{"id":8373,"date":"2013-03-04T03:35:18","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=8373"},"modified":"2013-03-04T03:35:18","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T03:35:18","slug":"trickster-padre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/trickster-padre\/","title":{"rendered":"Trickster Padre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Padre<\/a>I happened to come across this<\/a> 2011 piece by CSI\u2019s Joe Nickell the other day:<\/p>\n

…In fact, notwithstanding the claims in uncritical biographies, Pio\u2019s stigmata devolved\u2014from bleeding wounds that could easily have been self-inflicted (like those of many fake stigmatists before and after, as I described in my 2001 book Real-Life X-Files) to merely discolored skin that appeared to have been irritated by the application of a caustic substance. Indeed, a bottle of carbolic acid was once discovered in the friar\u2019s cell, and Luzzatto cites letters from Padre Pio in which Pio requests that carbolic acid, and at another time a caustic alkaloid, be secretly delivered to him. Eventually Pio began wearing fingerless gloves, supposedly to cover his stigmata out of pious humility; however, to me, the practice seems instead a shrewd move to eliminate the need to continually self-inflict wounds.<\/p>\n

Nor were the fake stigmata the friar\u2019s only deception. Years before, Pio had written numerous letters to his spiritual directors describing his mystical experiences; however, it is now known that he copied these words verbatim from the writings of stigmatic Gemma Galgani (1878\u20131903) without acknowledging they were hers. And that is not all: Pio attempted to divert suspicion from his plagiarism by asking for help in procuring copies of Galgani\u2019s books\u2014saying he would very much like to read them!<\/p>\n

\u2026By the time of his death in 1968, Pio\u2019s stigmata had disappeared, but that was effectively remedied in death. Although there was no need to cover his hands and feet\u2014and indeed Capuchin rule forbids the wearing of socks\u2014Pio\u2019s \u201cfather guardian,\u201d Father Carmelo of San Giovanni in Galdo, worried that the absence of stigmata might cause a faulty rush to judgment. Carmelo therefore had Padre Pio\u2019s hands and feet covered, as if the covering still concealed his allegedly holy gift. And so the deception continued.<\/p>\n

In 2002, the late friar was canonized Saint Pio of Pietrelcina\u2014not for the stigmata he was so famous for but for his healings that were, with due illogic, assumed miraculous because they were said to be inexplicable. And when his remains were exhumed for display forty years after his death, those hoping his body would be found incorrupt\u2026 or that it would still exhibit the stigmata, were disappointed. The embalmed corpse had deteriorated sufficiently that it required a silicon mask\u2014complete with bushy eyebrows and beard\u2014fashioned by a London wax museum. Of the supposedly supernatural wounds there was not a trace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh well.<\/p>\n

That the friar was a fake is no great surprise, That the Capuchins forbid socks<\/em>, on the other hand\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I happened to come across this 2011 piece by CSI\u2019s Joe Nickell the other day: …In fact, notwithstanding the claims in uncritical biographies, Pio\u2019s stigmata devolved\u2014from bleeding wounds that could easily have been self-inflicted (like those of many fake stigmatists … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,996,250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8376,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8373\/revisions\/8376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}