St Padre Pio: A Poor Friar Who Prays + Tarot Spread

Padre Pio praying with a rosary by candlelight in his monastic cell before dawn

Last night, I accidentally kept vigil with St Padre Pio.

I had watched a video about him before bed. Afterwards, sleep simply refused to happen. Instead of fighting it, I began to pray. I prayed for every person I could remember. Family, friends, clients, people from my past and even those I barely know all came to mind.

By morning, I had slept for roughly three hours. Yet I felt wonderful. More importantly, the energy around me felt quieter and more harmonious, as though the night of prayer had reordered something.

Today, 23 September, is the feast of St Padre Pio. Only after praying through the night did I realise how fitting that was. Behind the stigmata, reported miracles and supernatural stories stood a man who described himself as “a poor brother who prays.”

My own canonisation remains pending. However, last night helped me understand why Padre Pio saw prayer as a vocation rather than one spiritual practice among many.

Jump to The Vigil Tarot Spread

Who Was St Padre Pio?

St Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione on 25 May 1887 in Pietrelcina, southern Italy. His parents were farmers, and the family lived simply. From childhood, Francesco felt drawn to prayer and religious life.

At 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone. He received the Franciscan habit in January 1903 and took the name Brother Pio. Later, he made his solemn profession in 1907 and became a priest on 10 August 1910.

Poor health repeatedly interrupted his formation. In 1916, his superiors sent him to the friary at San Giovanni Rotondo in the hope that the climate would help. Although they intended the move to be temporary, he remained there for the rest of his life.

Padre Pio centred his ministry on the Eucharist, confession, spiritual direction and prayer. As his reputation spread, vast numbers of pilgrims travelled to see him. Some wanted counsel or confession. Meanwhile, others came because they had heard stories about his wounds and mystical gifts.

He died during the night of 23 September 1968 while repeating the names of Jesus and Mary. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1999 and canonised him in 2002.

The Stigmata

St Padre Pio remains best known for bearing the stigmata: wounds corresponding with those of the crucified Christ.

Soon after his ordination, he experienced an early manifestation of the wounds. However, he asked God to remove the visible signs. On 20 September 1918, while praying before a crucifix at San Giovanni Rotondo, the wounds appeared again on his hands, feet and side. They remained for approximately 50 years.

Several doctors examined the wounds. Nevertheless, the attention surrounding them created controversy as well as devotion. Church authorities investigated Padre Pio repeatedly and restricted his public ministry in 1931. For a time, he could celebrate Mass only in private. The restrictions ended in 1933, although further limitations followed decades later.

Padre Pio obeyed even when those decisions caused him great pain. He did not use his mystical experiences to place himself above obedience to the Church.

Miracles and Extraordinary Gifts

Miracles and supernatural gifts formed an undeniable part of St Padre Pio’s life and ministry. Witnesses testified to healings, bilocation, visions, the reading of souls and a mysterious fragrance associated with his presence or intercession.

The Church formally investigated two healings during his journey towards sainthood. The healing of Consiglia De Martino supported his beatification in 1999. Later, the healing of Matteo Pio Colella supported his canonisation in 2002.

Many other events have multiple witnesses or substantial testimony behind them. These belong to the documented record of his life. Beyond them, countless stories continue to circulate among his devotees.

Padre Pio’s ability to read hearts appeared most frequently in the confessional. Penitents reported that he named sins they had forgotten, concealed or struggled to confess. Others experienced healings or received knowledge he could not have acquired through ordinary means.

A Poor Friar Who Prays

The Vatican biography of St Padre Pio says he spent his days and much of his nights in conversation with God. Prayer did not fill the gaps around his real work. Prayer was his work.

However, this was not private spiritual self-absorption. Padre Pio carried other people into prayer. He held their grief, illness, sin and impossible situations before God.

That is intercession.

We can easily turn prayer into another form of self-improvement. We ask for answers, peace, guidance and spiritual progress. None of those things is wrong. Yet prayer matures when it opens the heart beyond the self.

During the Second World War, Padre Pio encouraged people to form prayer groups. These groups became communities of prayer, mercy and service.

Pope Francis later described intercession as bringing people and situations into the heart of God and entrusting them to the Father. That describes my experience last night. I did not need to understand what each person required. Nor did I need to fix anyone. I only needed to remember them before God.

I think that is why last night felt so meaningful.

When Prayer Grows Hands and Feet

Padre Pio did not keep prayer safely inside the friary. Eventually, it took practical form.

In 1940, he began developing plans for the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, or House for the Relief of Suffering. The hospital opened at San Giovanni Rotondo on 5 May 1956.

Padre Pio wanted excellent medical care joined with compassion for the whole person. Therefore, the hospital treated patients as people rather than problems to process. He recognised Christ in those who suffered.

This may be the best corrective to our fascination with his mystical gifts. Padre Pio did not leave behind a school for developing bilocation. He left prayer groups and a hospital.

Padre Pio joined contemplation with practical love. Prayer opened his heart. Then the open heart created somewhere for the sick to receive care.

Padre Pio, Mary and the Rosary

St Padre Pio loved the Blessed Virgin Mary deeply. The Rosary was rarely absent from his hands.

However, his Marian devotion always led towards Christ. Through the mysteries of the Rosary, he contemplated the Incarnation, ministry, Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. Mary accompanied him as Mother and teacher.

At the time of Padre Pio’s beatification, Pope John Paul II recalled his final counsel concerning Our Lady: love her, help others to love her and pray the Rosary continually.

This helps explain why Padre Pio’s spirituality feels both grounded and intense. His days revolved around Mass, confession, the Rosary, intercession and service.

For those of us who enjoy collecting books, systems and spiritual techniques, that simplicity presents a challenge. There is always another subject to study or method to try. Yet more information does not necessarily bring us closer to God.

More often than not, the best thing we can do is take up the beads and remain with Jesus and Mary.

Suffering Is Not the Point

We cannot write honestly about St Padre Pio without discussing suffering. He lived with poor health, the pain of the stigmata, spiritual trials, public accusations and restrictions upon his ministry.

Even so, we should not romanticise pain. Suffering does not automatically make anyone holy. What mattered was the love Padre Pio allowed God to bring forth within suffering. He united his pain with the Passion of Christ. Consequently, his own wounds deepened his compassion for other wounded people.

This feels relevant as I await hip replacement surgery. I have no interest in pretending that physical pain is secretly delightful. It isn’t. Nor do I believe that accepting medical help shows weak faith. Padre Pio founded a hospital, after all.

The Cross does not teach that suffering is good. It reveals that suffering cannot defeat love.

Did Padre Pio Condemn Tarot?

One published testimony addresses Tarot directly. A woman recalled going to confession to Padre Pio in November 1948. During the confession, she mentioned that her family worried about an aunt who read Tarot cards for them.

According to her account, Padre Pio replied in a peremptory tone:

“Throw that stuff away, as soon as you can.”

Padre Pio opposed magic, spiritism and attempts to obtain hidden knowledge through occult means. Within that framework, he would have regarded fortune-telling with Tarot as spiritually dangerous rather than harmless entertainment.

I am not going to soften his response or recruit him into approving my own practice. Nor can I claim that he considered the distinction I make between fortune-telling and using Tarot for personal discernment.

“I Am Not a Fortune Teller”

Another account reveals Padre Pio’s attitude towards fortune-telling more clearly. In 1939, Angela Morano asked him which of several potential husbands she should choose.

Padre Pio initially closed the conversation with two brisk sentences:

“I am not a fortune teller. Pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance.”

Later, he named the man she would marry and made several accurate predictions about their life together. That makes his initial refusal even more interesting. Padre Pio distinguished a charism received from God from fortune-telling on demand. Angela was not meant to surrender a life-changing decision to someone who could simply announce her future. First, she needed to pray and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit.

This also sits at the heart of The Angelorum Tarot Philosophy. I do not use Tarot to predict a fixed future or remove personal responsibility. The cards create space for reflection, discernment and conscious choice. Free will remains with the seeker.

This does not prove that Padre Pio would have approved of my approach. It does, however, allow me to state honestly what I mean by Tarot and why I do not practise fortune-telling.

What Can Padre Pio Teach Tarot Readers?

Divination easily becomes an attempt to control uncertainty. We pull again because we dislike the answer. Next, we ask the same question from another angle. Eventually, anxiety disguises itself as spiritual guidance.

Prayer moves differently. It brings the unknown into relationship with God.

For me, this does not make Tarot useless. Instead, it places the cards in a healthier order. The cards can reveal what I need to bring into prayer. They can expose fear, attachment, avoidance or an invitation to act with love.

Good questions for discernment include:

What am I being asked to entrust to God?
Whom am I being called to carry in prayer?
Where am I trying to control the outcome?
What act of mercy should grow from my prayer?

This approach also shapes my Little Way Tarot Spread inspired by St Thérèse of Lisieux. Both saints turn our attention away from spiritual performance and towards trust, prayer and love.

The Vigil Tarot Spread

Inspired by St Padre Pio, this six-card Tarot spread supports prayerful discernment and intercession. It is not designed to reveal private information about another person. Instead, the cards concern your own invitation to pray, surrender and act with love.

Before shuffling, become still. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your discernment and protect you from curiosity, fear and the desire to control the outcome.

The Vigil Tarot Spread with six cards arranged like a prayer lamp for presence, intercession, surrender, compassion, service and grace

1. Presence — Where Is God Meeting Me Now?

Begin with relationship rather than a problem to solve. What helps you recognise that you already stand in the presence of God?

2. Intercession — Whom or What Am I Asked to Carry?

This may be a person, community or situation. However, the card may show the quality of prayer needed rather than information about the person concerned.

3. Surrender — What Must I Entrust to God?

Where have you confused loving concern with personal responsibility for the outcome? Place what you cannot control into the hands of the Father.

4. Compassion — How Is Prayer Changing My Heart?

Intercession does more than address external circumstances. It also increases our capacity for patience, forgiveness and mercy.

5. Service — What Loving Action Should Follow?

Prayer and action belong together. Therefore, look for a practical response: a message, apology, donation, visit, meal, boundary or other form of care.

6. Grace — Where Is God Already Working?

Finally, return the situation to God. You do not need to understand or manage everything. Let this card reveal hope, healing or Divine activity already present.

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