Sunday 4 October27th Sunday in Ordinary TimeLiturgical colour: green
Stone & Incense
JourneysCurious, or no faithEvangelical, Pentecostal or ProtestantOrthodox, or other apostolic ChristianFallen-away CatholicBecoming CatholicGrowing CatholicAnother faith LibraryThe CaseVoices of the revivalFind a parishAboutSources & methodSupport the site
The saints

St Pio of Pietrelcina

A Capuchin friar in a remote friary, and the queues outside his confessional.

Feast: 23 September · 1887 to 1968 · Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Read the story 1 min read
A colour portrait of Padre Pio: an elderly Capuchin friar with a white beard and a warm, steady gaze.

Manfredonia (Italian Wikipedia), derivative work by MisterNox, 1947. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St Pio of Pietrelcina

San Giovanni Rotondo, the Gargano, southern Italy

On a mountain spur in southern Italy, crowds are gathering outside a small Capuchin friary.1

They have come for one thing: to make their confession to Padre Pio.1

He spent long hours in prayer and in the confessional. That, said the pope who canonized him, was the root of everything.

01St Pio of Pietrelcina

The glory of the Cross

St John Paul II said the trials Padre Pio faced were like the yoke of the Gospel, and that the glory of the Cross shone above all in him.1

In 1914 Padre Pio wrote that we must follow the divine Head by the way of abnegation and the Cross.1

02St Pio of Pietrelcina

The Home for the Relief of Suffering

To prayer he joined intense charity, above all the hospital he called the Home for the Relief of Suffering.1

He was canonized on 16 June 2002.1

A colour portrait of Padre Pio: an elderly Capuchin friar with a white beard and a warm, steady gaze.
Padre Pio, the Capuchin of San Giovanni Rotondo. Manfredonia (Italian Wikipedia), derivative work by MisterNox, 1947. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Notes

  1. Pope St John Paul II, Homily for the canonization of Padre Pio, 16 June 2002. Holy See, official English text. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.