A recent book suggests that Saint Pio may have faked his stigmata, other evidence suggests that he even exhibited signs of mental illness. Born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887, in the town of Pietrelcina Italy, his childhood was filled with somewhat unusual experiences including a horoscope reading at the age of two and a local witch attempting to cure him of an intestinal disorder.
In 1903, he entered The Order of Friars Minor, Capuchin-a conservative Catholic order that traces its origin to St. Francis of Assisi. He was “frequently ill and emotionally disturbed” and claimed he was often physically attacked by evil spirits. Pio continued to hear voices and experience visions, and in 1910 he began to display the stigmata (bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus , such as the hands and feet) just after being ordained a priest.
As Padre Pio continued to exhibit the phenomenon, he began to attract a cult following. It was said he could look into people’s souls and, without them saying a word, know their sins. He could also allegedly experience “bilocation” (the ability to be in two places at the same time), emit an “odor of sanctity,” tell the future, and effect miraculous cures.
Italian historian Professor Sergio Luzzatto in his book Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age , says he has discovered documents including a letter from a pharmacist who supplied carbolic acid for Pio, which suggest Pio faked his wounds. Poi was canonised by Pope John Paul in 2002, this claim has drawn a sharp response from The Catholic Anti-Defamation League: “We would like to remind Mr Luzzatto that according to Catholic doctrine, canonisation carries with it papal infallibility.
Luzzatto cited the testimony of a pharmacist recorded in a document in the Vatican’s archive. Maria De Viot wrote: “I was an admirer of Padre Pio and I met him for the first time on 31 July 1919.” She revealed, “Padre Pio called me to him in complete secrecy and telling me not to tell his fellow brothers, he gave me personally an empty bottle, and asked if I would act as a chauffeur to transport it back from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo with four grams of pure carbolic acid” (Moore 2007). But if the acid was for disinfecting syringes, as Pio had alleged to the pharmacist, why the secrecy? And why did Pio need non-diluted acid?
Pio health was a ongoing issue for nearly all of his life, at one point a physician for the Catholic Church wrote that he believed Pio had Munchausen syndrome which is a type of factitious disorder, or mental illness, in which a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when, in truth, he or she has caused the symptoms. People with factitious disorders act this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured, not to achieve a concrete benefit, such as financial gain.
For years Pio wore fingerless gloves on his hands, perpetually concealing his wounds. His supporters regard this as an act of pious modesty. Another interpretation is that the concealment was a shrewd strategy that eliminated the need for him to maintain his wounds, at his death in 1968 his hands were totally unblemished.
Forty years after the death of Padre Pio, his remains were exhumed from their crypt beneath a church in San Giovanni Rotondo. Many anticipated that the saint’s body would be found incorrupt. The superstitious believe that the absence of decay in a corpse is miraculous and a sign of sanctity.
Pio’s body, despite embalment, was only in “fair condition.” So that it could be displayed, a London wax museum was commissioned to fashion a lifelike silicon mask of Pio, complete with his full beard and bushy eyebrows.
I would encourage the reader to do their own research into Pio and make up there own mind about the vailidity of these claims. I would remind everyone though of Ockham’s razor, and is sometimes expressed in Latin as lex parsimoniae (the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness), is a principle that generally recommends selecting from among competing hypotheses the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.
Meaning all things being equal the simplest answer is the correct one, so was this man visited by evil spirits and saw numerous heavenly visions that God chose to be a special messenger and deliver healing and divine visions of the future.
Or was he a fu@$ing nut case?