Francesco Forgione, OFM Cap., better known as Padre Pio, was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic.

Padre Pio became famous for exhibiting stigmata for most of his life, thereby generating much interest and controversy. He was both beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

Francesco Forgione was born to Grazio Mario Forgione and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy. His parents were peasant farmers.

At the age of five, he had made the decision to dedicate his entire life to God. He worked on the land up to the age of 10, looking after the small flock of sheep the family owned.

As a youth, Francesco reported that he had experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies. In 1897, Francesco was said to have been drawn to the life of a friar after listening to a young Capuchin who was in the countryside seeking donations.

On 6 January 1903, at the age of 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars at Morcone. On 22 January, he took the Franciscan habit and the name of Fra (Friar) Pio, in honour of Pope Pius I. He took the simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

At 17, he fell ill, complaining of loss of appetite, insomnia, exhaustion, fainting spells, and migraines. He vomited frequently and could digest only milk and cheese. Religious devotees point to this time as being that at which inexplicable phenomena allegedly began to occur. During prayers for example, Pio appeared to others to be in a stupor, as if he were absent. One of Pio's fellow friars later claimed to have seen him in ecstasy, and allegedly levitating above the ground.

In 1910, Pio was ordained a priest by Archbishop Paolo Schinosi at the Cathedral of Benevento. Four days later, he offered his first Mass at the parish church of Our Lady of the Angels. His health being precarious, he was permitted to remain with his family until 1916 while still retaining the Capuchin habit.

On 4 September 1916, however, Pio was ordered to return to his community life. He moved to an agricultural community, Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, in San Giovanni. He remained at San Giovanni Rotondo until his death in 1968.

In the priesthood, Padre Pio was known to perform a number of successful conversions to Catholicism.

He compared weekly confession to dusting a room weekly and recommended the performance of meditation and self-examination twice daily: once in the morning, as preparation to face the day, and once again in the evening, as retrospection. He often summed up his advice on the practical application of theology in his now famous quote: "Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry". He directed Christians to recognize God in all things and to desire above all things to do the will of God.

Many people who heard of him travelled to San Giovanni Rotondo to meet him and confess to him, ask for help, or have their curiosity satisfied.

People who had started rebuilding their lives after the World War I began to see in Padre Pio a symbol of hope. Those close to him attest that he began to manifest several spiritual gifts, including the gifts of healing, bilocation, levitation, prophecy, miracles, extraordinary abstinence from both sleep and nourishment (once Padre Pio was able to subsist for at least 20 days at Verafeno on only the Holy Eucharist without any other nourishment), the ability to read hearts, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions, and pleasant-smelling wounds.

Padre Pio increasingly became well known among the wider populace. He became a spiritual director and developed five rules for spiritual growth: weekly confession, daily Communion, spiritual reading, meditation, and examination of conscience.

The Church leadership to reduce Pio's popularity in the 1920s, had to forbade him from saying Mass in public, blessing people, answering letters, showing his stigmata publicly, and communicating with Padre Benedetto, his spiritual director.

The authorities decided to relocate Pio to another convent in northern Italy. However giving into the requests from the local people the plan was cancelled. Nevertheless, from 1921 to 1922 he was prevented from publicly performing his priestly duties, such as hearing confessions and saying Mass. 

A lot of controversies arose within the clergy over the stigmata of Padre Pio. Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the civil hospital of Barletta, by order of the provincial father superior, inspected the stigmata on May 15 and 16, 1919. In his report, he wrote: " …. I am sure that those wounds are not superficial because ..… one has the exact perception of the existing void."

Festa was a physician who examined Pio in 1919 and 1920. He was obviously impressed by the fragrance of the stigmata. Festa had described the side wound as cruciform. In his report to the Holy Office of 1925, Festa arrived at a benevolent verdict, with theological arguments playing the lead role.

In 1920, Father Agostino Gemelli – a physician and psychologist – was commissioned by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val to visit Padre Pio and carry out a clinical examination of the wounds. Padre Pio showed a closed attitude towards the new investigator: he refused the visit requesting the written authorization of the Holy Office. Father Gemelli's arguments that he believed he had the right to subject the friar to a medical examination of the stigmata were in vain. 

The Bishop of Volterra, Raffaele Rossi, Carmelite, was formally commissioned on June 11, 1921, by the Holy Office to make a canonical inquiry concerning Father Pio. The extensive and detailed report essentially stated the following: Father Pio, of whom Rossi had a favourable impression, is a good religious. The stigmata cannot be explained, but certainly are not a work of the devil or an act of gross deceit or fraud; neither are they the trick of a devious and malicious person. During the interviews with the witnesses, which Rossi undertook a total of three times, he let himself be shown the stigmata of the then 34-year-old Father Pio. Rossi saw these stigmata as a “real fact”.

Pope John XXIII grew sceptical of Padre Pio due to the interference of hostile sources . At the beginning of his tenure, he learned that Father Pio's opponents had placed listening devices in his monastery cell and confessional, recording his confessions with tape. 

Father Carlo Maccari, Secretary-General of the Diocese of Rome met Pio nine times altogether. There was reciprocal mistrust between Pio and Maccari.

Maccari finished his critical report with a list of recommendations. The brothers of Santa Maria delle Grazie should gradually be relocated, a new abbot should come from outside the region. No one should be allowed to confess to Pio more than once a month. 

Pio was said to have had the gift of reading souls and the ability to bilocate, among other preternatural phenomena. He was said to communicate with angels and work favours and healings before they were requested of him. The reports of preternatural phenomena surrounding Padre Pio attracted fame and amazement. The Vatican was initially sceptical about all these.

Pio's correspondence, even early in his priesthood he experienced less obvious indications of the visible stigmata: bodily marks, pain, and bleeding in locations supposedly corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ.

On 20 September 1918, while hearing confessions, Pio claimed to have had a reappearance of the physical occurrence of the stigmata. The phenomenon was reported to have continued for fifty years, until the end of his life. The blood flowing from the stigmata purportedly smelled of perfume or flowers. He reported to Agostino that the pain remained and was more acute on specific days and under certain circumstances. He also said that he was suffering the pain of the crown of thorns and the scourging.

Though Pio said he would have preferred to suffer in secret, by early 1919, news had begun to spread. Pio often wore red mittens or black coverings on his hands and feet as he was embarrassed by the marks. However, no visible scarring was present at the time of Pio's death.

Once made public, the wounds were studied by a number of physicians, some hired by the Vatican as part of an independent investigation. Some claimed that the wounds were unexplainable and never seem to have become infected. Despite seeming to heal they would then reappear periodically. Alberto Caserta took X-rays of Pio's hands in 1954 and found no abnormality in the bone structure.

On the day of Padre Pio's death, mystic and Servant of God Maria Esperanza de Bianchini from Venezuela reported that he appeared to her in a vision and said, "I have come to say good-bye. My time has come. It is your turn." Her husband saw his wife's face transfigured into that of Padre Pio. On the following day, they learned that Padre Pio had died. Witnesses say they later saw Esperanza levitating during Mass and engaging in bilocation. Padre Domenico da Cese, a fellow Capuchin stigmatist, reported that on 22 September 1968, he saw Padre Pio kneeling in prayer before the Holy Face of Manoppello, although it was known that Padre Pio had not left his room.

On 20 September 1918, accounts state that the pains of the transverberation had ceased and Pio was in "profound peace." On that day, as he was engaged in prayer in the choir loft in the Church of Our Lady of Grace, he received another celestial vision which led to religious ecstasy. When the ecstasy ended, Padre Pio claimed to have received the visible stigmata. This time, it allegedly stayed visible for the next fifty years of his life, only disappearing in the last few weeks of his life, leaving no trace on his skin.

In 1947, Father Karol Józef Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) visited Padre Pio, who heard his confession. Austrian Cardinal Alfons Stickler reported that Wojtyła confided to him that during this meeting, Padre Pio told him he would one day ascend to "the highest post in the church, though further confirmation is needed.

According to tradition, Bishop Wojtyła wrote to Padre Pio in 1962 to ask him to pray for Wanda Poltawska, a friend in Poland who was suffering from cancer. Later, Poltawska's cancer was apparently found to be in spontaneous remission. Medical professionals were seemingly unable to offer an explanation for the phenomenon.

By 1933, the tide finally took a turn. Pope Pius XI ordered a reversal of the ban on Padre Pio's public celebration of Mass, arguing, "I have not been badly disposed toward Padre Pio, but I have been badly informed." In 1934, the friar was again allowed to hear confessions. He was also given honorary permission to preach despite never having taken the exam for the preaching license. Pope Pius XII, who assumed the papacy in 1939, even encouraged devotees to visit Padre Pio. Finally, in the mid-1960s Pope Paul VI (pope from 1963 to 1978) dismissed all accusations against Padre Pio.

Pio died in 1968 at the age of 81. On 22 September 1968, he was supposed to offer a Solemn Mass, but feeling weak, he asked his superior if he might say a Low Mass instead, as he had done daily for years. Due to a large number of pilgrims present for the Mass, Padre Pio's superior decided the Solemn Mass must proceed. Padre Pio carried out his duties but appeared extremely weak and frail. This was his last celebration of the Mass.

Early in the morning of 23 September 1968, Pio made his last confession and renewed his Franciscan vows. As was customary, he had his rosary in his hands, though he did not have the strength to pray the Hail Marys aloud. Till the end, he repeated the words "Gesù, Maria" (Jesus, Mary). At around 2:30 a.m., he said, "I see two mothers" (taken to mean his mother and Mary). At 2:30 a.m. he died in his cell in San Giovanni Rotondo. With his last breath he whispered, "Maria!"

In consideration to Padre Pio's virtues and ability to do good even after his death, including discussion of another healing attributed to his intercession, John Paul II declared Padre Pio a saint on 16 June 2002. An estimated 300,000 people attended the canonization ceremony in Rome.

On 3 March 2008, the body of Pio was exhumed from his crypt, forty years after his death, so that his remains could be prepared for display. A church statement described the body as being in "fair condition".

Padre Pio has become one of the world's most popular saints. There are more than 3,000 "Padre Pio Prayer Groups" worldwide, with three million members. The first St Padre Pio parish in the world was established 16 June 2002 in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada.

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