On Friday, September 20, 1968, exactly fifty years to the day and hour since the celestial visitor pierced his hands, feet, and side in the screaming choir loft, Padre Pio marked his golden jubilee of the stigmata. Over forty thousand pilgrims from across the globe filled every inch of the mountain sanctuary, holding lighted torches in the autumn night, unaware that their beloved spiritual father had only seventy-two hours left to live.
Key Findings & Archival Record
- The Historic Milestone: September 20, 1968: exactly 50 years (half a century) of continuous, open, bleeding stigmata lesions.
- The Gathering: Over 40,000 pilgrims, international prayer group leaders, and hundreds of journalists assembled at San Giovanni Rotondo.
- The Secret Prophecy Fulfilled: Decades earlier, Padre Pio had confided to his spiritual director Father Benedetto that his wounds would last exactly 50 years, after which he would return to dust.
- Physical Condition: Severe physical exhaustion, asthma, circulatory failure, and wheels required for mobility, yet his mind remained crystal clear and serene.
The fiftieth anniversary of the stigmata was not a celebration of earthly longevity. It was the solemn closing of an unrepeatable mystical contract: fifty continuous years of bearing in human flesh the raw, bleeding Passion of the Son of God.
The Scene Lede: A Sea of Torches in the Autumn Night
As dusk fell over Mount Gargano on September 20, 1968, the massive plaza before the new church of Our Lady of Grace became a shimmering constellation of fire. Tens of thousands of pilgrims, bundled in wool against the crisp mountain winds, held lighted candles and torches aloft. Choirs sang the Te Deum in Italian, Latin, French, and English, their voices echoing across the limestone valleys.
Inside the friary, an eighty-one-year-old Padre Pio sat in his armchair, breathing with difficulty. When his confreres rolled his wheelchair toward the open window overlooking the square, the immense crowd erupted in thunderous applause and weeping. Slowly, with trembling effort, the aged friar raised his right hand, wrapped in brown wool fingerless gloves, and traced the Sign of the Cross over the ocean of faces.
The Nut Graph: The Mystery of the 50-Year Term
In the early months of his mystical affliction in late 1918, Padre Pio had written to his spiritual director Father Benedetto of San Marco in Lamis, expressing intense confusion and begging God to remove the exterior visible marks while leaving the interior pain intact. In that early correspondence, preserved in the friary archives, the friar noted an interior revelation that the wounds would remain with him for fifty years, a full half-century.
Now, on September 20, 1968, that exact half-century was fulfilled to the very day. Those close to him noted a subtle, extraordinary physiological change beginning to unfold beneath the bandages: the deep open lesions that had bled daily since the end of World War I were beginning to recede, sealing up from within as the mystical covenant approached its conclusion.
Forensic Evidence & Archival Records: The Final Medical Briefing
Dr. Giuseppe Sala, personal physician to Padre Pio and chief medical officer of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, examined the friar during these anniversary days. In his archival clinical logs, Dr. Sala noted that Padre Pio’s cardiovascular system was in severe, irreversible decompensation. His pulse was irregular, his extremities were chronically cold, and pulmonary congestion required constant oxygen administration.
Yet, astonishingly, Dr. Sala noted that the edges of the hand lesions, which for fifty years had resisted all human and natural healing agents, were drying up. There was no pus, no inflammation, and no sign of infection. The wounds that had confounded pathologists for half a century were preparing to vanish without a trace.
Spiritual Reality & Discernment: The Request to Die
When his provincial superior, Father Carmelo of San Giovanni in Galdo, visited him to offer congratulations on the golden jubilee, Padre Pio looked at him with profound exhaustion and whispered a poignant plea:
“Father Provincial, fifty years have passed. My course is completed. Give me the obedience to die.”
Father Carmelo, moved to tears, replied: “Padre, live as long as the Lord wills it for His glory and the good of souls.” Padre Pio bowed his head in humble submission: “Fiat voluntas Tua.” Only two days remained before the altar would witness his final public sacrifice.
Institutional Bibliography & Primary Sources
The documentation of the fiftieth anniversary and the events of September 20, 1968, are preserved in eyewitness records:
- Ruffin, C. Bernard. Padre Pio: The True Story. Our Sunday Visitor, 1991, Chapter XXVI: “Give Me the Obedience to Die.”
- Sala, Dr. Giuseppe. *Diario clinico degli ultimi giorni di Padre Pio da Pietrelcina.* Archives of the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza.
- Zavala, José María. Padre Pío: Los milagros desconocidos del santo de los estigmas. LibrosLibres, 2010.
- Funicelli, Padre Pellegrino. Padre Pio tra cielo e terra: Testimonianza dell’ultimo assistente. Edizioni Padre Pio, 1999.
Continue reading our 52-week archival investigation: witness the dramatic celebration of his final Mass and his public collapse at the altar in our next installment: Part 41: The Last Mass: September 22, 1968: The Bare Hands at the Altar.
