- Capuchin monks were among those who gathered
for the beatification
-
- For Padre Pio, the events that set him
on the path to sainthood began in September 1918.
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- "After I had celebrated Mass, I
yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep," he wrote later
to his spiritual advisor.
-
- While in this drowsy state, the 31-year-old
Capuchin monk saw a "mysterious person" whose "hands, feet
and side were dripping blood".
-
- "The sight terrified me and what
I felt at that moment is indescribable," Padre Pio wrote.
-
- "I thought I should die and really
should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart
which was about to burst out of my chest.
-
- "The vision disappeared and I became
aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood.
-
- "Imagine the agony I experienced
and continue to experience almost every day. The heart wound bleeds continually,
especially from Thursday evening until Saturday."
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- Embarrassment
-
- Perhaps understandably, Padre Pio found
the wounds "embarrassing", and prayed for the visible marks to
be removed.
-
- But he did not ask for relief from the
pain of the wounds, he wrote, "since I wish to be inebriated with
pain".
-
- He believed that the wounds, which stayed
with him 50 years, gave him the strength to fend off attacks by the devil.
-
- Padre Pio wrote that one night, "that
wretch did nothing but beat me continually".
-
- "He presented to my mind many diabolical
suggestions, thoughts of despair, distrust in God. But praise be to Jesus,
for I defended myself by saying to him repeatedly: 'your wounds are my
merit'. "
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- 'Special child'
-
- Padre Pio's devotees says that from his
childhood in an Italian peasant family, it was evident that Francesco Forgione
- as he was originally called - was a special child of God.
-
- But it was the gift of the stigmata that
began to attract attention to the padre, which grew into a cult following
as more miracles came to be associated with him.
-
- He was said to emit an odour of sanctity,
similar to that of roses or violets.
-
- Prophecy and miraculous cures were also
attributed to him during his lifetime.
-
- 'Wounds disappeared'
-
- Followers of the padre say that all evidence
of the wounds disappeared several days before his death in 1968.
-
- A lifelong devotee of the Virgin Mary
- he is said to have recited the rosary 35 times a day - Padre Pio died
repeating the words "Jesus - Mary" over and over again.
-
- Many regard him as a saint already -
especially in Italy - and his monastery in southern Italy receives over
seven million visitors a year.
-
- Rosaries and holy water dishes with the
padre's image can be purchased over the Internet.
-
- Back in the fold
-
- Past pontiffs have been suspicious of
the Padre and his miraculous wounds. The Vatican even bugged the Padre's
confessional and opened his mail. He was also banned from saying Mass for
many years.
-
- But the present Pope, who travelled from
Poland to visit Padre Pio in 1947, has accepted him back into the church's
fold and honoured him with the title "The Venerable".
-
- But beatification - an honour which usually
leads eventually to sainthood - requires evidence that the candidate has
been responsible for working miracles.
-
- For followers of Padre Pio, the good
news came in 1991, when a woman who had been hospitalised for a burst lymph
vessel made a rapid recovery after praying for the padre's intervention.
-
- After investigating the case at length,
the Vatican declared the cure to be authentic and "extraordinary"
- evidence enough to put Padre Pio on the path to sainthood.
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