The House for the Relief of Suffering

Last night, at recreation, the conversation turned towards Padre Pio. One of the brothers brought up the Magnificat Antiphon for First Vespers of his feast. It is from the Common of a Confessor non-Pontiff.

I will liken him to a wise man that built his house upon the rock.

Didn’t Padre Pio build a house on a rock? He was insistent, after all, that the famous hospital he built not be called a hospital. Its name was to be the The House for Relief of Suffering. As for the rock, Padre Pio chose the most unlikely place to build this house, a giant rock in the middle of nowhere. He was scoffed at and mocked. Yet his house built of the rock is now praised from every direction.

Quinque Talenta

Another brother spoke up to bring up the Antiphon from the Common used for Prime.

Domine, quinque talenta tradidisti mihi.

Lord, Thou hast given me five talents. Behold, I have gained five more.

Are not these five talents the stigmata?

Iste Confessor!

Yet a third member of the community interjected to draw our attention to the Hymn. Certainly it is from the Common, but it even has his name in it (Pius), and the reference to miracles at his tomb seems particularly fitting.

Let’s take a closer look at this hymn.

Iste Confessor Domini sacratus
Festa plebs cujus celebrat per orbem
Hodie latus meruit secreta
scandere caeli!

This hallowed Confessor of the Lord
Merited to climb today the secret parts of Heaven in blessedness.
The People celebrate his festivities throughout the whole world!

This hymn from the Common of Confessors, sung frequently throughout the year and composed for that first great Confessor, Saint Martin, seems never more appropriate than when sung for Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. Is he not a confessor in many senses? Did he not confess Christ before the whole world? Did he not confess that he was a sinner? Did he not, as is implied by the title Confessor, suffer from men and from demons — and even from those he loves, from the Church and his spiritual children? But perhaps no sense of the word seems more appropriate to celebrate him than that modern sense of the word: Padre Pio was a priest of the confessional.

The whole People of the Church — the plebs, the Mystical Body of Christ — celebrate his festivities. Where in the Catholic world is there not devotion to him? What Confessor receives more and wider devotion than Padre Pio?

Outstanding Virtues

Qui pius, prudens, humilis, pudicus
Sobrius, castus fuit et quietus,
Vita dum praesens vegetavit ejus
Corporis artus.

Pius

He was a tender father (pius), far-seeing and wise (prudens), humble, innocent and pure (pudicus)
Sober, chaste, and full of peace (quietus).
During the time when the present life enlivened the limbs of his body.

Was not Padre Pio truly pius? Piety is the great virtue of tender fidelity between a father and son or between a husband and wife, so we are justified in saying that the hymn calls Padre Pio a tender father. How many spiritual children did he have in his life? Was it a million? And what is the number now?

Prudens

He was prudens. Prudentia is the virtue of having the big picture. It means you know the ultimate goal, the final end, and you have a good grasp about how to get there, whatever the circumstances are. You remember the past, the sapiential law of God, and all your own experience and the experience learned from others, and you are able to direct the course towards this goal surely and safely. It is practical wisdom. A priest in the confessional must be prudent! He must have practical wisdom. The prudence of Saint Padre Pio towards others was only matched by the victimal darkness he was permitted to endure in himself and about his own soul.

Humilis

Padre Pio was humble. Besides his natural virtue, his continual labour and suffering humbled him, rendering him gentle and little. He was childlike and innocent. All of this was reflected in the care he took for the little and broken. No problem was too insignificant, no person too much of a lost case for him.

Pudicus

Padre Pio was pudicus. Pudor is that healthy sense of shame (called decency) innocent people have before they become shameless. It is a reflection of the purity and simplicity of the soul. Everyone who knew Padre Pio commented on his innocence.

Castus

For this reason, Padre Pio was perfectly chaste, and yet he suffered entirely unjust and unfounded accusations against his chastity from his days as a school boy until the day when Pope Saint John XXIII was, because of malicious slander and sloppy investigative work, concerned that Padre Pio was violating his vow of chastity. The accusations were a true crucifixion and annihilation for Padre Pio. All of them proved false, as those who knew Padre Pio could have no doubt, for his innocence shown forth like a dove.

Quietus

He was also quietus. It is a humorous word to use for a friar who was known to swing his cincture and yell at people to get out of the way — to understand the reasonableness of this one has to know Italian culture and the extremity of the cult of personality that had grown up around Padre Pio — to his great torment! Padre Pio himself when questioned about this action defended it with good humor, saying that he never lost his temper, but it was necessary.

But quietus does not exactly mean quiet in that sense. Instead it means the quietude of an inner peace. It appears that Padre Pio’s inner peace was habitually hidden from him, as was the case with Mother Teresa’s joy. This was a victimal state that he endured for the sake of his spiritual children. Blessed Conchita writes that the Blessed Virgin Mary suffered a similar victimal state during the years after the Ascension of her Divine Son. Yet, as was the case with Mother Teresa’s hidden joy, the peace that Padre Pio could not himself experience was sensed by all those around him.

Consider the remarkable testimony of Padre Pio’s spiritual son, Adolfo Affatato , contained in Bret Thoman’s book The Life of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina:

During his long silences, punctuated only by the movement of his fingers on rosary beads, the spiritual delight was amazing. An energetic strength, charged with a heavenly presence within him, emanated from his persona. I cannot express what I felt in those moments, as every word is inadequate to describe the boundless joy that overflowed from my heart.

During those times, my mind was emptied of every thought and concern. My body was calm and relaxed, and I had complete control over my senses and feelings. I felt lightness and a joy that pervaded my entire being. I felt very well.

When you experience something like this—involving all your emotions—you never want it to end. Only those who have felt this know what I mean. Only those who had the good fortune to experience such events personally can have a more realistic picture of who Padre was than those who would write about him after historical studies…

The figure of Padre Pio is so grand and enlightened that my words are likely of little use. To speak of Padre Pio would take another Padre Pio, a Saint Francis, or the voice of God Himself. So how can one transmit the idea of who this great saint was—this saint who illuminated the darkness of the twentieth century with his presence? Through the episodes experienced by those who had the privilege of being close to him when he walked among us. This is up to his spiritual children, of whom I am one of the last—a living witness to and recipient of extraordinary events that the human mind cannot comprehend.

Corporis Artus

Artus are the arms, the legs, the limbs, the mortal frame. Who could not recall in regard to Padre Pio’s arms, legs, and chest the five marks of the stigmata — the quinque talenta (five talents) we sing about in the Common of Confessors? And these marks only persisted whilst mortal life invigoured these mortal limbs, for the last scab of the stigmata fall off just before he died, leaving skin unscarred and smooth as a baby’s, as can be seen from the post mortem photos.

His Tomb

Ad sacrum cujus tumulum frequenter,
Membra languentum modo sanitati,
Quolibet morbo fuerint gravata,
Restituuntur.

Often at his tomb
The bodies of the sick are restored to heath,
Whatever be the sickness that had weighed them down.

Hardly does this stanza need commentary — hardly could we fittingly give commentary! Where in the world do the infirm flock more readily to a tomb to be healed? And is there a place in the world where we would be less surprised to see the sick restored to health? It was said about Saint Martin’s grave that the powerlessness of the heretics would there meet the power of the Spirit of Truth that is the Soul of the Catholic Church, for the heretics who justified themselves by denying that miracles still happened would see at the tomb of Saint Martin the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the sick restored to health. Could we not say something similar about Padre Pio’s tomb?

Let Us Join the Chorus

Unde nunc noster chorus in honorem
Ipsius, hymnum canit hunc libenter;
Ut piis ejus meritis juvemur
Omne per aevum.

Whence we now join the chorus in his honour,
Willingly singing this hymn
That through this whole age
We may be helped by his pious prayer.

And may the pious prayers of Padre Pio help us all now and until the Lord returns in glory.

Happy feast of Padre Pio, the great passion-bearing stigmatised priest and victim. May Padre Pio, priest of reparation for the sins of priests pray for all of us and for our monastery.