War and guided planes away from danger.
You need to do a lot more searching and find the truth about saints.
God be with you as you grow — you will learn to love Jesus even more.
The Friar Whose Hands and Side Bled for 50 Years
Padre Pio's Love for the Holy Angels (Catholic Caucus
THE HEALING OF [the eyes of] GEMMA DI GIORGI [by St. Padre Pio] [Ecumenical]
Padre Pio confided in young JP II that shoulder wound was his greatest suffering [Catholic C]
[Padre Pio's]Five Maxims for Living a Devout Life
[CATHOLIC CAUCUS] THEFT OF PADRE PIO RELICS ATTEMPTED
[CATHOLIC CAUCUS] Padre Pio’s healing power felt by local Catholic
Statue of Baby Jesus travels from Holy Land to Padre Pio's monastery
Saint Padre Pio's Christmas Meditation
Remembering Francesco Forgione -- a.k.a., Padre Pio
Pope: a life of prayer and charity like Padre Pio, against activism and secularisation [St. Pio]
Padre Pio's Secret: His Shoulder Wound
St. Padre Pio, Humanae Vitae, and Mandatory Abortion
Padre Pio, Priest and Victim [Ecumenical]
Details of first investigation into Padre Pio’s stigmata revealed [Catholic Caucus]
St. Pio of Pietrelcina [Padre Pio]
THE HOLY WOUNDS OF CHRIST & Padre Pio's Secret: His Shoulder Wound [Devotional]
Popular Italian Catholic saint exhumed 40 years on (Padre Pio's body in fair condition)
Letter 33 - Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, 16 November 1914.
Padre Pio and the Mother Co-redemptrix(CATHOLIC CAUCUS)
Saint Padre Pio letters #29Correspondence with Raffaelina Cerase
Message, holiness of saint with stigmata more relevant now than ever, 'Padre Pio' author says
St. Padre Pio During Mass
Padre Pio and the Guardian Angel
Spiritual Counsels from Saint Padre Pio
What Does It Means To Be Canonized.(Padre Pio example)
Feast of St. Pio this FRIDAY! (Padre Pio - Pray for Texas!)
Padre Pio's Love for the Blessed Mother
St. Padre Pio
Padre Pio's Shrine, as the Architect Sees It - Renzo Piano Talks about Church, San Giovanni Rotondo
Padre Pio Aid Says Saint Accepted New Mass
Padre Pio: on Spirituality, Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Missae
Remarkable Transformation: Padre Pio
Cardinal Schotte (Head of the Synod of Bishops) and his view on Dallas; Rose petals for Padre Pio
Saint Padre Pio's Body Not Found in His Tomb?
Padre Pio Now A Saint - Wrestled With Devil, Predicted Future
Padre Pio Wrestled with Devil, Predicted Future
Pope Bestows Sainthood on Padre Pio
PADRE PIO DA PIETRELCINA
Padre Pio to be Canonized This June
St. Pio Of Pietrelcina, 1887-1968
His Friends Remember Padre Pio
St. Pio Of Pietrelcina, 1887-1968
Padre Pio: on Spirituality, Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Missae
Padre Pio Now A Saint - Wrestled With Devil, Predicted Future
Padre Pio Wrestled with Devil, Predicted Future
Pope Bestows Sainthood on Padre Pio
Remarkable Transformation: Padre Pio
What a silly false assertion.
Let’s appeal to the standard of Popish doctrine the Council of Trent shall we, to wit:
“That the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the saints, are to be had and retained, especially in churches, and due honour and veneration to be paid to them; because the honour which is exhibited to them, is referred to the prototypes which they represent; so that through the images which we kiss, and before which we cover our heads and lie prostrate, we adore Christ; and pay veneration to the saints whose likenesses the images bear; as is ordained by the Decrees of Councils, particular the second Nicene.”
What did this Nicene Council say on the matter? I’m so glad you asked. On the matter of images and saints they said the following words: “To those who diligently teach not the whole Christ-loving people to adore and salute the venerable, and holy, and precious images of all the saints; let them be anathema.”
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