COMMENTARY | According to an article in the Washington Post, 70 percent of people believe in the existence of the Devil, or Satan, which is up 15 percent since 1990. While an overwhelming 90 percent of the population believe in God, some people don’t know what to make about the adversary of God, but the recent surge of believers attribute their newly found belief to the high number of weather disasters we’ve seen around the world in the last decade. Many people believe that this weather phenomenon is the result of the conflict between God and Satan, which is described in the Bible, most notable, the Book of Revelation, which prophesizes the end-of-times showdown between God and “that old dragon called Satan.”
It didn’t take bad weather to convince Padre Pio, the famous stigmatic priest who bore the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion. Padre Pio claimed to have fought personally with the Devil and talked to him.
St. Pio of Pietrilcina, who is commonly called Padre Pio, was a Capuchian monk who was ordained a priest in 1910. Padre Pio is most famous for having the stigmata. He considered himself unworthy for such a blessing and would oftentimes wear gloves to cover up the holes in his hand, which bled daily. Padre Pio is even said to have had the spiritual gift of bilocation, in which he could be seen in two places at the same time.
If anyone believed in God’s adversary, the Devil, it would be Padre Pio. He claimed to have fought with the Devil nearly every night and many of the priests and monks who lived with Padre Pio testified to this. He would fight with the Devil and his demons and Satan would tell Padre Pio that he would leave him alone if he would stop stealing souls away from him (Padre Pio was an extremely popular confessor).
Padre Pio recorded that one day while he was hearing confessions, a man came into the confessional and told him heinous disgusting acts, and after listening to the man speak horrible blasphemies against God, Padre Pio realized that the man was the Devil, and just as he made the realization, the man disappeared before his very eyes.
Whether or not you believe the experiences of Padre Pio, I doubt that a man who experienced so many documented miracles, chose a life of poverty, and devoted his entire life to God’s service, would lie.
Source:
http://www.ewtn.com/padrepio/priest/priesthood.htm