Pio of Pietrelcina

Francesco Forgione, better known as Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, was an Italian Capuchin friar and the first stigmatized priest in the Church's history. Born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars Minor at the age of 15. He lived most of his life in the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he served as a priest, confessing thousands of people and offering spiritual direction. He bore the visible stigmata of Christ's Passion for 50 years, from 1918 until his death in 1968. Padre Pio was also renowned for his gifts of bilocation, prophecy, healing, and reading of hearts. His life was marked by profound piety, intense devotion to the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary, and great physical and spiritual suffering. He founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (Home for the Relief of Suffering), a modern hospital. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002.