This was Padre Pio's hidden and most painful wound

Padre Pio he is one of the few saints who have been marked on the body by the wounds of Christ's passion, the stigmata. In addition to the wounds of the nails and spears, Padre Pio was given to carry on his shoulder the wound suffered by our Lord, the one caused by carrying the Cross, which we know because Jesus revealed it to St. Bernard.

The wound that Padre Pio had was discovered by a friend of his and a brother, Father Modestino of Pietrelcina. This monk was originally from Pius' native land and helped him with housework. One day the future saint told his brother that changing his undershirt was one of the most painful things he had to endure.

Father Modestino did not understand why this was so but he thought that Pio was thinking of the pain people feel when they take off their clothes. He realized the truth only after Padre Pio's death when he organized his brother's priestly clothing.

Father Modestino's task was to collect all the legacy of Padre Pio and seal it. On his undershirt he found a huge stain that had formed on his right shoulder, near the shoulder blade. The stain was about 10 centimeters (something similar to the stain on the Turin Canvas). It was then that he realized that for Padre Pio, taking off his undershirt meant tearing his clothes from an open wound, which caused him unbearable pain.

“I immediately informed the father superior about what I had found”, recalled Father Modestino. He added: "Father Pellegrino Funicelli, who also helped Padre Pio for many years, told me that many times when he helped Father change his cotton undershirts, he saw - sometimes on his right shoulder and sometimes on his left shoulder - circular hematomas ”.

Padre Pio did not tell his wound to anyone except the future Pope John Paul II. If so, there must have been a good reason.

the historian Francesco Castello he wrote of the meeting of Padre Pio and Padre Wojtyla in San Giovanni Rotondo in April 1948. Then Padre Pio told the future pope of his "most painful wound".

Father Modestino later reported that Padre Pio, after his death, gave his brother a special vision of his wound.

“One night before going to bed, I called him in my prayer: Dear Father, if you really had that wound, give me a sign, and then I fell asleep. But at 1:05 am, from a restful sleep, I was awakened by a sudden sharp pain in my shoulder. It was as if someone had taken a knife and skinned my flesh with a spatula. If that pain had lasted a few more minutes, I think I would have died. In the midst of all this, I heard a voice saying to me: 'So I suffered'. An intense perfume surrounded me and filled my room ”.

“I felt my heart flooded with love for God. This made a strange impression on me: taking away the unbearable pain seemed even more difficult than bearing it. The body opposed it, but the soul, inexplicably, wanted it. It was, at the same time, very painful and very sweet. I finally understood! ”.