Thursday, September 24, 2020
52 YEARS AGO, PADRE PIO DIED
Padre Pio was born into a simple, humble and religious family of farmers, on May 25, 1887, in a small village in southern Italy called Pietrelcina.
At the age of 15 he entered the Novitiate of the Capuchin Friars Minor, in the town of Morcone. He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1910, in the Cathedral of Benevento. Eight years later, on September 20, 1918, Our Lord's wounds visibly appeared on his hands, feet, and left side of his chest, making Padre Pio the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Church.
He was heroic in his priestly apostolate, which lasted 58 years. Large crowds, of all nationalities, passed through his confessional. The conversions were innumerable.
Through his letters to his confessor, unsuspected and tremendous spiritual and physical sufferings are discovered, followed by ineffable happiness, the fruit of his intimate and continuous union with God and of his ardent love for the Eucharist and for the Blessed Virgin.
The Lord called him on September 23, 1968. Padre Pio was buried in the crypt of the Shrine of Our Lady of Graces, in San Giovanni Rotondo, a place where an ever-increasing number of pilgrims from all over the world wish to go every year.
Padre Pio, pray for us.