You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast, 2021. Today is also the feast day of an

incredible saint, Saint Padre Pio. Now, one of the many incredible things about St. Padre Pio is that he received stigmata,

the mystical wounds of Jesus Christ. He had nail wounds in his hands and in his feet. And these

were not from an injury. They appeared mystically.

Also, they bled constantly.

For years and years, there are many reports that the blood coming out of his hands,

it bled so much that it should have killed him, that amount of loss of blood.

But also amazingly, the blood he lost smelt like roses. Now, he was a wonder worker, a reader of souls,

and a profound example of humility. He also was a member of our faith, of our religion, the Catholic

church. And one thing that many people struggle with is that they, they don't want to have someone telling them what to do. They don't want to have all of the rules. So Padre Pio, a man very, very close to Jesus Christ, a very holy man, a man who many people called a living saint

while he was still alive, he totally submitted himself to the authority of the church.

He totally submitted himself to the authority of the religion he belonged to. One of my favorite St. Padre Pio's stories is that he was going in to have surgery.

He needed to have his gallbladder removed, which of course they're going to have to cut you open.

It's very painful.

And so at the time, he had stigmata, but the authorities of the church had told him that he could not let

anyone see them now the church oftentimes does this because they want to protect people from having

devotions to the wrong things you know he people saw his wounds, oh, he's a very holy man.

I need to go and touch him or something.

And yes, he was very holy, but the church needed to investigate

before they were willing to say that indeed,

these were the wounds of Christ,

because unfortunately, there are people in this world that lie or fake things.

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