Padre Pio

Mortimer Carty Rev. Fr. Charles

Description

Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968, his funeral attended by over 100,000 people. During the fifty-eight years he was a priest, his monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, became a mecca for pilgrims from all over the world. Born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887 in the town of Pietrelcina in southeastern Italy, Padre Pio joined the Capuchin Order in 1903 and was ordained in 1910. On September 20, 1918 he received the sacred wounds of Christ, the stigmata, which he bore the rest of his life. Renowned for the stigmata, which modern medical science could not explain, Padre Pio also possessed other unusual qualities, such as bilocation, celestial perfume, reading of hearts, miraculous cures, remarkable conversions, and prophetic insight. Although he did not leave his monastery and was under obedience not to write or preach, this humble Capuchin monk became world famous for his piety, his counsel, and his miracles. He was universally regarded as a saint in his own time. Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio of Pietrelcina on Sunday, May 2, 1999 in St. Peter's Basilica Square before a throng of 650,000 devotees of this famed 20th-century stigmatist. His faithful followers now look forward with anticipation to his canonization."Remember that God is within us when we are in His grace, and outside of us when we are in sin." -Padre Pio

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• Catholic Church
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: TAN Books
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 1994
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9781618902634
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

PADRE PIO THE STIGMATIST
Rev. Charles Mortimer Carty
Imprimatur: ✤ John Gregory Murray Archbishop of St. Paul
Copyright © 1963 by Radio Replies Press, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Copyright © 1973 by TAN Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 88-51884
The 120 photographs used in this book are inserted with the permission of the copyright owner. For copies of pictures, address Signor Frederico Abresch, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy.
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina www.TANBooks.com 2010
Photo courtesy of Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
Padre Pio 1887-1968
“It would be easier for the earth to carry on without the sun than without the Holy Mass.”
—Padre Pio
Contents
Preface to the Tenth Edition
Introduction
Chapter I. His Life Chapter II. His Work Chapter III. His Perfume Odor Chapter IV. Bilocation Chapter V. Conversions Reported by Alberto del Fante Chapter VI. Miracles Chapter VII. Writing About Padre Pio Chapter VIII. Cures Chapter IX. Spiritual Maxims of Padre Pio Chapter X. Letters to His Spiritual Children Chapter XI. Medical Reports Chapter XII. Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza Addendum. Padre Pio’s Death and Funeral
Preface to the Tenth Edition
During the month of July, 1952, I had for the second time the opportunity and privilege of visiting Padre Pio and his brethren at the Capuchin Monastery of Madonna delle Grazie at San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy. Although I had heard very much about Padre Pio from my dogma professor, Monsignor Bonardi, at the Archbishop’s Seminary in Florence, Italy during my fourth year of theology in 1923, I never had the privilege of seeing Padre Pio celebrate Mass until my first visit to San Giovanni in April of 1950. It was then and there, after that Mass which spellbound Catholics and non-Catholics alike, that I made up my mind to publish the first English book on this first priest to be stigmatized. I wanted to ac quaint my fellow Americans with his existence and his extraordinary works and accomplishments in winning souls by the thousands back to God through his hours of labor in the confessional. As St. John Vianney is called the great confessor of France, so today Padre Pio is widely known throughout the world as the great confessor of Italy.
Before going to San Giovanni in 1952 I visited Fragneto l’Abate, where most of the Italian colony of St. Paul, Minnesota, came from. This town is but three miles away from the town of Pietrelcina, where Padre Pio was born in 1887. After preaching at both Sunday Masses to the people of Fragneto l’Abate, I went over to Pietrelcina to photograph the room in which Padre Pio was born, the church where he was baptized, the favorite nook where he studied and prayed near his birthplace, the people associated with him in childhood and the various and numerous individuals who confirmed many of the points brought out in this book. All these places and persons were pointed out to me by Michael Forgione, the only living brother of Padre Pio, and by Padre Alberto, the Father Guardian of the new Capuchin Monastery at Pietrelcina. I stood on the spot where Padre Pio as a young seminarian prophesied the future erection of a monastery. The details about this prophecy I obtained from the archives of the monastery and from the Father Guardian, Padre Alberto.
Pietrelcina, a little town in the province of Benevento, has a population of about 5,000 and is mighty proud of being the birthplace of the first stigmatized priest. The town, which is preeminently devoted to agriculture, is about six miles from Benevento by railroad. There are two churches in Pietrelcina. The mother or parish church was recently renovated and beautified through donations from the Italian immigrants of Pietrelcina who for the most part are now living in New York City and Jamaica, Long Island. There is also the little church of St. Ann where Padre Pio as a child, a cleric, and a young priest, passed many long hours of both day and night in prayer and meditation. When Padre Pio was still a seminarian he often passed long periods at Pietrelcina for reasons of health. He assiduously frequented the church and assisted devoutly at Mass and sacred devotions. Amongst the seminarians from the town he, the humble brother, was the most esteemed and beloved by the pastor, his own cousin Don Salvatore Pannullo, for his extraordinary kindness and humility. One evening, whilst the young seminarian was out for a walk with Archpriest Pannullo and with other seminarians along the road which forks one way to Benevento and the other to Pesco Sannita, he suddenly called the attention of everyone and exclaimed out loud, “What a beautiful odor of incense and what beautiful chanting of Friars. Some day there will arise a monastery on that spot,” indicating with his finger the exact spot where the monastery and the church would be built. It was a prophecy. Whilst his companions laughed it off, Arch priest Pannullo exclaimed: “If it is the desire of Heaven, it would be the greatest fortune for Pietrelcina.”
In 1922 the prophecy became a reality. Miss Mary McAlpin Pyle of New York, a former Presbyterian, became a Catholic as a result of watching Padre Pio say Mass. After her conversion, she lived in her villa within the shadows of the monastery where Padre Pio had lived after 1917. She was the beloved spiritual child of Padre Pio, to whom she confessed every Wednesday in the garb of a Franciscan Tertiary which she always wore. With the enthusiasm of the people, this great soul spent her entire fortune to bring about the fulfillment of that prophecy and the great heart’s desire of Padre Pio. She gave her heart and her capital to build that monastery and church to bring about the reality of the odor of incense and the chanting of friars.
His Eminence Cardinal Luigi Lavitrano blessed the first stone, and the monastery was finished in 1926. In 1928 the cornerstone of the church was laid with this inscription:
“The year of Our Lord 1928, the 24th of May, his Eminence Luigi Lavitrano most worthy Archbishop of Benevento placed this stone cut from the quarry of this countryside, the first of the Church dedicated to the Holy Family, to St. Francis of Assisi, by the faithful of Pietrelcina in the presence of the commission presided over by the Major Doctor Rodigo Crafa. Receive, O Lord, the petitions, the prayers and the acts of love of this Thy people, who today in the holiness of the liturgy consecrate it to the Divine Family, under the intercession of Thy Levite, Francis of Assisi.”
The work was suspended when only a few feet of the walls of the church were built. Work was resumed in 1949, and in two years the present artistic Romanesque church was finished to resound to the chanting and psalmody of the friars who now occupy that monastery, united with the choirs of Heaven.
English speaking visitors to Padre Pio could always be the recipients of Miss Mary Pyle’s gracious hospitality and her treasury of knowledge on Padre Pio events. Most of her time was spent as host to the American and English visitors, and in particular to the boys in the military services who flocked there by the hundreds. Miss Pyle, who spent all her capital on this monastery, accepted donations to complete the equipment of this church at Padre Pio’s birth place. Miss Pyle purchased for the Capuchins the one-room house in which Padre Pio was born, for a future chapel, and also the house of two rooms which Padre Pio’s father was able to buy with his first earnings as a laborer at Jamaica, Long Island, in 1898.
On June 30, 1952, I arrived at this hallowed town of San Giovanni Rotondo to study the events recently connected with Padre Pio and to have the privilege of being embraced by him on three occasions in the Franciscan and European custom of cheek to cheek. I was present at several of his Masses to study the changing expressions of his face in his prolonged minutes of either contemplation or ecstasy. I marveled at his wit in recreation and rejoiced at his human gruffness as he shouted, with his booming voice, commands to the noisy congregation to keep silence and to kneel for the prayers at the beginning of Mass.
In conclusion I am very grateful to Miss Mary Pyle and to the secretaries of Padre Pio for their kind and gracious hospitality and for their account of various happenings brought out in this twenty-fifth edition on Padre Pio the Stigmatist.
Author’s Declaration
With regard to the special revelations that have been made to the Saints, belief in them is not required by the Church even when she approves them. By this approbation she only intends to declare that nothing is to be found in them contrary to faith or morals, and that they can be accepted without danger and even with advantage. Whatever the author of this book mentions as a revelation does not demand consent of the reader as involving an obligation of revealed truth.
Benedict XIV is very clear on this subject. “What is to be said of those private revelations which the Apostolic See has approved of, those of the Blessed Hildegard (which were approved in part by Eugene III), of St. Bridget (by Boniface IX), and of St. Catherine of Siena (by Gregory XI)? We have already said that those revelations, although approved of, ought not and cannot, receive from us any assent as embracing Catholic faith, but only human credence, in keeping with the rules of prudence, according to which the aforesaid revelations are probable and may be piously believed.”
When the Church approves revelations, they are merely received as probable and not as indubitable. They are to be used as is customary in deciding questions of history, natural philosophy, or theology, wh