19/09/2024
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE SAINT PADRO PIO:
5 FACTS ABOUT THE SAINT PADRO PIO:
1. 1. Padre Pio was only 5 years old when he expressed a strong desire to serve God.
Born May 25, 1887, in Petrelcina, Italy, as Francesco Forgione, he served as an altar boy at his local parish. At the early age of 5, he consecrated himself to Jesus. By the age of 10, his family looked to see how he could become a Capuchin friar.
2. Padre Pio was only 15 when he entered the Capuchin Friars Minor as a novice.
Being a young teenager, Francesco was given the name Pio or Pius when he entered as a novice. He professed his solemn vows three years later. No stranger to suffering amid frail health throughout much of his studies, he was ordained a priest in 1910. He ascended the Gargano mountains to the rural friary outside of San Giovanni Rotondo in 1916. He remained there for 50 years, until his death on Sept. 23, 1968.
3. St. Pio received the visible wounds of Christ known as stigmata, just like St. Francis of Assisi.
On Sept. 20, 1918, Padre Pio received the stigmata while praying in a church. The wounds remained visible on his body for the rest of his life. The wounds were on his hands, feet and side, corresponding to the wounds suffered by Jesus during his crucifixion.
4. The blood from his stigmata smelled of floral perfume.
Referred to as the “odor of sanctity,” the blood that came from Padre Pio’s wounds is said to have smelled like perfume or as having a floral aroma. The trait has also been exhibited by other saints who manifested stigmata markings.
5. Padre Pio heard confessions 12 to 15 hours a day.
While listening to confessions, the saint would smell flowers as sins were confessed. Some penitents waited two weeks just to visit him in the confessionial. Padre Pio could also read the hearts of penitents, reminding them of sins that were forgotten or omitted.