Devotion to Padre Pio: in a letter he told of his crucifixion

Spiritual heir of St. Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was the first priest to bear the signs of the crucifixion engraved on his body.
Already known to the world as the "stigmatized Friar", Padre Pio, to whom the Lord had given particular charisms, worked with all his strength for the salvation of souls. The many direct testimonies of the Friar's "holiness" come down to our days, accompanied by feelings of gratitude.
His providential intercessions with God were for many men the cause of healing in the body and the reason for rebirth in the Spirit.

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, aka Francesco Forgione, was born in Pietrelcina, a small town in the Benevento area, on May 25, 1887. He came into the world in the home of poor people where his father Grazio Forgione and his mother Maria padrepio2.jpg (5839 byte) Giuseppa Di Nunzio had already welcomed other children. From an early age Francis experienced within himself the desire to consecrate himself totally to God and this desire distinguished him from his peers. This "diversity" was the object of observation by his relatives and friends. Mama Peppa used to say - “she did not commit any lack, did not throw tantrums, she always obeyed me and her father, every morning and every evening she went to church to visit Jesus and the Madonna. During the day he never went out with his companions. Sometimes I would say to him: “Francì, go out and play for a while. He refused saying: “I don't want to go because they blaspheme”.
From the diary of Father Agostino da San Marco in Lamis, who was one of the spiritual directors of Padre Pio, it became known that Padre Pio, since he was only five years old, since 1892, was already living his first charismatic experiences. Ecstasies and apparitions were so frequent that the child considered them absolutely normal.

With the passage of time, what was the greatest dream for Francis: to totally consecrate life to the Lord. On January 6, 1903, at sixteen, he entered the Capuchin Order as a cleric and was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of Benevento, on August 10, 1910.
Thus began his priestly life which due to his precarious health conditions will take place at first in various convents in the Benevento area, where Fra Pio was sent by his superiors to encourage his recovery, then, starting from September 4, 1916, in the convent. of San Giovanni Rotondo, on the Gargano, where, barring a few brief interruptions, he remained until 23 September 1968, the day of his birth to heaven.

In this long period, when events of particular importance did not change the conventual quiet, Padre Pio started his day by waking up very early, long before dawn, starting with the prayer of preparation for Holy Mass. Subsequently he went down to the church for the celebration of the Eucharist which was followed by the long thanksgiving and prayer on the matroneum before Jesus the Sacrament, finally the very long confessions.

One of the events that profoundly marked the life of the Father was that which occurred on the morning of September 20, 1918, when, praying in front of the Crucifix of the choir of the old church, he received the gift of the stigmata, visible; which remained open, fresh and bleeding, for half a century.
This extraordinary phenomenon catalyzed, on Padre Pio, the attention of doctors, scholars, journalists but above all of the common people who, over many decades, went to San Giovanni Rotondo to meet the "Holy" friar.

In a letter to Father Benedetto dated 22 October 1918, Padre Pio himself tells of his "crucifixion":
"... what can you tell me about what you ask me about how my crucifixion took place? My God what confusion and humiliation I feel in having to manifest what You have done in this petty creature of yours! It was the morning of the 20th of last month (September) in chorus, after the celebration of the Holy Mass, when I was surprised by the rest, similar to a sweet sleep. All internal and external senses, not that the very faculties of the soul found themselves in indescribable stillness. In all this there was total silence around me and inside me; immediately there came a great peace and abandonment to the complete privation of the whole and a pose in the same ruin, all this happened in a flash. And while all this was going on; I saw myself before a mysterious personage; similar to that seen on the evening of August 5, which differentiated in this only that it had hands and feet and the side that dripped blood. His sight terrifies me; I couldn't tell you what I felt in that instant. I felt I was dying and I would have died if the Lord had not intervened to support my heart, which I could feel jumping from my chest. The sight of the character withdraws and I realized that my hands, feet and ribs were pierced and dripping blood. Imagine the agony that I experienced then and that I am continuously experiencing almost every day. The wound of the heart assiduously throws blood, especially from Thursday to evening until Saturday.
My father, I die of pain from the agony and the ensuing confusion that I feel in the depths of my soul. I am afraid of bleeding to death, if the Lord does not listen to the moans of my poor heart and withdrawing this operation from me ... "

For years, therefore, from all over the world, the faithful came to this stigmatized priest, to obtain his powerful intercession with God.
Fifty years lived in prayer, humility, suffering and sacrifice, where to implement his love, Padre Pio carried out two initiatives in two directions: a vertical one towards God, with the establishment of the "Prayer Groups", the another horizontal towards the brothers, with the construction of a modern hospital: "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza".
In September 1968 thousands of devotees and spiritual sons of the Father gathered in conference in San Giovanni Rotondo to commemorate together the 50th anniversary of the stigmata and to celebrate the fourth international conference of the Prayer Groups.
No one would have imagined instead that at 2.30 on 23 September 1968 the earthly life of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina would end.