Pio Padre

On December 23, 2005 · 0 Comments

Pio Padre
Can anyone elaborate on Padre Pio who had or still has?

stigmata?

He's dead now, but it was an interesting story. The Church of Rome considers him a mystic and has beatified him. One story that's commonly told about him is that he met a young bishop named Karol Wotyla one day and told him that one day he (Wotyla) would be Pope. No one gave credibility to the post-war prediction because Wotyla lived behind the Iron Curtain, was not Italian, and was not among the "elite" of the hierarchy. That all changed in the late 1970s when a brand new pope (John Paul I) died suddenly and mysteriously just weeks after his elevation. The College of Cardinals went back into conclave and the young, Polish "commoner", Wotyla, was indeed elected to the papacy. He went on to serve one of the longest and most distinguished career in Catholicism as John Paul II.

He was a Capuchin friar, which is part of the Franciscan order. He became the spiritual direction at a Capuchin friary during WWI and was later himself conscripted into service. The name "Pio" was given to him at ordination in the same way that nuns used to give up their lay names when they were accepted into their orders and were given "saint names". His patron saint from which he got his name was St. Pius V who was the patron of his hometown, Pietrelcina.

There are stories that he used to go into a trance-like state called an "ecstasy" where he would commune with heaven and have glimpses of hell. Some of his fellow friars even claimed to have seen him levitate. As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I have healthy skepticism. But hey, they were there and I wasn't. The truth is between them and God.

He supposedly had visions and his poor health was supposedly his perdition and caused by encounters with demons. HIs stigmata came early in his career and persisted until his death. There is controversy over its legitimacy because of granulation around the wounds and lack of infection. Mother Angelica on EWTN (also a Franciscan) has always been a staunch defender of his stigmata. But part of the process towards sainthood is separating fact from fantasy. The medical world has not embraced a "supernatural" cause for his wounds. The fact that they were not present when he died is a big part of the ongoing controversy.