After he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he was discharged. In , he was assigned to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, 75 miles from the city of Bari on the Adriatic. On September 20, , as he was making his thanksgiving after Mass, Padre Pio had a vision of Jesus.
When the vision ended, he had the stigmata in his hands, feet, and side. Life became more complicated after that. Medical doctors, Church authorities, and curiosity seekers came to see Padre Pio. In , and again in , the authenticity of the stigmata was questioned; Padre Pio was not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to hear confessions. He did not complain of these decisions, which were soon reversed. However, he wrote no letters after For many, even a few moments in his presence, proved to be a life changing experience.
As the years passed, pilgrims began to come to him by the thousands, from every corner of the world, drawn by the spiritual riches which flowed so freely from his extraordinary ministry. Padre Pio is understood above all else as a man of prayer. He prayed almost continuously. His prayers were usually very simple. He loved to pray the Rosary and recommended it to others.
When he speaks or is spoken to, we are aware that his heart and mind are not distracted from the thought and sentiment of God. Padre Pio suffered from poor health his entire life, once saying that his health had been declining from the time he was nine years old. After his ordination to the priesthood, he remained in his hometown of Pietrelcina and was separated from his religious community for more than five years due to his precarious health.
Although the cause of his prolonged and debilitating illnesses remained a mystery to his doctors, Padre Pio did not become discouraged. He offered all of his bodily sufferings to God as a sacrifice, for the conversion of souls.
He experienced many spiritual sufferings as well. Shortly after his ordination, he wrote a letter to his spiritual director, Father Benedetto Nardella, in which he asked permission to offer his life as a victim for sinners. This desire has been growing continually in my heart so that it has now become what I would call a strong passion.
It seems to me that Jesus wants this. At the end of his novitiate year he took simple vows, and on 27 January made his solemn profession. After he was ordained priest on 10 August at Benevento, he stayed at home with his family until for health reasons. In September of that year he was sent to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo and remained there until his death. Filled with love of God and love of neighbour, Padre Pio lived to the full his vocation to work for the redemption of man, in accordance with the special mission which marked his entire life and which he exercised through the spiritual direction of the faithful: the sacramental reconciliation of penitents and the celebration of the Eucharist.
The pinnacle of his apostolic activity was the celebration of Holy Mass. The faithful who took part witnessed the summit and fullness of his spirituality.
On the level of social charity, he committed himself to relieving the pain and suffering of many families, chiefly through the foundation of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza House for the Relief of Suffering , opened on 5 May For Padre Pio, faith was life: he willed everything and did everything in the light of faith.
He was assiduously devoted to prayer. He passed the day and a large part of the night in conversation with God. Faith led him always to accept God's mysterious will.
He was always immersed in supernatural realities. Not only was he himself a man of hope and total trust in God, but by word and example he communicated these virtues to all who approached him. The love of God filled him, and satisfied his every desire; charity was the chief inspiration of his day: to love God and to help others to love him.
His special concern was to grow in charity and to lead others to do so. He demonstrated to the full his love of neighbour by welcoming, for more than fifty years, countless people who had recourse to his ministry and his confessional, his counsel and his consolation.
He then spent time at Capuchin friaries at Serracapriola and Montefusco where he became so immersed in prayer and study, that he failed to attend the wedding of his older brother.
Throughout his lifetime Padre Pio suffered from a severe but undiagnosed stomach disorder that caused persistent pain and vomiting. Beginning in December of his superiors sent him home on numerous occasions. Inexplicably the symptoms disappeared each time he departed the friary; transfers to friaries at other locations failed to alleviate the symptoms.
At the age of 23 he traveled from his hometown of Pietrelcina to the cathedral of Benevento in Morcone. The visions and voices that plagued Padre Pio in his youth persisted during his early years as a priest. He developed a close confidentiality with Salvatore Maria Pannullo who, in , became the Archpriest of Pietrelcina.
Thus Padres Benedetto and Agostino, along with Pannullo, were privy to the true extent of Padre Pio's paranormal experiences. Padre Pio developed marks of stigmata initially in at San Nicandro. He showed the puncture wounds on his hands to Pannullo on September 7 of that year. A doctor examined Padre Pio and diagnosed tuberculosis of the skin.
Following the medical diagnosis Padre Pio returned to his hometown for a time. Padre Pio was personally humiliated by the painful markings and kept his hands hidden at all times. The wounds disappeared for a time, only to reappear more acutely nearly a decade later. His superiors ordered him to Pietrelcina repeatedly after There he performed works of charity and served as a spiritual director.
He was well known, loved, and respected for his saintly bearing. Padre Pio experienced numerous ecstasies over a period of many years.
According to documentation by Padre Agostino, Padre Pio was tormented by poltergeist aberrations accompanied by furious, audible thrashing noises that left him sweating, bruised, and sometimes bleeding. On other occasions he received visitations from the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and angels. In addition to the visitations and stigmata, Padre Pio was reportedly prone to bi-location phenomena, appearing in two locations simultaneously. The most remarkable of these reported incidents occurred on January 18, shortly before midnight.
0コメント