Born: May 25, 1887, Pietrelcina, Italy

Died: September 23, 1968, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Nationality: Italian

Vocation: priest

Attributes: stigmata, habit, purple stole

Beatification: 1999, by Pope John Paul II

Canonization: 2002, by Pope John Paul II

Pray, hope, and don't worry.

St. Pio was born with the name Francesco Forgione to a devout family in the southern Italian town of Pietrelcina. He grew up with six siblings, although two passed away in infancy. 

Francesco received his call from God at the age of 10 to become a Capuchin Franciscan. He is said to have remarked to his parents, “I want to be a friar with a beard.” The Forgione family was poor, but very devout. In order to provide for his family and help Francesco realize his vocation, Francesco’s father, Grazio, ventured alone across the Atlantic to work as a laborer in New York. 

With the money sent from his father, Francesco was able to afford a tutor and education. When he was 15, he entered the Capuchins and was ordained a priest seven years later, taking the name Pio after Pope St. Pius V. With the outbreak of World War I, many young men, including religious, were called into service and Pio was drafted and served in the Italian military, but was discharged twice for his poor health. 

Pio was then sent to the Capuchin friary at San Giovanni Rotondo. In 1918, Pio had just celebrated Mass when Jesus appeared to him. Following the end of the apparition, Pio noticed he had received the stigmata – the very wound marks the Lord was given at His Passion, on his hands, feet, as well as the side of his body.

Although receiving Christ’s wounds was a miracle, the friar experienced great suffering beyond just the physical pain of his wounds. Pio was subjected to many long examinations by medical experts and church authorities who questioned the stigmata’s authenticity. Twice, the friar was forbidden from publicly celebrating Mass or hearing confessions, to which he humbly complied.    

While the stigmata largely prevented Pio from leaving his community, people started to come to him by the thousands. Pio was said to have not preferred the large crowds, but still embraced and attended to them. He would regularly hear confessions for nearly half of each day and many of his penitents said that he was given the ability to know sins and details that they had never told him.

Pio died of a heart attack in 1968, at the age of 81.

St. Padre Pio, pray for us.