PADRE PIO MEETS SAINTS LINUS, THECLA, BLESSEDS WILLIAM WAY & GUY OF TURNES

Even though I spent 8 years writing a book on Padre Pio,  I have been ignorant of the saints who share his feast day, September 23. Now, my understanding is that a dazzling list of saints also have this day! Pio holds it because he died on this day.

The same day as Pope St. Linus, who was our second Pope. He is mentioned by St. Paul in 2^nd Timothy 4. Linus was ordained by Pope St. Peter, and they are buried next to each other. 

Aspects of his biography are a matter of debate, but a certain fact is that he is listed among the Popes in the Canon of the Mass, and he was the Pope who decreed that all women have their hair veiled at the divine services. 

His charisms were extraordinary; he could raise the dead and drive out evil spirits. Here’s where he got into hot water. Linus exorcised the daughter of a devious consul, Saturnius, who instead of being thankful, had Linus’s head lopped off. Linus is most remembered for ordering that women cover their heads, and perhaps us ladies who go under-cover might put our head-coverings (be they hats, even bonnets, too) under his protection. 

If Linus came in for special mention by St. Paul, St. Thecla was converted and became a virgin for Christ after she heard Paul preach. She, too, went to her Spouse on the 23^rd of September, circa the year 100, about 21 years after Linus had passed. So, she was an immediate beneficiary of his papacy, and I bet she kept her locks covered at Mass, too. 

When she became a Christian, Thecla was thrown out of home by her family. That’s not all – when she refused to marry the suitor they had in mind for her – they tried to burn her to death. Her folks certainly don’t sound pleasant or tolerant. The pyre, however, was put out by a sudden shower of rain just as Thecla was about to leap in with abandon as she made the sign of the Cross. 

She escaped to Antioch, and her faith got her in trouble again, but she also survived an attack of bulls with their fierce horns. Then a sojourn in a deadly snake pit. When they witnessed these miracles, several were converted on the spot, even though they had seen with their own eyes that which could befall them. 

Then she became a hermit on the side of a hill where she lived out the rest of her days. Thecla is considered a martyr because she was one in her conscience and in her intention to die. She is invoked in the rites for the dying and in the official prayer for a departing soul, “As Thou didst deliver the holy virgin and martyr Thecla from three most gruesome torments, so deliver the soul of this Thy servant; and let him/her enjoy with Thee the blessings of heaven. Amen.”

Jumping ahead to more recent times, well 1588, there is also Blessed William Way who perished on the 23^rd. William was born in Exeter, but was a seminarian in France because the Faith was illegal on English soil. He became a recusant Catholic priest in the time of Elizabeth I, just those details alone send a shiver down the spine and foreshadow his gruesome death. 

He got caught and was sent to be hung, drawn and quartered. But William Way went to have his body cut into squares looking flooded with joy. 

The blessed with perhaps the most intriguing connection to Padre Pio, however, is Blessed Guy of Turnes who was St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s right hand man. Blessed Guy had a diehard commitment to the Cistercian way of life but he was also exceptionally smart, so much so that St. Bernard asked him to revise the Cistercian liturgical chant. 

It can’t be altogether “coincidental” that he was esteemed so highly by St. Bernard – who was given the divine revelation from Our Lord that His shoulder wound caused him the most agony. Padre Pio’s shoulder wound was that which caused him the most pain, and it’s a deep connection to St. Bernard that Pio has the same feast as his most trusted aide. Pio told Pope John Paul II, when John Paul was a young priest that his shoulder wound was the most severe ache. 

This provokes controversy, especially among people who question aspects of John Paul II’s papacy, but as a biographer of Pio, I believe Pio did confide this most secret part of his stigmata to the young Pole. I hold that John Paul II was telling the truth, and that in telling him, Pio was already treating him like he were Pope, because only the Pope could have asked and received an answer to such an intimate question without written permission. 

Everyone else who asked as to Pio’s stigmata had to have solid documentation. The only person who could have been given an answer without the necessary paperwork was the Pope. 

Pio, I didn’t know you were in such good company! Ss Linus, Thecla, Blesseds William Way and Guy of Turnes, Pio, pray for us, and happy feast everyone.