The perfumes of Padre Pio: what cause of this perfume?

Perfume emanated from the person of Padre Pio. They had to be - to accept the explanation of science - of the emanations of organic particles which, starting from his physical person and physically hitting the olfactory mucosa of the neighbors, produced the specific effect of the perfume. It was found directly on the person, on the things he touched, in the used clothing, in the places through which he passed.

The inexplicable is that one could perceive the perfume, that perfume of his own, even from a distance, just thinking about it, talking about him. Not everyone felt it. It was felt not in continuity, but intermittently, as in flashes. It was felt from the day of the stigmatization until death. Many claim to have felt it several times after his death. We limit ourselves to the span of Padre Pio's life. Aside from the hundreds of members who have personal experiences to report, we report some testimonies worthy of faith.

Lucia Fiorentino in autobiographical notes writes, referring to 1919: "One day I smelled a perfume that lifted me so much: I looked around if there were flowers, but I found neither these, nor people who could be perfumed, and then turning to Jesus, I felt in my interior these words: It is the spirit of your director that never abandons you. Be faithful to God and to him. So I felt comfort in my sadness ».

Doctor Luigi Romanelli noticed a certain smell, having climbed for the first time to S. Giovanni Rotondo in May 1919. He was, if not shocked, certainly surprised. In fact, to a neighboring friar - it was Father Paolo da Valenzano - he commented that it did not seem to him "great good thing that a friar, and then held in that concept, would use perfumes". Romanelli assures that for another two days of stay in S. Giovanni Rotondo he no longer noticed any odor, even when he was in the company of the Father. Before leaving, "properly in the afternoon", climbing the stairs, he smelled the smell of the first day, for "a few moments". The doctor reports not only that he noticed that "a certain smell came from his body", but even that he "tasted" it. Romanelli dismisses the explanation of suggestion: he had never heard of perfume and, then, he noticed it not continuously - as his suggestion would have claimed - but in time. For Romanelli, therefore, it remains a phenomenon that he cannot explain.

Father Rosario da Aliminusa who, for three years - from September 1960 to January 1964 - was superior of the Capuchin convent in S. Giovanni Rotondo, then superior of Padre Pio himself, writes from direct experience: "I heard it every day for about three continuous months, in the early days of my arrival in S. Giovanni Rotondo, at the hour of vespers. Coming out of my cell, adjacent to that of Padre Pio, I felt a pleasant and strong smell coming from it, the characteristics of which I cannot specify. Once, the first time, after hearing a very strong and delicate perfume in the old sacristy, which emanated from the chair used by Padre Pio for the confession of men, passing in front of Padre Pio's cell I felt a strong smell of carbolic acid. At other times the perfume, light and delicate, emanated from his hands ».

In contrast to any natural law, it is the blood of Padre Pio's stigmata that gives off perfume. Scientists know that blood is the most rapidly decaying organic tissue. Even the blood, which taps from a living organism for any excision, does not offer attractive emanations.

Despite all this, Father Pietro da Ischitella declares what he notes: "The blood that flows from these wounds, which no therapeutic remedy, no hemostatic can heal, is pure and fragrant".

The doctors were particularly interested in this singular fact. Doctor Giorgio Festa, as witness, gives his answer. "It seems that this perfume - he writes - more than from the person of Padre Pio in general, emanates from the blood that drips from his wounds". "The blood, which drips from the wounds that Padre Pio presents on his person, has a fine and delicate scent that many of those who approach him have the opportunity to distinctly perceive". He describes it as a «pleasant perfume, almost a mixture of violet and roses», a «subtle and delicate» perfume.

Even the diapers, soaked in the blood of the stigmata, emanate perfume. Doctor Giorgio Festa had the experience, he who was "completely devoid of the sense of smell". He himself describes it: «On my first visit I took a blood-soaked diaper from his side, which I took with me for a microscopic investigation. Personally, for the reason already mentioned, I did not perceive any special emanation in it: however a distinguished officer and other people who, on their return from San Giovanni, were in the car with me, even though I did not know that closed in a case I brought with me that diaper, despite the intense ventilation caused by the rapid run of the vehicle, they smelled its fragrance very well, and they assured me that it responded precisely to the perfume emanating from the person of Padre Pio.

When I arrived in Rome, in the following days and for a long period of time, the same diaper, kept in a piece of furniture in my studio, perfumed the environment so well that many of the people who came to consult me ​​spontaneously asked me about it. 'origin".

The cause of this perfume?

There were those who said that Padre Pio used face powder or scented water. Unfortunately the news comes from an authoritative person, the archbishop of Manfredonia Msgr. Pasquale Gagliardi, who even goes so far as to say that he "saw" with his own eyes "Padre Pio powdered himself in his room" on the occasion of his visit to the convent of S. Giovanni Rotondo. This rumor is denied by several texts, present at the visits of the archbishop. They document that Archbishop Gagliardi never entered or saw the stigmatized Father in his room.

Doctor Giorgio Festa assures: "Padre Pio does not make, nor has he ever used any kind of perfume." The Capuchins who lived with Padre Pio endorse the Feast's insurance.

Even less should those blood-soaked diapers, which the Father sometimes kept long enough, be sources of perfume. Everyday experience shows everyone that tissues soaked in human blood become a source of repulsion.

The Father made use of iodine and concentrated solutions of carbolic acid for the explanation. The emanations from these pharmaceutical medicaments are by no means perceived by the sense of smell as pleasant scent sensations; on the contrary, they cause a disgusting and repulsive impression.

Furthermore, Festa assures that the blood, which was dripping from the wounds, continued to be perfumed, although "for very long years" the Father no longer made use of similar medicines, used exclusively because they were believed to be haemostatic.

To Professor Bignami, who indicated the hydrogen iodide emanating from poorly preserved iodine tinctures as a possible cause of the perfume, Dr. Festa replied that it was "extremely rare" of the development of hydrogen iodide from the use of iodine tincture and that , after all, an irritant and caustic substance - such as iodine tincture and carbolic acid - is never a source of perfume. Indeed - and it is a well-established physical law - such a substance, when placed in contact with a perfume, destroys it.

It remains to be explained how the perfume of Padre Pio is perceived at a great distance from any possible source.

It was said and written that Padre Pio perfumes "made them feel as his advice and also as his protection". They can be signs of grace, bearers of comfort, proof of his spiritual presence. The bishop of Monopoli, Msgr. Antonio D'Erchia, writes: "In many cases I was told about the phenomenon of" perfume "emanating even only from the image of Padre Pio and almost always premonitory of happy events or favors or as a reward for generous efforts to practice acts of virtue" . Padre Pio himself declared the perfume as an invitation to go to him, when he answered a spiritual son of his, who confessed he hadn't smelled his perfume for a long time: - You're here with me and you don't need it. Someone attributes to the quality of perfume a diversity of invitations and references.

All this aside, we only note the reality of the perfume, emanating from Padre Pio. It is a phenomenon contrary to any natural or scientific law and which remains inexplicable by human logic. It remains an extraordinary mystical phenomenon. Here too mystery, the mystery of perfumes, which "add to the apostolic arsenal of Padre Pio, to the supernatural gifts that God grants him to help, attract, console or warn the souls entrusted to him".