Physical condition

Besides the stigmata which he bore most of his life and the lifelong periods of the dark Night of the soul, “Padre Pio’s medical reports [from the time he was a young man and then friar], as was evident from the symptoms mentioned in the letters, never showed a clean bill of health. He never enjoyed good health and what is more, his condition worsened as the years passed.

However, while there is no doubt as to the pathological facts, it is equally certain that no doctor was ever able to give a satisfactory and convincing diagnosis and no specialist succeeded in producing a scientific explanation of the latent presence and adequate cause of the more disconcerting symptoms and their sudden and equally disconcerting temporary disappearance.

From God Alone

The phenomenon [of his continual illnesses, writes his spiritual director] was rather a mystery to Padre Pio himself, but he never had any doubts as to divine intervention with regard to the origin and development of his illness, the distressing effects of which were known to himself alone.

Neither did he ever cherish the hope of being cured even though he submitted to medical treatment from time to time for contingent human reasons or motives of obedience:

From God Alone

Writing to his spiritual father, Padre Benedetto, he said,

“The idea of being cured after all these storms sent by the Most High seems like a dream to me, indeed a meaningless phrase” (14-3-1910).

“I am unaware of the cause and I silently adore and kiss the hand of the one who strikes me” (26-5-1910).

“I am fully convinced, after your own assurance to this effect, that, since my illness is due to a special permission of God, I do not need any doctors (6-10-1911).

“I see that my health is growing worse and although I realize that human means and remedies cannot stop the course of my illness until the Lord is pleased to intervene directly, yet at times it is necessary for charitable motives to follow or rather to transcend the desires of others” (28-7-
H 1915).

Convinced of this transcendent purpose of the sickness which tortured his body to an atrocious degree, Padre Pio had pity on the doctors who insisted on applying remedies advised by science in the hope of obtaining at least some slight improvement.

“There was, in fact, a slight improvement, though certainly not as a result of their therapy.

“In January, as I told you in my last, I had one of my usual relapses. I had a very high fever and severe pneumonia. The doctor, poor man, considered my case to be desperate. And at the beautiful moment when I was beginning to taste the delights of the ‘winter is past,’ I was miraculously cured and then cast out again on the deep sea to fight the good fight.

Spiritual Resignation

I was utterly disappointed, but then, Jesus permits it and authority observes it, so I willingly resign myself to everything” (23-2-1917).

“What am I to say to you about my physical state? I prefer not to speak of it, as to me it is something negligible and all I long for is that God may come to deal me his last blow” (15-8-1916).

Perhaps at that time he did not foresee that this “last blow” was not to be dealt until fifty years later!

His symptoms are variously described in the letters, even though not in technical terms. They present a very complex clinical picture of the ailments which afflicted his frail body: extremely high and very frequent fevers, lung trouble. agonizing chest pains, crippling rheumatism, violent headaches.

“By God’s will I still continue in very poor health. But what torments me most of all are the severe pains in my chest. At times these are so violent that it seems they must split my back and chest” (4-9-1910).

“My cough is so severe and continual, especially during the night, that it almost splits my chest and I am frequently so afraid that I say the act of contrition (29-11-1910).

For several days I have been afflicted by severe headache which makes it impossible for me to concentrate on anything (27-5-1915) I cannot go any further because the headache I men-
tioned in my last is becoming more and more unbearable” (l-6-1915).

Science was sceptical, powerless and in fact vanquished in face of these baffling symptoms and in view of the futility of treatment according to the latest findings of medicine:

“The doctor has told me: ‘I can do nothing for you (2-6-1911).

“The medicines I have taken might as well have been thrown down a well.”

When he was called for military service further specialists had an opportunity to observe the deplorable an inexplicable state of his feeble and wasted body. —Letter, Volume 1