Statue Padre Pio - Sambuca di Sicilia

Pio of Pietrelcina (born Francesco Forgione; May 25, 1887 – September 23, 1968), commonly known as Padre Pio (Italian for 'Father Pius'), was an Italian Capuchin monk , priest, stigmatist and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, celebrated on September 23.

Pio joined the Capuchins at the age of fifteen and spent most of his religious life in the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. He was marked in 1918 by stigmata (referring to the wounds of Christ. The blood flowing from the stigmata reportedly smelled of perfume or flowers . In the following months, his reputation for holiness grew rapidly in the San Giovanni Rotondo region, causing hundreds believers came to the monastery who came to visit him every day.

Once made public, the wounds were studied by a number of doctors, some hired by the Vatican as part of an independent investigation. Some claimed the wounds were inexplicable and never appeared to have been infected. Although they seemed to be healing, they reappeared periodically. Alberto Caserta took X-rays of Pio's hands in 1954 and found no abnormalities in the bone structure. Some critics accused Pio of falsifying the stigmata , for example by using carbolic acid and veratrine, which he bought from the apothecary, to make the wounds. Pio claimed that the carbolic acid was used to sterilize syringes used for medical treatments and that, after being subjected to a prank involving mixing veratrine with snuff , causing uncontrollable sneezing after ingestion, he decided to consume his own amount of the substance to play the same joke on his fellow brothers.

There is a photo of Padre Pio showing the stigmata on August 19, 1919.

Despite temporary sanctions from the Vatican, his reputation continued to grow during his lifetime, bringing many followers to San Giovanni Rotondo. He was the founder of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, a hospital built near the Monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo.

Willem Vandenameele