Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Priest

Francesco Forgione was born in 1887 at Pietrelcina in southern Italy into a peasant family and became a Capuchin friar as Pio. Ordained in 1910, he was often ill, and from 1916 lived at the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo on the Gargano. From September 1918 wounds like those of the crucified Christ were reported on his hands, feet and side; the Church investigated them, and in the 1920s and 1930s restricted his public ministry for years. Crowds came to him, and he spent many hours a day hearing confessions. With donations he built a large hospital, the House for the Relief of Suffering, opened in 1956. He died on 23 September 1968 and was canonized in 2002.