There are two great saints who are both devoted to a wound of Christ's Passion.
And yet this wound was not even recorded, yet it was a wound that both Padre Pio and
Bernard of Clairvaux had devotion to.
And good evening friends, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our channel, Following Padre
Pio.
On this channel, through a series of short stories, we look at the life of our incredible
Saint Padre Pio, who was a Capuchin friar, a mystic, a tremendous miracle worker.
Do stay tuned to find out more about his life and, also, what his intercession could do
for you.
We also have a mass, celebrated every Friday, in which we bring your intentions to this
mass, dedicated to Padre Pio.
If you want to have your intentions there, then just enroll them, see the video on the
end screen.
We encourage everyone to be part of this Padre Pio postulate.
You can do this by liking our video and sharing the video with your friends and with your
colleagues.
Now, as we said, there were these two great saints who are both devoted to the wounds
of Christ's Passion.
And this was a wound that was not even recorded, not even in scripture or by the early writers
of the church of the time.
And yet, both the medieval mystic Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the far more recent Saint
Padre Pio were in agreement on this wound.
But very importantly, both had this very sincere devotion to the shoulder wound of Christ.
Let's have a look at who was Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
He was a French abbot and a mystic, and he helped to restore the Cistercian Order in
the 12th century.
And Saint Bernard related the following, in his writings called the annals of Clairvaux,
that he had had a conversation with our Lord.
And he had prayed asking, "Oh Lord Jesus, which was your greatest unrecorded suffering?"
And in reply, he received this answer from our Lord who said, "I had on my shoulder,
while I bore the cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous wound that was more painful than
the others, and which is not recorded by men.
Honor this wound," he said, "With thy devotion and I will grant thee whatever thou dost ask,
through its virtue and merit.
In regard to all those who shall venerate this wound, I will remit all of their venial
sins and I will no longer remember their mortal sins."
The other saint, as we said, was Padre Pio.
And as we know, he was Capuchin friar, a priest, a mystic, and he died in 1968.
As we know, he was an incredible confessor, and a holy man who bore these wounds of Christ,
known as the stigmata, on his hands and on his feet for over 50 years.
Now, there's another account that confirms this by Stefano Campanella.
And he reported it in his book, Il Papa E Il Frate, by Saint Pio's friary, that the
future Saint Pio had this very interesting conversation with Karol Wojtyla.
Of course, became the future Pope John Paul II.
And according to Stefano Campanella, Father Wojtyla asked Padre Pio which of his wounds
had caused him the most pain.
And Father Wojtyla was expecting that Padre Pio would say, "It was his chest wound."
But instead, Padre Pio replied, "It is my shoulder wound, which no one even knows about.
And it has never been cured or treated."
Then in 2018, this is 40 years after Padre Pio's death, the author Frank Rega wrote about
Padre Pio the following.
He said that at one time, the Padre confided to this brother, Modestino Fucci, who was
then the doorkeeper of Padre's monastery, that his greatest pain occurred when he had
had to change his undershirt.
And Brother Modestino, just like Father Wojtyla, thought that Padre Pio was referring to the
pains from his chest wound.
And then later on, in February 1971, when Brother Modestino had been assigned the task
of taking the inventory of all the Padre Pio's items, the deceased Padre Pio's items, in
the monastery, he came across Padre Pio's undershirt.
And he said there was a circle of blood stains in the area of the right shoulder.
Well, that very evening, Brother Modestino now had to, in his prayers, ask Padre Pio
please to enlighten him.
"What was the meaning of the blood stains on the undershirt?"
And he asked Padre Pio to give him a sign, "Did he truly bear Christ's shoulder wound?"
And after this, later on, Brother Modestino fell asleep.
But he was awakened at 1:00 AM with this excruciating, a terrible shooting pain, in his shoulder.
He said it was as if a knife had been sliced right into his shoulder, through to the bone.
And he said, he thought he was going to die from this pain of this, from the wound.
And fortunately, it only lasted a little time.
But following this, the room was now filled with an aroma of heavenly perfume or flowers,
the sure sign of Padre Pio's spiritual presence.
And simultaneously, he heard a voice saying, "This is what I had to suffer."
Getting back to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
After he had received this message from Christ, regarding this pain he experienced in the
shoulder, he sought now to foster some sort of a devotion to the shoulder wound of Christ.
And so he formed this particular prayer we're going to have a look at right now.
And this is called his Prayer to the Shoulder Wound of Christ.
"Most loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God.
I a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Thy Shoulder on which
Thou didst bear Thy heavy Cross which so tore Thy flesh and laid bare Thy Bones as to inflict
on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound of Thy Most Blessed Body."
And he continues, "I adore Thee, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify Thee, I give
Thee thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching Thee by that exceeding pain,
and by the crushing burden of Thy heavy Cross to be merciful to me, a sinner, and to forgive
me all of my mortal and my venial sins, and to lead me on towards Heaven along the Way
of Thy Cross."
And this particular story has the imprimatur of the Bishop of Springfield, and that is
Bishop Thomas Beavan.
And now, in a video coming soon, well, we all know that there's been this rather uncanny
series of pandemics.
Is it fearmongering or is it truth?
But the question for us, of course, is can God...
Is He able to draw good out of evil?
So let's have a look at how Padre Pio fought the pandemic in his day.