St. Pio of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio, was a twentieth-century Capuchin friar, priest, and mystic who bore the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ, for fifty years. As Catholics, we pray the novena to St. Pio to seek his intercession for healing of body and soul, trusting in God’s mercy and in the spiritual fruit of suffering united to Christ.
Begin PrayingMore about St. Pio of Pietrelcina
Born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy, he served as an altar boy at his local parish and consecrated himself to Jesus at the age of five. By ten, his family was already exploring how he could become a Capuchin friar. At fifteen, shortly before his sixteenth birthday, he entered the Capuchin novitiate at Morcone and received the habit and the name Brother Pio. He made his solemn profession at nineteen and was ordained a priest at twenty-three on August 10, 1910. After several years of poor health, he was sent to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo in September 1916 and remained there until his death, more than fifty years later. His ministry centered on the Eucharist, sacramental confession, and spiritual direction. Despite his fame, he described himself as "a poor friar who prays."
While praying before a crucifix on September 20, 1918, St. Pio received the visible stigmata, which remained for fifty years. He is often described as the first priest in the history of the Church to bear the visible stigmata. He did not seek them. He received them within an intense life of prayer and understood his suffering as participation in the Passion of Christ and service to souls. Testimonies associated with his life report extraordinary phenomena, including bilocation and levitation, while many people attributed physical and spiritual healings to his intercession. Beginning in 1940, he promoted the prayer groups that continue his spiritual mission throughout the world. In 1956, he opened the House for the Relief of Suffering, a hospital conceived as a work of mercy for the sick. St. Pio died on September 23, 1968, at the age of eighty-one. During the examination of his body after his death, the wounds were found to have disappeared without leaving scars. The novena is traditionally prayed from September 14 through September 22 in preparation for his feast on September 23.
