Francesco Forgone was born on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, a small town in southern Italy and named in honour of St. Francis of Assisi. He joined the Capuchin Friars at the age of sixteen and was ordained a priest seven years later. From then on he was known as Padre Pio. For 50 years at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotundo he was a much sought-after spiritual advisor, confessor and intercessor. Padre Pio is known as one of the great mystics of modern times and is reported to have experienced a wide variety of supernatural abilities including prophecy, bilocation (being in two places at once), the odor of sanctity as well as miraculous healings. On September 20, 1918, he received the visible wounds of Christ’s crucifixion (also known as the stigmata), which he bore with great suffering for 50 years until his death. Caring deeply for the sick, he founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (Home for the Relief of Suffering) in 1956. Now serving over 60,000 patients a year, it is renowned as an important hospital and medical research center.
More than 7 million pilgrim visit San Giovanni Rotondo and the remains of Padre Pio annually, making in it the second-most visited Catholic shrine in the world.
