Padre Pio was born to Maria Giuseppa (Di Nunzio - her maiden name) and Grazio Forgione, peasant farmers, in the small Italian village of Pietrelcina, a little town located a few miles from Benevento in southern Italy, on May 25, 1887. He was baptised Francesco in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Our Lady of Angels), the old parish church, located in Pietrelcina. He entered the monastery of Morcone, at the 15 years of age, on January 6, 1903 as a novitiate of the Capuchin Friars. A year later on January 22, 1904 he took simple vows and commenced studying to be a priest and on January 27, 1907, he took his solemn vows. He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1908 in the Cathedral of Benevento. The five wounds of Our Lord's Passion appeared on his body on Friday, September 20, 1918 corresponding to the Stigmata of Christ. He is the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Catholic Church and bore the Stigmata for over 50 years. The wounds never became infected, instead they produced "a large cup of blood everyday" for fifty years, the longest of any stigmatic. He spent most of his priesthood as a Capuchin Priest at Our Lady of Grace Friary, in San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy. He provided Penitential counsel and spiritual guidance to innumerable people via the Confessional and written correspondence. He spent long hours in daily prayer and suffered intensely, both physically and spiritually until he went to his eternal reward. Supernatural powers are <b>...</b>
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