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| Cloth touched to relic of Padre Pio de Pietrelcina |
Padre Pio was born of simple, hardworking farming people on 25 May 1887 in Pietrelcina Southern Italy. He was tutored
privately until his entry into the Capuchin Friars at the age of 15. Of feeble health but strong will, with the help of grace
he completed the required studies and was ordained a priest in 1910.
While praying before a cross, he received the stigmata on
September 20, 1918, the first priest ever to be so blessed.
As word spread, especially after American soldiers brought
home stories of Padre Pio following World War II, the priest
himself became a point of pilgrimage for both the pious and the curious. He would hear confessions by the hour, reportedly able to read the consciences of those who held back. In 1956 he founded the House for the Relief of Suffering, a hospital that serves 60,000
patients a year. In the 1920's he started a series of prayer
groups that continue today with over 400,000 members worldwide.
His canonization miracle involved the cure of Matteo
Pio Colella, age 7, the son of a doctor who worked in the House for Relief of Suffering. On the night of June 20, 2000,
Matteo was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital with meningitis. By morning doctors had lost hope for him,
as nine of the boy's internal organs had ceased to give signs of life. That night, during a prayer vigil attended by Matteo's
mother and some Capuchin friars of Padre Pio's monastery, the child's condition improved suddenly. When he awoke from the coma, Matteo said that he had seen an elderly man with a white
beard and a long, brown habit, who said to him: "Don't worry, you will soon be cured."
Pio died on September 23, 1968, of natural causes. He was canonized June 16, 2002,
by Pope John Paul II. His Feast day is September 23.
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| Cloth touched to the relics of Saint Padre Pio |
Prayer to Saint Pio
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PRAYER O God, You gave Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, capuchin priest, the great privilege
of participating in a unique way in the passion of Your Son, grant me through his intercession the grace of .......... which
I ardently desire; and above all grant me the grace of living in conformity with the death of Jesus, to arrive at the glory
of the resurrection. Glory be to the Father ...(three times)
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| Nulla osta Manfredonia, 26th february 2002 |
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Vincenzco D' Addario Archbishop of Manfredonia-Vieste |
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