I'm sure that you have all heard of Padre Pio's stigmata, that is the wounds in his
hands and his feet and his side, very similar to those that our Lord carried in His crucifixion,
but have you ever heard about Padre Pio's crown of thorns?
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Getting back to our story.
There was a young lady who was engaged to a university student who had lost his faith.
He was a complete skeptic and disdained all religious practice.
Well as you can imagine, they engaged, so it was now a problem.
She would not marry him unless he returned to the faith, and they argued about this incessantly,
and finally he consented to go to San Giovanni Rotondo and to meet Padre Pio but let her
know in no uncertain terms that he considered Padre Pio to be a charlatan and an imposter.
The very first mass they went to the lady was amazed to see her fianc looking pale and
shocked as he gazed at Padre Pio at the altar during consecration, and he whispered to her,
"Does this happen every day?"
"Yes," she answered, not quite knowing what he meant, and then at a future mass, another
morning mass, she saw her fianc was "crying like a baby," as she put it, and leaving the
church he explained to her that he sees Padre Pio on the altar with a knotted crown of thorns
on his head and with blood running down his face and his priestly garments.
He said, "They are illuminated and dazzling."
Padre Pio looks like that famous painting, Ecce Homo, the famous painting of Behold the
Man in which our Lord has just been scourged at the pillar and is now brought out on the
balcony exactly like that.
Her fianc said that he was crying because he was in fact so moved to see that despite
all the suffering of Padre Pio, he remained completely serene and peaceful, and in fact
the young man said he thought everyone saw the same thing, but it was not like that.
So you can imagine now the young lady was troubled and amazed.
She did not know if he was being completely truthful or making this up, or was it an emotionally
induced illusion that he was going through?
She was not sure about this.
After she had made her confession to Padre Pio she asked Padre Pio if her fianc had really
seen what he had told her, and Padre Pio confirmed that it was true.
Anyway, later on the young man went to see Padre Pio in the sacristy and this is what
he explained to Padre Pio.
He said he first saw three crowns of thorns, and then at another time he saw what looked
like a complete bonnet of thorns, as he put it, of the entire head, and so Padre Pio's
response was, "Thanks be to the Lord and don't be frightened because I am not suffering as
much as it appears," and then Padre Pio asked him to speak to no one about this and gave
him this advice.
He said, "The secrets of God are to be guarded in the heart.
The Lord loves you, and make the effort to always be faithful to Him."
That was Padre Pio's advice to the young man.
Of course the young man did not tell anyone, but his fianc did.
Well, word got around and eventually reached a certain Cleonice Morcaldi who was a long-standing
spiritual daughter of Padre Pio, and she was writing a book about Padre Pio, so now she
wanted to know more about this story.
She was a friend of the man, and so she went and spoke to him, and the fianc confirmed
to her that everything was true.
Well, the book refers to this man, this young man, as Bruno G. That's the only information
we have, and the story concludes in a beautiful way that Padre Pio himself married the couple,
so obviously he converted completely by this experience.
And just to add into this a little bit, Cleonice Morcaldi was writing a book and she wanted
to know the whole story, everything about it, if it was true, so she prayed about it,
and then she went to Padre Pio and asked him if it was true, and Padre Pio replied, "And
you doubt it?"
So I'm not sure if that's a yes or a no, so another time she asked Padre Pio if he bore
the crown of thorns outside of mass as well, and his reply was, "Yes, before and after,"
so somehow spiritually he was carrying this crown of thorns on his head, causing him intense
suffering.
Some future point she asked him again, "And which sins are expiated by the thorns?"
Well Padre Pio replied, "All sins, but in particular sins of the thoughts."
Padre Pio offered this.
He said, "You must know that through divine condescension I suffer all that Jesus suffered,
His entire passion, as much as is possible for a human creature."
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