From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
August 20, 2025
There are several well-known canonized men and women who in our time are often referred to with immense respect and affection, but without the title of “Saint.” Among these are Mother Cabrini, Mother Teresa (of Calcutta), and Padre Pio. Perhaps it is because the faithful have an intuition that these heroes of the faith demonstrate a deep spiritual motherhood or fatherhood that gives a sense of spiritual intimacy that can dispense with titles. In the case of Padre Pio, it has often been piously asserted that despite the precipitous decline in the practice of the Catholic Faith in his native land, he has to some extent “kept Italy Catholic.” It is estimated that 300,000 people were present in St. Peter’s Square at his canonization in 2002.
Francesco Forgione was born in the southern Italian town of Pietrelcina in 1887. He felt drawn to join the Capuchin Franciscans but lacked the necessary academic preparation to do so. In order to hire a tutor to assist him to prepare for his desired religious vocation, his impoverished father came to the United States in search of employment. Francesco subsequently entered the Capuchin novitiate in 1903, at the age of 15, and was given the name Pio when he received the famous brown habit of the order. He was ordained a priest in 1910. He often suffered from extremely ill health and, more famously, experienced a wide variety of mystical experiences, including the manifestation of the stigmata, i.e., the wounds of Christ in his own flesh.
Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968, in San Giovanni Rotondo, where he had been assigned by his religious superiors since 1916. His feast day is now observed throughout the Catholic world as a “memorial” on the date of his death. Mary O’Regan, an Irish journalist, provides many biographical details of his life in her new book, Padre Pio and You: An Epic Story of Spiritual Fatherhood (Sophia Institute Press, 2025). But her book is not a classic biography. It might be better described as a spiritual testimony to the ministry of Padre Pio, during his life and after his death. O’Regan recounts her own mystical experience with the saint when she was only 14 years old, which led to her spiritual conversion. And she recounts many other stories of spiritual conversion and miracles.
