Pius of Pietrelcina

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887, in the small farming town of Pietrelcina in southern Italy, grew up in a deeply prayerful family and felt called to belong wholly to God from an early age. At fifteen he entered the Capuchin friars, taking the name Fra Pio, and after years marked by fragile health and intense prayer he was ordained a priest in 1910. In 1916 he was sent to the Capuchin friary of Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo, where he would spend nearly all his remaining years. There Padre Pio became a tireless confessor and spiritual father, drawing countless souls back to God through repentance, counsel, and a simple trust summed up in his words: “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.” He was widely known as a mystic and stigmatist, enduring Christ-like wounds and other extraordinary phenomena, even amid periods of scrutiny and restriction. His charity also took concrete form in the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, a hospital for the suffering. He is patron of Fondaco Motta. His feast day is September 23.