Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Priest, Religious, Mystic, Stigmatist and Confessor Born:Francesco Forgione 25 May 1887 Pietrelcina, Benevento, Kingdom of Italy Died: 23 September 1968 (aged 81) San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy Resting place: Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Venerated in: Catholic Church Beatified: 2 May 1999, Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II Canonized: 16 June 2002, Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II Major shrineSanctuary: of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy and Padre Pio Shrine, Philippines Feast: 23 September Attributes:Stigmata, Franciscan habit, and sacerdotal vestments Patronage:Pietrelcina, Italy, civil defense. Imiracles Padre Pio da Pietrelcina: Among the miraculous signs attributed to him are the “stigmata” which he would have carried for 57 years in different phases (at alternating moments from 1910 to 1917, and then continuously from 20 September 1918 up to most of the 1968), the gift of bilocation, prophecy, the reading of hearts (ability to read into people’s hearts, a charisma known as cardiognosis) and the perception, by the faithful, of intense floral scents of various types (violets, jasmine, lily of the valley, roses, etc.) that would appear as a sign of his presence even after his death. The charisma of reading hearts was manifested above all during confessions (Padre Pio even went so far as to confess for eighteen hours a day and it is estimated that, in fifty years, he confessed about six hundred thousand people: countless are the testimonies of those who discovered that friar knew in advance the sins that were about to be confessed. Among the many miracles attributed to him is that of the healing of the little Matteo Pio Colella of San Giovanni Rotondo, on which the canonical process that led to the elevation to the altars of San Pio.