St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Who they were

Francesco Forgione was born in Pietrelcina in southern Italy to a farming family, and took the name Pio as a Capuchin friar. He was ordained in 1910 and spent most of his life at the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo.

In September 1918, while praying before a crucifix, he received wounds in his hands, feet and side that remained for the rest of his life, some fifty years. They were examined repeatedly by physicians, including sceptical ones sent by the Vatican, and the reports do not agree with each other. The Church investigated him at length and for a period in the 1920s and 1930s restricted his public ministry, forbidding him to say Mass publicly or hear confessions. Those restrictions were later lifted. It is worth knowing that his own institution treated him with suspicion for years.

What he actually did, day after day, was hear confessions. He spent long hours in the confessional, sometimes ten or more a day, for decades, and people travelled from across Europe and beyond to sit in front of him. Accounts describe him as blunt to the point of harshness with some penitents and extraordinarily gentle with others.

He also founded a hospital, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, which opened in 1956 and still operates as one of the largest in southern Italy. He died in 1968 and was canonized in 2002.

Why people turn to St. Pio of Pietrelcina

People turn to Padre Pio for healing because of the hospital and the many accounts attached to him, and for stress because of the phrase most associated with him, pray, hope, and do not worry. But the patronage that fits him best is confession anxiety. He spent fifty years sitting on the other side of that screen, and for a great many people the fear of going is the whole obstacle. He is the saint to ask when the thing standing between you and confession is embarrassment rather than doubt.

How to ask their intercession

Ask him plainly, and if the request is about going to confession, ask for the specific thing you need, which is usually nerve rather than information. His own counsel was consistent and blunt: pray, hope, and do not worry, in that order.