St. Padre Pio

[christulsa]

I must be losing it——I thought I posted on this topic———-Three symptoms od Dementia;  Loss of memory, loos associations    and  uhhhh,, hmmmm, huh Oh I forgot.

I remember Padre Pio from years ago, very controversial Benedictine monk due to his stigmata. The usual arguments over a true stigmata of just some psychosomatic  reaction.  It went on for quite some time along with the publicity which cause disturbances in the Benedictine monastery.  His stigmata was more noticed during his Mass, bleeding especially in the hands, thus his Mass became some sort of spectacle. Then the abbot would transfer him to another monastery all this fanfare was I'm sure disturbing to his monastic life.  He faded for awhile but there were people who followed him etc and I guess the Church had to canonize him to Saint hood. 

It's  sort of futile to characterize one Saint over another.  We pick one or two out because of some special event in their lives, which is fine but to say one is better than the other, ahh.   .  We may prefer Thomas Aquinas for his intellectual writings, we may choose St. Teresa of Avila for her mystic life, we may choose Mother Theresa for her charity,  or St Benedict for his monastic writings......on and on. 

AMDG

I recall you posted about his stigmata and being transferred around.

He was Franciscan, specifically Capuchin. 

See bolded statements.  Who says that about Padre Pio?

[christulsa]

Little Known Things about St. Padre Pio, Cont'd

Padre Pio said the best way to pray the Mass is to identify with Mary at the foot of the Cross.

He said "The most meritorious act of faith comes in complete darkness with extreme effort."

His motto was "Pray, hope, but dont worry."

Sometimes he would bilocate to Rome or the Holy Land.

After being ordained a priest, his illness worsened so that he had to live for six years by his parents.

He lived in a one room tower like a hermit, right next to his parent's house, advancing completely through the "three stages of the spiritual life," studying, and writing correspondence.

One day after Mass in the sacristy, trying to get through a crowd of pilgrims to the confessional, he levitated and walked across the room across people's heads.  Two priests swore in writing they witnessed this.

Padre Pio said the most painful part of the stigmata, that was the most painful for Christ, was the Crowning with Thorns.  Because sin originates in the mind.

He took a personal interest in and helped everyone who asked him for help.  He said that in heaven he would help even more, everyone who asked for his help.

He had a special interest in the sick, building a large hospital next to the monastery.  It was his project.  Everyday he miraculously healed the sick who came to him.  He raised the dead, restored sight to the blind, made paralytics to walk, etc...to this day.

Padre Pio's life taught the value of: confession, suffering, the five wounds of Christ.  As a priest and victim soul, sacramentally and personally he was like another Christ.

[christulsa]

Some More Little Interesting Things about St. Padre Pio because He's now one of my Favorite Saints and I'm Home Alone Tonight on a Friday Night

When he entered the monastery as a teenager, his mother gave him a large, oval painting of Our Lady, which was like a treasure how poor they were.

Later he did not use it in his own cell because he wanted to live as poorly as possible, but when he became more and more sick, his superior insisted he hang it in his cell, which he did out of obedience.

He hung it at the foot of his bed, and looked at it every night saying the rosary in order to fall asleep.

The stigmata, and every illness he acquired, is something he never asked for.  He was just trying to be a simple monk following the Rule.

But he said if he was given the choice, he would say Mass all day long, because that is where he suffered the most for God and others.

His daily Masses often took two hours not on purpose, but because he would experience long ecstasies.

He experienced ecstasies since being a child.  He might suddenly go into a trance that would last an hour and no one could wake him from it.  But while in a trance at Mass, he was still fully aware what he was doing at the altar.

One day he was talking to a visitor in German (he never stufied German) and his friend was visiting and listening but didn't know German himself.  Padre Pio asked him if he wanted to join in the cinversation, and suddenly the man was talking in German.

Padre Pio's personality was constantly full of humor.  He would always make light of situation.  People described him as an "elf."

Everyday when he met the crowds, he handed out blessed holy medals.

Every night at dusk, he went to his window and waved a handkerchief saying good night to pilgrims, including the night he died, knowing in advance he was going to die that night.

Unlike most monks, he usually slept in his habit.

But the night of his death he was in bed in his night gown.  An hour before dying, he put back on his habit and sat in his chair, went to confession, and closed his eyes praying.  His last words he kept repeating were "Jesus, Mary" until he stopped breathing and peacefully passed away (apparently from a heart attack).

[JubilateDeo]

https://www.catholicfreeshipping.com/My-Saint-Pio-Prayer-Booklet-p/b01l481lmw.htm

You might like this little prayer book.  I got one from our parish bookstore and it has a lot of great prayers in it, particularly if you're sick or suffering.

[christulsa]

https://www.catholicfreeshipping.com/My-Saint-Pio-Prayer-Booklet-p/b01l481lmw.htm

You might like this little prayer book.  I got one from our parish bookstore and it has a lot of great prayers in it, particularly if you're sick or suffering.

Wow.  Just $1.75.   The Padre Pio Association that publishes this, also sells holy cards and medals of St. Padre Pio with a 3rd class relic attached--a little piece of clothe that had touched Padre Pio's body.   You buy the card and medal and not the relic.  Just $3.50. 

http://www.padrepio.com/gift-shop/     (scroll down)

[christulsa]

He ate just one meal a day, lunch.   Vegetables, bread, and wine.  Rarely eggs or fish.  Favorite food was broccoli.  But from 1950 until his death in 1968, ate just one ounce of food a day.

He never missed daily recreation.  30 minutes getting what he called his daily "breath of fresh air" walking in the monastery garden or sitting in the shade.

While he spent most of his time prayer or in the confessional, everyday he had a lot of interaction with the pilgrims.  Talking to them, telling stories and jokes to the children, blessing rosaries, meeting with priests and also doctors (who ran the huge children's hospital which he himself founded nextdoor to the monastery).

Even as a monk, he served as a soldier in the Italian army.

There is a book just about his close relationship with his guardian angel since childhood.

Towards the end of his life he went partly blind.

Sometimes the devil would appear to him to tempt him in the form of a naked woman.

At every Mass he could see Mary standing by the altar, at the foot of the Cross.

Besides the five wounds of the stigmata, he also had a wound across his shoulder that corresponded to a wound Christ had from carrying the cross.

One of the few people he told about this wound was Fr. Karol Woytyla who visited him, the future Pope John Paul II.

[Pacebene83]

Thanks for the correction,,,as youngsters we always though any priest who was a monk and wore a hood was a Benedictine.

First class relics are parts of the body of the Saint, bone chips,  usually  placed  in a small reliquiarium  and sealed. Also it was accompanied by certificate of authenticiy of course a donation was appreciated.  Also you had to know some priest that worked in Rome and relics to obtain a first class relic.   2nd and 3rd relics, mever paid much atteention to those but usually something  placed on the body,  ribbons, holy cards, rosary beads...third class i guess, something that touched 2nd class relics.  Usually get them in the mail when a religious order is looking for funds.

Just some of my experiences,  I think every altar that had Mass said on it needed a first class relic in the altar.  stone.     That practice may not be in vogue today.

AMDG

[Pacebene83]

i think at the height of Padre Pio's stigmata, there was a woman in Europe and another person that were supposedly suffering a "stigmata" so that the topic became questionable also their were  doctors studying Father Pio——-and the monastery was always crowded by visitors....Thjeir were always some articles in Catholic papers, Catholic News etc.   

AMEN

[christulsa]

More on Padre Pio

He rarely left the monastery, but always left to vote.

Many bishops visited him for his advise and blessing.

Three times JPII--before he was pope--wrote him to pray for members of his diocese with cancer.  Each time they were cured.

Pope Francis had Padre Pio's body brought to Rome for veneration.

His body is perfectly incorrupt.   Some of his relics are on tour next month in the US, including NYC and Michigan.   You can get a third class relic--which touched his remains--through the Padre Pio Foundation website.  They are Cromwell, CT.

His main first class relics are the many gloves and garments he wore stained with his blood.

I hope to one day get a first class relic of St Padre Pio, hopefully a piece of cloth or piece of a glove stained with his blood, to carry with me as I treat patients, and to use in praying for their healing. 

Often during his life, and after dying, his body gave off strong scents of perfume.  There were times It filled the whole church.

The day he received the stigmata, he was praying before a large crucifix, asked God to share in the suffering of the poor and sick he served.  The crucifix "came alive" and rays of light came from the cross piercing him with the wounds of Christ.

He felt very ashamed to receive the stigmata because he didnt want the attention to himself.

[Pacebene83]

I'm not much for having a particular favorite saint,  there's just too many good people.  Although I use to enjoy reading about some lives.  One of my favorite is St. John Fisher, a martyr during the reign of Henry VIII also great deal of history during that time.  Another Saint is Maria Goretti, martyr  a Saint for young girls, her life should be taught in every Catholic grammar school but I doubt it.  Do you know that her mother was present at her canonization in Rome?


as some of the  old  Irish mothers would say in an exclamation,  "Oh heavens, Saints preserve us."

AMDG

[christulsa]

What else can I say about St. Padre Pio?

He grew up basically poor but their family always had a home and three square meals a day.

He didn't usually play with the other schoolboys he said because the cussed a lot. Instead, he helped watch over the sheep.

Growing up, his family attended daily Mass.

His father worked in the US to help support him studying for the priesthood.

Towards the end of his life he developed some kind of lung disease which made it difficult to breath.  He became often confined to bed.

But when the original Our Lady of Fatima statue visited his monastery, he asked Our Lady to heal that illness and she did.  It immediately resolved.  He said to her something like "Mother Mary, are you not going to heal me when I still have so much work to do?"

He said that he would wait by the gates of heaven praying for the salvation of all souls.

He said his greatest work would be when he gets to Heaven.

He said that he would be a Spiritual Father to all Americans.

In the US, the Padre Pio Foundation promotes devotion to St. Padre Pio.  They have a building on the grounds of Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT.

[LausTibiChriste]

Padre Pio's the bomb. Fr Ripperger calls him 'Johnny on the spot' because, in Father's own words: "the minute you call on him he's there".

[Prayerful]

His words that we pray and don't worry are a fine thing for Catholics. Prayer brings peace.