What Padre Pio said to the future Pope John Paul II about the stigmata

20 September 1918, San Giovanni Rotondo. Father Pio, after celebrating Holy Mass, he goes to the choir benches for the usual Thanksgiving.

The Saint's words: “It all happened in a flash. While all this was happening, hor seen before me a mysterious Person, similar to the one I had seen on August 5th, different only because blood dripped from His hands, feet and flank. The sight of him frightened me: what I felt in that moment is indescribable. I thought I would die if the Lord hadn't intervened and strengthened my heart that was about to burst from my chest. Then that Person disappeared and I realized that my hands, my feet and my side were pierced and with blood ”.

That was the day when Padre Pio received his stigmata visible. There was no one around. Silence fell upon the brown-clad figure lying curled up on the floor. For the Saint, therefore, His long ordeal began.

Now, it's no secret that St. John Paul II, then Father Wojtyla, had relations with Padre Pio in Italy. There are even stories that tell that the Franciscan saint predicted that he would become Pope. The Pope, however, said that this never happened.

Before his death, Padre Pio shared the story of his wound and pain with Don Wojtyla. It happened after the second World War, when the Pole went to San Giovanni Rotondo. At that time the popularity of the Saint was not yet great and so the future Pope and the friar talked for a long time.

When Father Wojtyla asked Padre Pio which of his wounds caused him the most pain, the friar replied as follows: "It is the one in the shoulder, which no one knows and has never been cured". It turned out then, after a scrupulous analysis, that Padre Pio spoke of this wound only to Saint John Paul II.

Why did he do it? It is hypothesized that the friar confided in the young priest because he saw in him the burning fire of God ...