Padre Pio and the St. Pio Shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo

Sept 23 is Padre Pio's feast day. I'm a big fan of Padre Pio because when you know you have a lot of imperfections, you have to find someone who would inspire you to become better. Haha...

This is one of my all-time favorite anecdotes about Padre Pio.

One day a woman asked Padre Pio, “Tell me how to pray. I am always distracted.”

Padre Pio replied, “You must not be distracted voluntarily. But if you’re distracted, continue to pray … our Savior knows that you are not an angel praying to Him but a poor woman…. And when you find it difficult to concentrate, don’t waste more time stopping to consider why and the wherefore. It’s like a traveler who loses his way. As soon as he realizes he is on the wrong road, he immediately sets himself on the right road again. So you must continue to meditate without stopping to reflect on your lack of concentration.”

It's one of the best advice for me on praying because I easily get distracted - especially when I pray alone.  If I pray the rosary when I am alone and especially when driving, it takes me double, even triple time.  Shhh...  That's why I need to consciously work on this.  :)

Anyway, if you're not familiar with Padre Pio, here's some background:

Padre Pio (Francis Forgione) was born on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina, Benevento, Italy.

Padre Pio had many supernatural gifts.  In one book I read entitled "Padre Pio - Prophet of the People", it mentions that there are several saints who were given one or two gifts (stigmata for St. Francis of Assisi, bilocation for St. Anthony of Padua, perfume for St Dominic), but it’s hard to find one saint who had multiple gifts like Padre Pio.  Among his gifts were:

- The ability to read the minds of penitents. He knew one’s sins even before one confesses them.  

- Bilocation - there were several sightings of him in two distant places at the same time.

- Prophecy.   He foretold a lot of things like if a person will overcome a disease, conceive a child, lose a loved one, etc. There was a time when he knew that the incumbent Pope was looking for an important document and he was able to identify the document's exact location even if he has never met the Pope nor had been to the Vatican!  When a young priest named Karol Wojtyla came to visit Padre Pio, he also prophesied that this young priest would become pope someday and he did - St. Pope JP2.

- Miracles. He made the blind see, the deaf hear, the paralytics move and the sinners convert.

- Perfume. Sometimes, he emits a sweet smell and sometimes, of carbolic acid. And even without his physical presence, people have smelled these scents when their prayers got answered or to warn them of danger.

- Stigmata.  He bore the 5 wounds of Jesus.  The Vatican sent several doctors to examine the wounds but not even one among the doctors could explain the cause. The doctors tried to heal them with medicine but they never healed. Once a doctor even tried to infect them by using unsterilised stuff which should have infected any ordinary wound but that didn’t aggravate Padre Pio's wounds either. 

Padre Pio got the wounds at age 31 when he was praying before the crucifix. He bore them for 50 years until he passed away on Sept 23, 1968.  His body remains incorrupt until today.

Here's a photo of the crucifix where Padre Pio prayed when he got the stigmata.  I took this photo when I visited San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy in 2011 (3 years ago).  I took it from the ground floor of the church - unfortunately by the time I was before the crucifix, my camera battery died. Sigh...

Here's inside the St. Pio Shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo.  It is reported that about 7 million visitors come to the Shrine every year.  And I'm sure they multiply every year. :)

One level below the main chapel and directly under the altar lies St. Pio's tomb.  But before you reach the tomb, you'll pass by these beautiful mosaic depicting the important events in Padre Pio's life. 

Here's one -

And guess who donated this mosaic?  The Philippine Center for St. Pio Pietrelcina.  :)

This is the tomb of Padre Pio.

And this is the closest that you can get. 

Walking distance from the shrine is the Church of Sta Maria della Grazie where Padre Pio used to celebrate mass.  If you've been to the St. Pio Center in Eastwood, that's a replica of this church.  

 Here's inside the church.  Once upon a time, Padre Pio used to celebrate mass in this altar.

And here was Padre Pio's confessional inside the church.   He was big on confession.  It is said that he spends 15 to 19 hours hearing confessions every day and his average confession was 3 minutes.  According to one estimate, Padre Pio must have approximately heard about 5 million confessions! Whoa... 

So many people from all over the world wanted to confess to Padre that the office had to start issuing tickets because waiting time for one's turn could reach up to 3 weeks.   But it's not easy to confess to Padre Pio since he knew one's sins even before you start confessing.  He knew if you’re not confessing all your sins, if you’re not sincere, if you just went there out of curiosity or to test him.  

Here are some of Padre Pio's relics.  If you go to the St. Pio Center in Eastwood, you would also see a lot of relics there.

And here are stacks of letters Padre Pio received from all over the world requesting for prayers.  Letters were in shelves, floor-to-ceiling, wall–to-wall.  This is just one section of the room.  It is said that even Pope JP2, who was still a bishop then, wrote Padre Pio sometime in 1962 asking for prayers.

And here is Padre Pio's room where he spent most of his time in prayer and suffering.  It was so surreal standing in front of his room.

If you have any prayer petitions which need some intercession, here's a short prayer you can say:

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 (state your petition) 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.... (3x)

And if you want to get to know more about Padre Pio, you can start by visiting the St. Pio Center in Eastwood.  The atmosphere there is equally peaceful and solemn as San Giovanni Rotondo.  :) 

Padre Pio’s Shrine and St Michael's Cave Church in Italy

One of the places I was looking forward to seeing in Italy was Padre Pio’s place in San Giovanni Rotondo.  I’ve read a couple of books about him and I really love his wisdom.   I’m a big fan. When you’re highly aware that you’re imperfect, you really have to find idols that would inspire you to be better.  Haha…  

Here’s one anecdote which I think most of us could relate -

Once a woman asked him, “Tell me how to pray. I am always distracted.” Padre Pio replied, “You must not be distracted voluntarily. But if you’re distracted, continue to pray … our Savior knows that you are not an angel praying to Him but a poor woman…. And when you find it difficult to concentrate, don’t waste more time stopping to consider why and the wherefore. It’s like a traveler who loses his way. As soon as he realizes he is on the wrong road, he immediately sets himself on the right road again...”

The best tip ever on praying because I easily get distracted!  Haha…

Anyway,while at San Giovanni, we were able to visit the Padre Pio Shrine. The Shrine receives 7 million visitors every year! Wow… 

Main altar of the Padre Pio Shrine

Inside the Padre Pio Shrine

Right below the main church is another chapel which houses the tomb of Padre Pio. Here's how it looks like -    

 

This is the queue for those who wish to pay respects to Padre Pio.

 

This is the closest you could get to Padre Pio’s incorrupt body.  

Exiting at the back of the Shrine, here’s how the Shrine looks like from outside.

If you continue walking farther from the Shrine, it will lead you to the Church of Sta Maria della Grazie where Padre Pio used to celebrate mass.  

On the left (the small structure) is the original church

Here's inside the small church (the original church) - it's here where Padre Pio used to celebrate mass. 

We were lucky to have been able to hear mass there - concelebrated by about 6 Filipino priests. Wow.  :) 


Inside the chapel is Padre Pio’s confessional.  He devoted much of his life to hearing confessions and he could read through people’s sins. He knew when you’re not confessing all your sins, or when you’re not sincere, or when you go there only out of curiosity.  He also knew what a penitent’s sins were even before confessing!  
 

 Below the church lies the place where Padre Pio’s body was once on display for public viewing. (I think that was for a year between 2008 and 2009.  Too bad though, I heard about it too late or I could have gone earlier. Sigh…)

In his lifetime, Padre Pio received thousands of letters from people all over the world asking for prayers.  Guess who’s one of them?  Blessed JP2 when he wasn’t a Pope yet!  As the story goes - 

“In 1962, Bishop Karol Wojtyła, wrote to Padre Pio asking him to pray to God for Dr. Wanda Poltawska, a friend in Poland who was suffering from cancer. Later, Dr. Poltawska's cancer was found to have regressed; medical professionals were unable to offer an explanation for the regression. It is also rumored that during this time that Padre Pio had predicted Wojtyła would become Pope.”  Wow…
 
Here’s a snapshot of some of the letters he received.  Letters were in shelves, floor-to- ceiling, wall–to-wall. 

Letters to Padre Pio

And here’s Padre Pio’s room.  It felt surreal standing in front of it.  It was in this place where he spent a lot of time suffering from his stigmata.

 There were also some Padre Pio relics on display like these  -

Right outside the church is a beautiful staircase.  It’s the entrance to the Way of the Cross.

While in the area, we also visited St. Michael’s Cave in Gargano, Italy.

It is said that St. Michael the Archangel appeared here in the 5th century.  Here's the fascinating story -

In the year 490, when a nobleman of this small village lost the best bull in his herd, he went searching for him and found the bull kneeling in a deserted cave. The cave was inacessable and so to put the animal out of its misery, the nobleman shot an arrow at it, but to his amazement the arrow turned around and struck him instead! Stunned by this apparently supernatural event, the man went to see the local bishop for advice. The Bishop, uncertain of whether this was of divine origin or not, ordered 3 days of prayer and fasting. The Bishop, however, had his doubts about the apparition, thinking perhaps he had just dreamed it, decided to ignore it and put it out of his mind.

St Michael appeared to the Bishop in 3 various incidents after that and a church was built.

Here’s the entrance to the Church

 

And here's inside the underground cave church -  

  
You could really feel that it's a holy place. It is said that a lot of popes and saints have visited this church including Padre Pio who frequented it since it's near San Giovanni.   St. Francis of Assisi also visited St. Michael's Church and it is said that he considered it to be so holy that he would not even enter it.  It's a good thing I found out about the story of St. Francis after the tour, otherwise, I would have felt so uncomfortable going inside the cave!  If St. Francis felt he was unworthy, I was inifinite times unworthy. Wahaha....