A member of St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Columbus’ German Village neighborhood has a particular reason to be enthusiastic about the opportunity to view relics of St. Padre Pio at her home parish.
Lori Mitchell, who is 71 and has a devotion to Padre Pio that goes back to her childhood, said prayer to the saint cured her of severe hip pain that did not go away, even after hip replacement surgery.
“The pain was a problem I’d dealt with for years,” she said. “There were times when it would flare up especially badly, then ease off, but it was always there. I’d make it through the worst of the pain, saw several doctors and even had stem cell therapy, but none of it worked. I tried to avoid surgery but finally had it in 2019.
“After the surgery, I got around with the help of a walker but never progressed to the use of a cane because the pain was too intense. After a few weeks, the doctor saw that I could hardly walk and was shocked. The pain remained horrible, even after extra therapy. This was in 2019.
“One day, my son texted me and said, ‘Try harder. You need to pray to Padre Pio. He helps heal people,’ then adding, ‘I’m not trying to be sarcastic,’ because he is not a religious person.
“I was amazed to be getting this advice from my son. I had been devoted to Padre Pio since around 1962, when my father urged me to sit with him and watch a TV program about Padre Pio, who was already well-known then as someone who could intercede with God for miracles.
“I began praying to Padre Pio and bought some holy oil blessed with one of his relics. About eight weeks later, the pain became significantly less. Within a couple weeks, it went away entirely. The doctor said he was amazed and could find no explanation for it. I credit it to Padre Pio’s intercession,” Mitchell said.
“At about the same time, I learned that a friend had cancer. I was really worried about him, because he was born Catholic and had gotten away from the Church. I began praying for him, using prayers from Padre Pio’s prayer book and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
“At his funeral, several people talked about how he had a conversion and had found faith in Jesus again. The conversion began about the time I started praying for him, and I feel Padre Pio’s intercession also was responsible for that.”
Mitchell is on the committee putting together the program for the veneration of relics of St. Padre Pio at St. Mary Church, 684 S. 3rd St., from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28 and 29, and 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30. Bishop Earl Fernandes will celebrate a Mass in honor of the veneration at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28.
The relics will include crusts of the saint’s wounds, a lock of his hair and gauze with his bloodstains, each in a separate reliquary.
St. Padre Pio, formally known as St. Pius of Pietrelcina, was born Francesco Forgione in Pietrelcina, Italy, on May 25, 1887 and died on Sept. 23, 1968, at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, where he had lived the simple life of a Capuchin Franciscan friar for 51 years. He was beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002. More than 300,000 people attended his canonization.
He was ordained a priest in 1910, served with the Italian army in World War I and was discharged after it was discovered he had tuberculosis. He was sent to San Giovanni Rotondo in 1917.
On Sept. 20, 1918, as he was making his thanksgiving after Mass, Padre Pio had a vision of Jesus. When the vision ended, he bore the stigmata – the wounds of the crucified Christ – on his hands, feet and side, where they remained for the rest of his life. St. Francis of Assisi was the first known stigmatic. Confirmed cases of the phenomenon are rare, totaling about 300 since the 13th century.
Receiving the stigmata resulted in much interest and controversy for Padre Pio. In 1924, and again in 1931, the authenticity of the stigmata was questioned, and he was not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to hear confessions. He did not complain of these decisions, which were soon reversed. Pope St. Paul VI dismissed all allegations against him in the 1960s.
Padre Pio also experienced other spiritual phenomena, such as visions of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary and attacks by Satan. He was said to have had the gift of reading souls and the ability to bilocate (be in two places at once). His powers as a healer were known throughout his life, drawing thousands of visitors to San Giovanni Rotondo. Numerous physical and spiritual healings continue to be attributed to him.
St. Padre Pio is buried in San Giovanni Rotondo. The veneration of his relics in Columbus is being sponsored by the St. Pio Foundation, a Tuckahoe, New York-based organization that sponsors a tour of the relics each year to give people an opportunity to have a “spiritual encounter” with Padre Pio, to pray to him and to ask for his intercession.