Close Encounters of the Special Kind with Padre Pio, the greatest person (after Jesus and Mary) that ever lived on Earth
A finger food biography of Padre Pio in bits and pieces (bocconcini).
Birth and childhood in Pietrelcina (1887-1902)
John 1: 45 "Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.'
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46 Nathanael said to him, 'From Nazareth? Can anything good come from that place?' Philip replied, 'Come and see.' " |
The oldest picture known of Francesco Forgione, who will become Padre Pio.
Padre Pio was born on May 27, 1887, at 5 in the early evening, in Pietrelcina, Province of Benevento, Region Campania, in Southern Italy.
This is the Birth Certificate of Francesco Forgione, the future Padre Pio
The dwelling was located in Vico Storto Valle, 27, and 28, later renumbered 32, and consisted of two non connected rooms, used as kitchen and bedroom.
Like in most houses at the time: No plumbing. No bathroom. No running water. No shower. No stove. No electricity.
La Torretta - The Little Tower
Nearby there was a room accessible by outside stairs in Via Salita Castello #44. Called "La Torretta".
Padre Pio stayed at 'La Torretta" between 1910 and 1916
His parents were Grazio Mario Forgione (1860–1946) and Maria Giuseppa de Nunzio Forgione (1859–1929).
They married on June 8, 1881. Both were illiterate.
He was a laborer She brought a dowry of about an hectare of land.
They were not poor. There was food on the table everyday. But there was very little cash.
They had 8 children. The first born was Michele. Then Francesco who died after 19 days, and Amalia who died at 20 months.
When Francesco, the future Padre Pio was born, he was given the name of the older dead brother Francesco.
He had also three younger sisters, Felicita, Pellegrina, and Grazia (who was later to become a Bridgettine nun).
The youngest brother, Mario, died before he turned 1 y. o.
The Forgionès were very religious. When the church bells rang every morning the family gathered for morning prayers.
They went to church every day and prayed the Rosary together as a family every evening. Prayer came before all other activities in the household.
He was baptized in the nearby Santa Anna's Church on May 26, 1887 the day after his birth.
St. Anna's church
Baptismal font were Francesco Forgione (future Padre Pio) was baptized.
Baptized by the assistant pastor of the Sant'Anna's parish don Nicolantonio Orlando.
Godmother of the newborn baptized was the midwife Grazia Formichelli. She had helped him come to the world.
Padre Pio started dealing with angels and demons since his infancy.
Later in life Padre Pio was ordered by his superiors to write down what he remembered of his childhood:
"The Guardian Angel has been my companion since my infancy."
"When I was in the crib, and my mom extinguished the lamp I saw those horrible monsters and screamed terrified.
Than mom turned the lamp back on, and the monsters disappeared, and I stopped screaming."
At about the age of five Francesco began having continuous ecstasies and apparitions.
"I believed that these things happened to everybody".
At the same time frightening diabolic apparitions began, and continued for many years.
At age five decided to consecrate himself to God.
"Since my tender age I felt the call to religious life".
"Mom, my companions do bad things and offend Jesus."
"I don't want to play with the other kids because they curse".
Still in preschool age had the first apparition of Jesus:
"I felt like not playing with the other kids on the parvis, and sat in a pew in the church,
and Jesus from the tabernacle called me to the altar and put his hand on my head".
At the time he thought that this was normal to everybody.
Stained glass window in the St. Anna church commemorating Francesco Forgionès first encounter of the special kind with Jesus.
Fra Modestino's mother Anna Fucci was the same age of Padre Pio and lived few yards away.
She reported that he refused to play with other kids, avoided to graze the sheep when she was around,
was always with a Rosary in his hands, and everybody called him "lu santariello nuostro" 'our little saint' .
At age six he was sent to graze sheep with an older boy Ubaldo Vecchiarino called Baldino.
Baldino reported that Francesco often was kneeling in intense prayer and he had to tell him:
"When you pray, it seems like you die, that you don't are anymore on this earth".
They also went to school together in the evening, to the home of Cosimo Scocca, and
"He was the only one to answer the teacher's questions".
Another shepherd boy, Luigi Orlando, remembers him as a boy of few words, frequently reciting the Rosary.
To his mom who saw him at age 8 beating himself with a chain "I must do like the roman soldiers beat Jesus and made his shoulders bleed."
Father Giuseppe Orlando reported that Francesco, despite the objections of his mother, would sleep on the floor using a stone as pillow.
Father Agostino: 'I could swear that Padre Pio has kept his virginity, and never committed a venial sin against the angelic virtue.'
Padre Pio's first teacher was Cosimo Scocca, a farmer who had a fifth grade education.
His first grade teacher Mandato Saginato reports that Francesco used to fill the exercise book with drawings of the Cross.
Starting September 1898, age 11, begun private lessons with don Domenico Tizzani, "per cinque lire al mese."
The tuition of five lire per month was quite a bit in those times.
Padre Pio's elementary teacher Angelo Caccavo
After few months with don Tizzani, he changed teacher and went to study with another teacher, Angelo Caccavo.
With him Francesco got the elementary diploma.
A notebook with 30 themes developed by Padre Pio when he studied with Caccavo is still preserved to this days.
"I was an unsalted piece of macaroni."
"In my home you hardly found a penny, but we never missed anything".
To make money to pay for Francesco's studies Grazio Forgione went to work in New York from 1898 to 1903.
He also went to work in Argentina from 1910 to 1917.
"My father crossed the ocean twice to give me the possibility to become a friar."
Padre Pio received the First Communion on 27 September 1899, at age 12, and was Confirmed the same day by the
Archbishop of Benevento Mons. Donato Maria Dell'Olio in the church of St. Mary of the Angels, in Pietrelcina.
Padre Pio stated in writing his desire to become a Capuchin priest for the first time in a letter to his father in USA on October 5, 1901, at age 14.
Three visions in few days, between the end of December1902, and January 5 1903 defined his life.
First vision, end of December 1902, while meditating about his leaving for the novitiate:
He saw a great multitude of people divided in two camps, one shining, the other dark. A gigantic monster headed the dark camp.
A majestic man of rare beauty heading the other ordered Francesco to fight the monster. He did and won.
"The monster you have defeated is the devil and you will fight this enemy for the rest of you life."
Second vision, January 1, 1903, after receiving the Communion: He was suddenly enveloped by an interior light,
and he understood that by entering the service of the Lord he was exposing himself to the unending fight with the devil.
Third vision January 5, 1903, during the night:
Jesus and Mary came and encouraged him to go on with his plan to enter religious life.
Padre Pio left his home on January 6, 1903, to become a Capuchin friar.
"I want to be a friar with a beard, like brother Camillo."
Fra' Camillo da Sant'Elia a Pianisi. The capuchin brother who walked the countryside around the convent to collect alms.
Padre Pio saw him frequently in his childhood.
Novitiate and studies to be ordained priest (1903-1910)
January 6, 1903, Francesco left home for Morcone (30 Km from Pietrelcina) to begin the novitiate in the Capuchin Order.
His mom gave him a Rosary (still preserved) and said; "My son, Saint Francis has called you, and you must go".
"My last night at home Jesus and his mother came to assure me of their predilection".
Francesco was accompanied to Morcone by the priest don Nicola Caruso and his teacher Angelo Caccavo, with two other aspiring friars Antonio Bonavita and Vincenzo Masone.
The distance from Pietrelcina to Morcone is about 25 miles. They made it by donkey and by train..
When they rung the bell of the convent in Morcone, by coincidence the door was opened by Fra Camillo, whose beard had inspired Padre Pio to become a capuchin friar.
The group was introduced to Padre Tommaso, the master of the novices, who would introduce him to the life in the convent.
The all-inclusive room and board fee was 340 lire per year. Zi Grazio went to America to make money to pay for it.
Padre Tommaso da Monte Sant'Angelo
Padre Tommaso, master of the novices
The convent in Morcone, and the cell of brother Pio.
January 22, 1904, at age 15, he took the Capuchin habit and changed his name from Francesco Forgione to brother Pio.
"Where better I could serve you, o Lord, if not under the banner of the poverello di Assisi."
On January 2, 1904 he pronounced the wows of charity, poverty and obedience:
"I, brother Pio from Pietrelcina, ask and promise to God the Omnipotent, and to the blessed Virgin Mary,
and saint Francis, and all the Saints, and to you o father, to observe in all my life the Rules of the Minor Friars,
confirmed by pope Onorio, living in obedience, poverty, and chastity."
His mom was there: "My son, now you really are a son of Saint Francis. May he bless you".
The religious name PIO was chosen by the master of the novices.
Padre Tommaso gave him the name of the commissary Padre
Pio da Fragneto L’Abate, called da Benevento, superior of the province of
Sant’Angelo.
Padre Pio da Benevento
Padre Placido da San Marco in Lamis, with Padre Giacinto da San Giovanni Rotondo, both classmates of Padre Pio in the novitiate in Morcone
described padre Pio abundantly crying while meditating
the Passion of Christ, to the point of wetting the wooden floor.
Padre Placido da San Marco in Lamis
On January 26, 1904 brother Pio and brother Anastasio, accompanied by Padre Pio di Benevento, left Morcone for the convent of Sant’Elia a Pianisi (Campobasso)
were they
would study rhetoric and frequent quarta e quinta ginnasiale, “8th
and 9th grade of middle school.
The month of October 1908, brother Pio moves to Serracapriola (Foggia) to start studies of theology, continued at Montefusco (Avellino).
On December 19, 1908 Padre Pio received in the cathedral of Benevento, by the Archbishop Benedetto Bonazzi, the four minor orders of Doorkeeper, Reader, Exorcist, and Acolyte.
Two days later, in the same cathedral of Benevento, Mons. Paolo Schinosi, archbishop titular of Marcianopolis, conferred him the Subdeaconate.
On July 18, 1919, he was ordained Deacon in the church of the convent in Morcone.
To be ordained priest the Canon Law requires that the candidate has at least twenty four years of age.
When Padre Pio completed his studies for the priesthood he was 24 years and 3 months.
So he needed a dispensation from the requirement.
The above document shows the dispensation given to Fra' Pio to become a priest at an earlier age.
August 10, 1910, age 23, Padre Pio was ordained priest in the Cathedral of Benevento by Mons. Paolo Schinosi, archbishop titular of Marcianopolis.
"O Jesus, may I be with you the way, the truth and life for
the world".
"O Jesus may I be with you a perfect victim".
The official document in Latin, certifying that 'Fratrem Pium ex Pietrelcina, Ordinis Cappuccinorum" was ordained on August 10, 1910 by the bishop "Paulus Schinosi".
The words on the prayer card of his ordination to priesthood, handwritten by Padre Pio in August 2010:
Ricordo della mia ordinazione.
Gesù
mio sospiro e mia vita
oggi che trepidante ti elevo
in un mistero d'amore
con Te io sia pel mondo
Via Verita' e Vita
e per Te Sacerdote santo
vittima perfetta.
P. Pio, Cap.
Souvenir of my ordination.
Jesus
my sigh and my life
today that with trepidation I raise You
in a mystery of love
may I be for the world
Way, Truth and Life
and for You holy priest
perfect victim.
P.Pio, Cap.
Here are, in 1910, Padre Pio's daily resolutions: "4 hours of meditation, no less than five complete rosaries,
novenas to Madonna di Pompei, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Anthony, St. Francis, Sacred Heart, St. Rita, St. Theresa".
In a letter to Padre Agostino on December 3, 1912: "I'm giving you the good news that the 27th of last month
my father and my brother came back from America. They are in good health."
Padre Pio's health was not good. On October 1911, after a physical examination by dr. Antonio Cardarelli in Naples, he was sent for convalescence to Venafro.
According to the diagnosis of the celebrated physician, the young friar's days were numbered, and he couldn't travel long distances,
which is why he was sent to Venafro, location of the closest convent.
This picture was take in Naples when it was assumed that Padre Pio had only few more months to live.
During the month and a half stay in the convent of Venafro, the community noticed the first supernatural phenomena:
divine ecstasies lasting up to one hour, and diabolic apparitions lasting a few minutes.
In Venafro, from Fr. Agostino's diary: 'Starting in November 1911, I was present with Fr. Evangelista, the superior of the monastery,
for a considerable number of ecstasies, and many instances of demonic oppression."
"Satan would appear as a nude woman dancing lewdly, as is spiritual father, as his superior, pope Pius X, his guardian angel, St. Francis,
the Virgin Mary, and also as the horrible self, with an army of demonic spirits.
At times there were no apparitions but he was beaten until he bled, tormented with deafening noises, covered with spit.
He was able to free himself from the torments by calling on the name of Jesus."
Padre Pio always distinguished the devil's apparitions from the heavenly visions by asking:
"Say Long live Jesus." (Ripeti 'Viva Gesù). If it was the devil, he would disappear.
From 1910 to 1916 Padre Pio spent most of his time in poor health at home in Pietrelcina.
Since he was ordained and was inappropriate for him to live in the family home, instead that in the convent, the parents prepare his own dwelling.
Few yards from Padre Pio's home there was La Torretta (The little tower), a one room building, to which one can get climbing steep stairs.
Here Padre Pio stayed after the Ordination in 1910, during the convalescent leaves from the Service, until he went to Foggia and than San Giovanni Rotondo.
A table, a bed, a window. Here he wrote letters to his spiritual directors, had frequent apparitions of Jesus and other heavenly beings, and was tormented by the devil with multiple temptations.
La Torretta
Military service in Naples (1915-18)
Padre Pio dressed in military uniform.
On November 6, 1915 Padre Pio was drafted, at age 28.
December 6, 1915 recruit #12094, assigned to the 10th Company of Health in Naples.
December 17, 1915 medical consultation diagnoses 'pulmonary infiltration', and grants 1 year of convalescent leave.
Starting February 17,1916 he stayed in the convent of St. Anne, in Foggia.
But even there he continued to feel sick: vomiting, sudden sweats, dizziness, and a very high fever.
At night, terrifying noises came from his room. They ended with a boom that would shake the walls and terrorize the other friars.
He told father Benedetto that it was the devil who, unable to win, exploded in fits of rage.
He stayed in Foggia until September 4, 1916.
On September 4, 1916 Padre Pio moves to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo.
On December 18, 1916 he returns to the Military hospital.
On December 30, 1916, new medical consultation. Granted 6 months of convalescent leave.
September 4, 1917, started training in the Military Hospital of Naples.
November 5, 1917, granted 6 months of convalescent leave.
March 6, 1918. Back in the military hospital.
March 16, 1918 discharged for medical reason for "double bronchoalveolitis."
Padre Pio's document of honorable discharge from the army for "double bronco alveolitis ".
High "mystical" fevers
Padre Pio had long bouts of high fevers, followed by normal temperatures.
Padre Pio himself described the experience as a "moral, rather than a physical, illness"
and said it was like he was "in a furnace, still always conscious".
A friar attested that "even under the strain of this fever, Padre Pio is not knocked down, but gets up, moves about, and can do everything."
The body temperature was taken by a mercury thermometer, today no longer in common use.
Normal body temperature is 98.2°F (or 36.8°C). A temperature at or above about 104 °F (40 °C) requires treatment.
On December 1915 at the Trinity Military Hospital in Naples, during a routine physical, Padre Pio's temperature was taken by dr. Giuseppe Grieco,
lieutenant medical doctor in the Italian Army, with a armpit mercury thermometer. In less than one minute the thermometer cracked,
having gone over the maximum temperature of 42C (107.6). Three other thermometers cracked the same way. Dr. Grieco called in a colleague dr. Francesco Melle.
They decided to try with a bath thermometer, removed from the casing that could read up to 80C (176F). The thermometer read 48C (118.4).
They couldn't believe it, so they tried with a laboratory precision thermometer. This time the temperature was 49C (120.2).
They decided to inform the captain prof. dr. Felice D'Onofrio, chief of medical services. He came in, measured again, and the reading was 49C.
"This is a mystery. This is impossible. I can't believe my eyes. He should be in agony. This man is either a saint or a devil."
He prescribed quinine and went to see him in the morning. He took again the temperature and was 36.7C (98.06).
"I don't understand anything. Let's send him home to die in peace." He gave him a year of medical leave.
Dr. Giorgio Festa in 1920 took Padre Pio's temperature as part of his investigation. The reading was 48.5C
In 1921 Father Lorenzo, superior of the convent, testified under oath to Mons. Rossi that he was skeptical,
and had personally witnessed and recorded Padre Pio with fevers of 43C (109.4F) degrees Fahrenheit, then 45C (113F) degrees, and finally 48C (118.4F) degrees.
