Padre Pio. From Catholic Forum Online.

Levitation, Tobacco, and Roses

Today is a very exciting feast, that of St. Pius of Pieceltrina, better known to his millions of votaries worldwide as the humble Capuchin stigmatist Padre Pio. He is a saint of our own era, having died only as recently as 1969, one of the most recent saints to be elevated to the glory of the altar.

He was said to be capable of being in two places at once, of healing by touch, and also was able, like fellow Franciscan St. Joseph of Cuptertino before him, to levitate. He could read consciences, heard confessions by the hour and was often an unwitting tourist attraction for the curious after his fame was spread to America by tales brought back by returning GIs after the Second World War.

He received the five wounds of Christ early in his life, in 1918, becoming the first priest to be so blessed by this mystical experience. His bilocation was particularly phenomenal, as he appeared on other continents. He was usually accompanied by a peculiar smell of roses (or possibly tobacco), which seemed to emanate from his wounds.

He was once astonished to discover that a plane flight to the U.S. took six hours while he was capable of the journey in seconds. Even weirder was his spectacular aerial appearance over the town of San Giovanni Rotondo during the Allied liberation of Italy, when he spared it from unwarranted bombing by American troups. His stigmata vanished after death, and he also never celebrated the new Mass, which he could never quite cotton to.

It's hard to top all that in terms of the sanctoral cycle, but I'll take a crack at it. Today's also the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, the Italian patroness of television, who, bedridden, once saw vision of a faraway Mass projected onto the wall of her cell. She is also patroness of eye disease, embroiderers, gilders, and television writers.

Then there's Bl. Emilie Tavernier, who had a pretty cool habit for her Sisters of Providence. There's also St. Guy of Durnes, who revised Cistercian chant at St. Bernard's request. Lastly, there's St. Linus, the second Pope, who hasn't much of a claim to fame except for his mention in the Canon sandwiched between Peter and Cletus. So much for that.

It's very hard to top Padre Pio, really; he's just too cool.