Religion: The Stigmatist

When he was a child, Francis Forgione was noted among the villagers of Pietrelcina, Italy for his piety. No one was surprised when he became a Capuchin monk and in due time was ordained a priest under the name Padre Pio—Father Pius. He developed tuberculosis, but continued his priestly duties, though he sometimes fell into ecstatic trances while saying Mass. During one trance, in 1918, Padre Pio collapsed and had to be carried unconscious from the church. Those who examined him found bleeding wounds in his hands and feet and a wound in his side “such as produced by a sharp weapon.” Padre Pio had the stigmata—the marks of Christ.

Old Story. To the Roman Catholic Church this was an old story. St. Francis of Assisi was the first known Stigmatist,* and there have been many subsequent cases (Dr. A. Imbert-Gourbeyre in his La Stigmatisation, 1894, collected the records of 321). Modern physicians have examined enough of them, e.g., famed Bavarian peasant woman Theresa Neumann, now 51, to recognize the phenomenon as real, though they do not agree on an entirely satisfactory medical explanation. Padre Pio’s wounds bleed constantly, the wound in his side saturating three to four handkerchiefs each day. The church, which does not hold that stigmata are necessarily caused by supernatural means, at first treated Padre Pio with cautious skepticism.

While looking into the phenomenon, the Vatican forbade him to hear confessions or officiate at any public occasion. Only after two years of painstaking investigation by doctors and others, did the church finally lift the ban on the grounds of: 1) “the undoubted presence” of the stigmata; 2) Padre Pio’s holy way of life from childhood; 3) proof that “miracles have happened in the presence of Padre Pio.”

At the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, near Foggia in southeast Italy, 62-year-old Padre Pio now rises at 2 each morning, prays for three hours and begins Mass at 5:30. Though Mass is normally a matter of some 30 minutes, he may take an hour and a half to say it because he often groans, weeps or passes into a state of ecstasy. After Mass he begins hearing confessions of the streams of men & women who wait through the night at the church door in all kinds of weather. Confessions are finished at 1 in the afternoon; then the bearded Capuchin sits down to his single meal of the day: a bunch of herbs and a few small pieces of bread.

New Beds. From all over Christendom pilgrims visit him (some 80,000 are expected during the coming Holy Year), and the church values Padre Pio for his potent influence on the faithful. His mail is voluminous; five of his brother monks are busy from morning to night answering letters addressed to him from all over the world.

Padre Pio had long dreamed of having a hospital nearby to help take care of the sick who come to see him. Last week, he suspended his special Advent devotions to watch his dream take form. In the presence of an official committee, which included EGA Deputy Chief M. Leon Dayton, a sunburned Italian bricklayer placed the last tile on the roof of the Fiorello LaGuardia Hospital, which is being built next door to the monastery. Named for New York City’s late mayor, the new hospital is expected to be opened next spring with eventual accommodations for 500 beds. It will serve not only the entire district of Gargano, but also the many ailing pilgrims who come to visit Padre Pio.

To pay for the hospital’s building, contributions were sent from many countries; the biggest share, $400,600, was from the U.S., which was matched by another $400,600 from the people of Italy.

*But the words of St. Paul (Galatians 6:17), “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” have led to some speculation that he may have carried the stigmata (Latin for marks).