Posted on 04/25/2023 2:05:09 PM PDT by Antoninus
Like Jeanne d’Arc or Francesco di Bernardone, Francesco Forgione was one of those unique individuals gifted by God to the human race to assure us of His love, His understanding, and above all else, that He is not deaf to our sufferings and entreaties. But unlike these other great visionary saints, Forgione was not a streak of light which flashed across the firmament and returned quickly to heaven. Saint Joan’s mission lasted about two years before she was martyred at age 19.
Saint Francis of Assisi was 45 when he passed to eternity, roughly 20 years elapsing between his call and his death.
Click here for more info. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, on the other hand, spent almost the entirety of his long life as a suffering servant of Jesus Christ. Afflicted with ill-health, physical infirmities, the Stigmata, and demonic attacks which left him battered and bruised, Padre Pio was also subjected to slanderous assaults on his character, all over a period of nearly seven decades. Yet during that time, he was able to touch the lives of thousands upon thousands of people, uniting his suffering to that of Christ and translating it into God's grace to heal sinners from all over the world. And his reach was truly immense. At his shrine at San Giovanni Rotondo, there is a wall of shelves filled with thousands of letters received by Padre Pio—in a single year. Nearly as many people recall unforgettable personal encounters with the gruff Capuchin saint of San Giovanni Rotondo, either in the flesh, or in the spirit. It is said that he heard about five million confessions over the course of his priesthood. And there are numerous miracle stories. One such story that I heard in person is that of Philadelphia native Frank Tenaglia (1965-2019) who credited Padre Pio with healing him of a grave childhood illness—a miracle which allowed him to praise God with his amazing voice for many years.
Though there are myriad books about Padre Pio's extraordinary life, very few of these are accessible to younger readers. This has now changed with the release of Wounds of Love: The Story of Saint Padre Pio by Phillip Campbell. I have been waiting for a book like this for years. It’s no easy task to condense the long and eventful life of someone like Padre Pio into the historical fiction format which appeals to young readers, but Phillip Campbell has done a masterful job. His focus on the early life of St. Pio is pitch-perfect. While most readers think of Padre Pio as a rather grumpy elderly man, Campbell’s presentation spends more time introducing readers to the young Francesco Forgione growing in grace and holiness in the bosom of a loving family.
Wounds of Love includes some of the most famous anecdotes associated with Padre Pio, including the well-known incident reported by General Nathan F. Twining of a Capuchin monk appearing in the sky to thwart Allied bombing runs on San Giovanni Rotondo during World War II. Campbell also relates a few more obscure ones, including one that I had never heard before, despite having read several books on Padre Pio in the past. In Chapter 12, the novel delves into the slanders aimed at Padre Pio by those within the Church in the early 1960s. In an effort to gather evidence against him, someone apparently wiretapped his confessional. Originally, I thought that this outrageous story belonged more to the “fiction” than to the “historical” side of the narrative. But upon further research, I discovered that this inconceivably awful tale was true—and that Padre Pio actually did discover the microphone himself and cut out the wire with a penknife!
In sum, Wounds of Love is a fantastic book and I heartily recommend it to readers of all ages. If you need additional proof of how the story draws you in, I gave it to my 17-year old son to read and he polished it off in about a week. What's more, he immediately moved on to a more in-depth biography of Padre Pio that we have on our bookshelves.
Mission accomplished, Mr. Campbell!
Catholic ping!
Ping
Sounds like he was a fakir?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/padre-pio-faked-his-stigmata-with-acid-397811.html
Sounds like his claims were suspect by his contemporaries
There is zero chance he used acid on his hands every day for 50 years. ZERO CHANCE.
The doctor that examined him on his death bed was surprised to see that his wounds healed AFTER he died with no trace of scars.
“Sounds like his claims were suspect by his contemporaries”
Didn’t Jesus’ contemporaries suspect his claims as being false?
So what else is new for the holy?
—> There is zero chance he used acid on his hands every day for 50 years. ZERO CHANCE.
ZERO CHANCE this is more than your opinion.
—> Didn’t Jesus’ contemporaries suspect his claims as being false?
Pio wasn’t Christ.
—> Envy can make people do terrible things.
You assume envy means he didn’t take it.
“ZERO CHANCE this is more than your opinion.”
Fact is no human being can put acid on their hands for 50 years and not get caught while being watched for years at a time and not get sick, infected, or leave any traces and have the wounds heal AFTER he died.
“Pio wasn’t Christ.”
But he was holy and I said, “So what else is new for the holy?”
Look, you can keep flailing uselessly, but what’s the point?
Always liked his famous statement:
My past, oh Lord to your mercy
my present to your love
my future to your providence.
No guarantee the doctor was not corrupt. Or the medical report altered. Etc.
But he was holy
Maybe. Maybe not.
“No guarantee the doctor was not corrupt. Or the medical report altered. Etc.”
The medical report was not altered. The doctor affirmed it. Also, he was not the only witness. There were many who saw his hands after his death. So now you have to claim that dozens of people conspired together, and faked records, and photographs, and eye witness reports, etc.
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
No, he clearly was.
When you can explain how Gemma di Giorgio sees without pupils come back to us.
—> The medical report was not altered. The doctor affirmed it. Also, he was not the only witness. There were many who saw his hands after his death. So now you have to claim that dozens of people conspired together,
Worked for the Mormons!
Holy he was.
Believe, AMPV.
“Worked for the Mormons!”
Really? Name a metallurgist who examined the gold tablets that Joseph Smith claimed to find.
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