Padre Pio

[Pravoslavnik]

Steve,

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  I don't pretend to have the answers to these questions, but let me ask them.  

1) How do you interpret St. Paul's statement in his epistle that "I no longer live for myself, but it is Christ who dwells within me..and I now bear on my body the marks of the Lord." What "marks" do you think St. Paul was referring to here?

2) What heretical teaching(s) did Padre Pio espouse in his attempts to mislead people?

3) Did Padre Pio attempt to draw attention to himself, or attempt to advertise his stigmata to the public? My impression is that the Roman Catholic authorities disparaged him, and tried to conceal him from the public.

[Pravoslavnik]

Steve,

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   It is not for me to interpret this scripture from the [i]Epistle to the Galatians[/i] regarding the stigmata of St. Paul.  For these scriptures are not subject to mere private interpretation, but must rather be interpreted for us by the holy saints.  A tree is known by its fruit, and I do wonder what the fruit of Padre Pio's life has been.  I can tell you that my uncle, who was an American soldier fighting in Italy during World War II, once made a trip to see Padre Pio, and was profoundly moved by this experience.  My uncle remained a devout Roman Catholic right up until his death two years ago at the age of 88.

[Pravoslavnik]

Steve,

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   I read the Wikipedia article on Padre Pio today.  (Not to say that it is necessarily reliable.)  It does raise a few questions about whether Padre Pio's "stigmata" may have been fraudulent.  Apparently, there were those even within the Papacy, who suspected at times that Padre Pio may have used carbolic acid to create the stigmata on his hands.  Interestingly, the Wikipedia article also reported that Padre Pio's body was embalmed with fomalin, "to preserve his body" at the time of his death!  The article raised more questions than it answered for me.