SAINT PIO OF PIETRELCINA

‘PADRE PIO’

One of the many memorable things that Blessed Pope John Paul

II did for the Church during his long pontificate was to give us a

large number of inspiring new saints. That needs qualifying. God

gives the grace which enables someone to achieve heroic

sanctity. In that sense it is God and He alone Who makes saints.

But it is the Catholic Church who, after investigating and

recognizing a miracle, then officially confirms that a particular

soul has indeed attained the glory of heaven, and is therefore

worthy to be raised to the honours of the altar. Of course there

are many more saints in heaven than those who have been

officially catalogued by the Church. Those that the Church has

added to her official lists are only the ones that we know about.

There must be many more saints in heaven that we do not yet

know about, whose lives have never been published and whose

names are known only to God.

We all have our favourites among the canonized saints. Heroic

sanctity manifests itself under many aspects and it is

understandable that on the human level our personal devotion

should incline more to some saints than to others. One saint of

seemingly universal appeal is Padre Pio, St.Pio of Pietrelcina

(1887-1968) whose feast we keep on 23rd September. Here we

have someone whose sanctity now seems obvious to all. It was

not always so widely admitted.

During Padre Pio’s earthly life various allegations were made

against him which seriously questioned his probity. For a certain

period he was not allowed to hear confessions or celebrate Mass

in public. In addition to considerable malice directed against him

from within the Church, serious doubts were also raised about

the authenticity of his mystical experiences, in particular as to

whether his stigmata were indeed supernatural in origin. In these

matters (as with alleged apparitions and alleged private

revelations) the Church understandably tends to err on the side

of caution. Even so, with hindsight it does seem clear that there

were periods when Padre Pio was treated unjustly, the victim of

calumny and persecution. Public vindication came when he was

beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002. Innumerable miracles

and favours have been attributed to his intercession. Some saints

are like that. St.Philip Neri (1515-1595), the founder of the

Congregation of the Oratory, was also renowned as a similar sort

of 'wonder-worker' even during his lifetime. You really have to

be careful when you pray for something to saints like them,

because you're quite likely to get it, and more besides. You may

well get rather more than you prayed for, or bargained for.

The fascinating story of Padre Pio's life is well documented.

Here is just one detail, taken from his many letters to his

religious superiors and spiritual director. On 8th September 1911

the Fr.Pio wrote as follows:

"I have lots of things to tell you but find no words to express

myself. I can only say that when I am close to Jesus in the

Blessed Sacrament my heart throbs so violently that it seems to

me at times that it must burst out of my chest. Sometimes at the

altar my whole body burns in an indescribable manner. My face

in particular seems to go on fire. I have no idea, dear Father,

what these signs mean."

On 1st May 1912, Fr.Pio wrote again:

"I felt a mysterious fire in my heart which I could not

understand. I felt the need to put ice on it, to quench this fire

which was consuming me."

Such details are very reminiscent of similar phenomena that

frequently occurred in the life of St.Philip Neri.

Many saints have been described as being 'on fire' with the love

of God. In the case of saints like Padre Pio and Philip Neri this

infused ardour seems to have had physiological as well as

spiritual effects. It is not right to gloss over such puzzling

details. They are puzzling because of our human ignorance of

the mysterious interaction between the natural, the

praeternatural, and the supernatural. The miracles that occur

during the lives of wonder-working saints remind us that God is

omnipotent and does intervene. The supernatural world is all

around us, and it often impinges on the natural order in ways that

are experientially unmistakable, even though such incursions

resist reductionist and simplistic explanations.

We can learn much about the truer nature of reality from the

saints, for whom the supernatural world was often just as easily

discernible as that which is frequently and glibly described as

‘the real world’ - that microscopically tiny segment of reality

which we perceive with our normal senses, and which we are so

easily and erroneously inclined to think of as comprising the

major part of God’s creation.

Devotion to the saints and the support of their intercession can

help us overcome temptations to cynicism and lukewarmness.

Such debilitating vices are powerfully conquered when the Holy

Spirit is poured into our hearts. Let us pray that the divine

Paraclete Who first quickened the Church at Pentecost will

inflame us with that self-same fire which so wonderfully entered

into the souls and minds and bodies of wonder-workers like

Padre Pio and Philip Neri and doubtless many others now in

heaven, even though their names have not yet been added (and

maybe never will be added) to the Church's official lists.

*******