Saint Padre Pio
Saint Padre Pio ... Saint of our Day - Canonized June 16 2002
Miracle Worker, Stigmatic, Mystic
On June 16 2002, the Pope canonized Padre Pio -- the famous Italian priest -- it was the most momentous canonization since Therese the Little Flower. Not since St. Francis of Assisi has there been such a miracle-worker, and elevation of this great mystic to sainthood is bound to unleash a torrent of heavenly power. This is a man who healed literally thousands -- while he was still alive; who could read souls -- knowing in case after case exactly what a person in Confession had done; who was seen in dozens of cases in bilocation (appearing far from where he actually was). This is a man who suffered legitimate stigmata -- deep wounds that bled until they miraculously healed upon his death. This is a priest who could predict the future and could see into heaven and led many to the faith. To understand the potency of Padre Pio, one has only to know that during World War Two, pilots seeking to bomb the vicinity of San Giovanni Rotundo, where he lived, time and again recounted how they had been unable to bomb the area after spotting the apparition of a monk -- at times a towering apparition -- in the clouds.
As documented in a solidly researched book, Padre Pio: The True Story (by an initially skeptical Protestant minister), there were accounts that defy the belief of even the most ardent believer: a sighting of him at the Vatican even though he never left the San Giovanni monastery; the transfiguration of his face into that of Jesus' during consecration; a worker named Giovanni Savino who lost an eye that later materialized under the bandages after Pio visited him in bilocation.
"Reports of bilocation came from all over the world, from Hawaii to St. Peter's, where Padre Pio allegedly put in an appearance at the canonization of St. Therese of Lisieux in 1925," writes the minister, Bernard Ruffin. "Within the Mass, however, Padre Pio admitted to an intense mystical involvement with the unseen world. He apparently saw, as in a vision, the entire Passion, and actually felt, physically, the wounds of Jesus. During the offering of the bread and wine, Padre Pio often remained motionless for moments on end, as if 'nailed by a mysterious force,' gazing with moistened eyes upon the crucifix. At these moments, he said, his soul was 'separated from all that is profane.' At the Commemorations of the Living and the Dead, he maintained that he saw all his spiritual children at the altar, 'as if in a mirror.'"
It's impossible to do justice to the entire array of miracles. They are endless, and they have transcended his death. Many are those who claim he has interceded in hopeless cases -- especially with children -- or have seen him in apparition: in one memorable case he materialized on the altar to give Communion to a startled woman at San Giovanni Rotundo!
One day, recounts Ruffin, a priest named Padre Constantino "entered Pio's room and was struck by what he saw. 'His countenance was shining with a rosy flame of light such as I had never seen before and shall, I think, never see again. It was but for an instant, but I shall never forget it.' This phenomenon was observed in Moses when he came down from Sinai with the two tables of the Law in his hands."
As for the sky phenomenon: "There are many stories concerning Allied pilots who attempted to bomb San Giovanni but were stopped by an apparition of a 'monk' standing in the air with his arms outstretched," says Ruffin. "There are fliers who swore that they had sighted a figure in the sky, sometimes normal size, sometimes gigantic, usually in the form of a monk or priest. The sightings were too frequent and the reports came from too many sources to be totally discounted. Several people from Foggia, where thousands were killed in the air raids, said that a bomb, falling into a room where they had huddled, landed near a photograph of Padre Pio. They claimed that when it exploded, it 'burst like a soap bubble.' Others reported that while bombs were raining down upon the city, they cried, 'Padre Pio, you have to save us!' While they were speaking, a bomb fell into their midst but did not explode."
If in the 1990s a million a year were already visiting his tomb, we can only imagine what the figures are today -- and what they will be following canonization. His canonization may break records for attendance. His beatification did -- attracting 300,000. Virtually every charism reported with Francis of Assisi was also recorded with Pio -- around whom a large pilgrim center has been built, similar to the development of Assisi. Hundreds of thousands flocked to see him when he was alive and hundreds of thousands poured into St. Peter's Square on June 16. Watch for an explosion of devotion to him. This was not a normal canonization. This was not typical sanctity. Pio was canonized,into the pantheon of the Church's greatest saints.
