Padre Pio Wrestled with Devil, Predicted Future

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 6/16/02 | Philip Pullella

[BunnySlippers]

Padre Pio Wrestled with Devil, Predicted Future

Sun Jun 16, 8:40 AM ET

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Padre Pio, the 20th century Italian mystic monk and miracle worker who for 50 years is said to have had the stigmata -- the bleeding wounds of Christ -- had for many people always been a saint.

Pope John Paul ( news - web sites) formally declared his sainthood on Sunday at a solemn ceremony attended by hundreds of thousands in a sweltering St. Peter's Square and watched on screen by millions in Italy and around the world.

For many, this was simply the Church rubber-stamping a status they had always believed in.

Padre Pio's fame centers on the stigmata, which he had for 50 years from 1918 until his death in 1968 at the age of 81.

Padre Pio had wounds in the hands, feet and side that corresponded with the wounds Christ suffered in the crucifixion. He used brown fingerless gloves to absorb the blood and cover the wounds except when he said mass.

Doctors were at a loss to explain the wounds, which never produced gangrene or infection.

When they examined him they were able to feel their fingers pressing in from either side. When he held up the host at mass, the faithful were able to see light coming through the wounds.

When he was first investigated by a Vatican ( news - web sites) inquisitor in 1927, a report suspected that he inflicted the wounds on himself with nitric acid. But devotees said it was ridiculous to think he could have done this for 50 years.

Friars who lived with him like to tell the story of a man who told Padre Pio of a doctor who believed that the monk had willed the wounds on himself by always contemplating a crucifix.

Padre Pio told the man: "Tell your doctor friend to go stare at a cow and see if horns grow on his head."

According to confreres, Pio lost a cup of blood a day from the stigmata, ate one Spartan meal a day and slept three hours each night. Yet he was not anemic and did not lose weight.

The stigmata started fading toward the end of his life and disappeared when he died.

WRESTLING WITH THE DEVIL

Padre Pio is said to have had a stern look in his eyes that could scare even the devil and, some say, it sometimes did.

Padre Pio had no sympathy for the devil and the devil certainly had none for him. His biographers say he wrestled with the devil, literally, and one of the many books written about him is called "The Devil in the Life of Padre Pio."

According to monks who lived with him, the last big demonic tussle was in July, 1964, when, at 10 o'clock at night the friars heard him calling out from his cell.

They found him on the floor, his forehead slit open. He told a priest later "the devil tried to scratch out my eyes."

The next day, the devil is said to have spoken through a possessed person, saying "I went to visit somebody. I took revenge."

Many people said Padre Pio was able to predict events in their lives or knew what they were about to confess.

He was also said to be seen in two places at the same time -- a mystic ability the Church calls "bi-location"

The Vatican investigated and rehabilitated him twice and cleared him of charges of sexual misconduct and fraud. In the 1930s he was ordered not to say mass in public or hear confessions.

The ban was lifted after three years. A new investigation began in 1960 but he was cleared and rehabilitated in 1965.

PILGRIM BOOM TOWN

The bearded, brown-robed Padre Pio spent nearly all his life in a simple monastery in the hilltop town of San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy's rugged southern Puglia region.

When he arrived in 1918, it was a dusty dot of a village of peasants connected to the outside world by a mule path.

Today, it is the Lourdes of southern Italy, a pilgrim boom town of some 27,000 residents and 7.5 million visitors a year. Its economy revolves around souvenir shops, hotels and the huge hospital which Padre Pio built.

He is credited with performing two miracles after his death for people who prayed to him.

Before his beatification -- the penultimate step before sainthood -- he was credited with the medically inexplicable healing of an Italian woman who had a lung disease.

The second miracle was the curing of an 11-year-old Italian boy who had meningitis and whose mother prayed to Padre Pio while her son was in a coma.

[BunnySlippers]

[BunnySlippers]

Roman Catholic nuns watch the canonization ceremony of Italian mystic monk Padre Pio, from their window, at the Vatican Sunday, June 16, 2002. Some 300,000 people, according to a police estimate, crowded the area around the Vatican when Pope John Paul II declared Padre Pio a saint. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Colored balloons are released Sunday, June 16, 2002 over a crowd of pilgrims gathered outside the San Giovanni Rotondo Basilica, near Foggia, southern Italy, where Italian mystic monk Padre Pio died in 1968. Pope John Paul II elevated Padre Pio to sainthood Sunday, during a solemn open-air ceremony at the Vatican Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincenzo Maizzi)

[parsifal]

But how did this guy meet Hillary? The article doesn't tell us. parsy.

[BunnySlippers]

Huh? Hillary met Padre Pio?

[parsifal]

How did Hillary get into the Italian monastery in 1964? She was still a kid. parsy.

[Billy_bob_bob]

That is one big honkin' picture of the good Padre. How big is that thing? It looks like its about a hundred feet tall. Wow!

[APBaer]

"How did Hillary get into the Italian monastery in 1964? She was still a kid. parsy."

Probably, she was the Devil's corner man.

[BunnySlippers]

That is one big honkin' picture of the good Padre. How big is that thing? It looks like its about a hundred feet tall. Wow!

Yeah, it's huge. The Italians really know how to throw a party.

[BunnySlippers]

Are you saying she has claimed to have met Padre Pio? I have not heard that. It's not impossible but given the fact that she's not even Catholic ...

[jwfiv]

I think what's being said is that Hillary is the same Devil the good Padre wrestled wtih way back when.

Maybe the bad bitch was bilocating.

Thank you for the post, sure makes me wonder.

[jwfiv]

Mystical food for mystical thought.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Thanks for the post! It's the next best thing to being there!;-) Love the pictures.

My Nonna went to one of Padre Pio's Masses before he died. She took a picture and it was put in a very safe place. We're still looking for it..................

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

parsy, we'll ask Padre Pio to prevent Hillary from becoming President as his next miracle ;-)

[Orbiter]

I don't get how stigmata appears in the center of the palm, since crucifiction, necessarily, involved piercing the wrist. I musta missed something.

[BunnySlippers]

I don't get how stigmata appears in the center of the palm, since crucifiction, necessarily, involved piercing the wrist. I musta missed something.

Where Christ was nailed to the cross.

[Cicero]

I'd recommend "Padre Pio: The True Story" by Bernard C. Ruffin, which can be found at Amazon and elsewhere in paperback. It's a careful, factual history, well-written, but in the end amazing, because Padre Pio was such an amazing man.

[BunnySlippers]

It must have been a VERY safe place. ;-)

A child touching the hand of Padre Pio's statue and a stamp commemorating today's event.

[Orbiter]

Oh, well, then. That clears it up.

[parsifal]

Its your post. You said the guy wrestled with the Devil. I was just curious how she got over there to wrestle with him. I guess he won the match, but that figures, her being a girl and all. parsy.

[BunnySlippers]

I'd recommend "Padre Pio: The True Story" by Bernard C. Ruffin

Thanks for the recommendation. Since you say it is good, I went to my library website (lapl.org) and ordered it. I should have it in a couple of days. :)

[Cicero]

I've read the "scientific" theories you may be thinking of, which say that the nails must have been through the wrists not the palms to support Christ's weight on the cross, but that is really speculative. How many times have scientists said, "It must have been this way, or that way" -- and then they were proved wrong? We don't really know for sure how crucifixions were performed generally, let alone in that particular instance.

[mdwakeup]

Orbiter's right, Bun. If Padre Pio had the wounds of Christ, he had them in the wrong place!

[BunnySlippers]

Orbiter's right, Bun. If Padre Pio had the wounds of Christ, he had them in the wrong place!

Stigmatas appear on the hands, the feet and the side where Christ was pierced. Take it up with the Pope.

[Codie]

The Shroud of Turin has the wounds in the wrists.

[fatima]

Thanks BunnySlippers for the story and the beautiful pictures.It does a soul good.

[livius]

Thanks for the pix! I was listening to Cadena Cope, a radio station in Spain (owned by the local bishops' council, I believe) where they had a great discussion of this. It was a round-table and I tuned in after they had introduced the participants, unfortunately, so I don't know their names. But in any case,one of them was discussing the role of touch and physical existence in the Church, and he said that "saints are a way of touching God." A great way of expressing it!.

Another participant said that renewal is going to come to the Church, groaning under all of its problems right now, through this "choice for God" that the saints make.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Also, I have read accounts that the nails went through both the hands and the wrists. In other words, there was a specific technique used to anchor the upper limbs as simply putting a nail through just one place might not provide enough support.

The bottom line here is that no one knows the specific method used during crucifixions. Certain individuals on this thread are attempting to insinuate an evil connotation to stigmata where none exists. That stinks.

For the record:

A week later, the disciples were once more in the room, and this time Thomas was with them. Despite the locked doors, Jesus came and stood before them. "Peace be with you," he said; then, to Thomas: "Take your finger and examine my hands. Put your hand into my side. Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe!" (John 20:26-27)

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Please see post #28.

[B Knotts]

I actually saw a story on some show (on TLC or Discovery channel, I think) an experiment that was carried out on this matter. They showed that presuming there was a block for His feet, the nails could very well have been through Jesus' hands; the amount of support at those points needed would be relatively minimal.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

SAINT PADRE PIO

[Codie]

Certain individuals on this thread are attempting to insinuate an evil connotation to stigmata where none exists. That stinks.

Are you refering to me?

[537 Votes]

In 1964, Hillary was a Goldwater Republican. Her demonic possession did not come until later, after she met Darth Bubba.

[RightOnline]

"he was credited with the medically inexplicable healing of an Italian woman who had a lung disease.

The second miracle was the curing of an 11-year-old Italian boy who had meningitis and whose mother prayed to Padre Pio while her son was in a coma."

The Good Padre.........now Saint Pio...........would be the first to correct this. He didn't heal anybody, GOD healed these people. Not in any way attempting to diminish the man (sounds like a wonderful guy......to put it mildly), but such things are so commonplace as not to be believed. You NEVER hear of them in the media and probably never will.

I've been in Evangelical Christian churches for years and years, and I can personally attest to dozens upon dozens of healings in this "league" and beyond. All manners of very advanced-stage cancers.........crippling injuries..........life-long maladies.........you name it, all completely cured. I've seen this first hand countless times. I'm not only talking about curing, but total and complete restoration.

Such is the power of fervent prayer.........and such is the generosity, compassion, and power of God.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

SAINT PADRE PIO

[Fred Mertz]

FYI

[nemecll]

I watched a small part of the canonization ceremony and was wondering how many saints would be invoked to pray for us. The requests were presented by, I guess, a countertenor, a relatively high pitched saintly voice. It was wonderful to return to Middle Ages courtesy of the ETWN, for a few brief moments. Certainly better than to watch Muslims getting ready for Jihad (jihad, according to Harvard, is just a personal fullfilment). Nostalgia over centuries. Our roots? Perhaps. Relevance? Missing, I am afraid.

[humblegunner]

Dang, all that self-mutilation to no avail.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Related Thread

[NormsRevenge]

bilocating :-?

didn't they fry witches for that ? Lets give Hitlary the dunk test... just to be shur

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Do you have a theologian degree? Or perhaps you were at the foot of the cross?

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Not even slightly nor remotely funny do I find your words.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

No they want answers NOW or until they cause a flame war, whichever first.

They should write the Pope if they are this interested, you are right.

[livius]

jihad, according to Harvard, is just a personal fullfilment

LOL! Great way of describing the PC take on the Islamist death campaign!

[Salvation]

Thanks, BunnySlippers for posting this. Catholic bump.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I pinged you for some points in my post in reference to your post. Were you insinuating anything? It wasn't clear. If you were not, I apologize.

[ELS]

She took a picture and it was put in a very safe place. We're still looking for it..................

Don't you hate it when that happens? ;-)

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Yes! I do! I've seen the picture before but it was several years ago. My mother was the culprit here;-) She cannot remember where she put it and we've looked everywhere.

[Siobhan]

bump for the pictures.

[Lady In Blue]

Padre Pio told the man: "Tell your doctor friend to go stare at a cow and see if horns grow on his head."

hehehe! Thanks for a very interesting article! I wish they had reported that Padre Pio also foretold that our present Holy Father would one day be Pope.