What did Padre Pio mean by "Pray, hope, and don’t worry"?

It was his habitual counsel to the anxious souls who came to him: bring everything to God in prayer, trust him with the outcome, and refuse to be ruled by worry. It is not a dismissal of real trouble but a whole spirituality of surrender — the peace that comes from entrusting your fears to God rather than rehearsing them.

What were the stigmata of Padre Pio?

The stigmata are the visible wounds of Christ’s Passion — in the hands, feet, and side. Padre Pio received them on September 20, 1918, while praying before a crucifix, becoming the first priest known to bear them, and he carried them for about fifty years. The Church examined the phenomenon carefully over decades before his canonization.

When is the Feast of St. Padre Pio?

September 23, the day of his death in 1968. He was beatified in 1999 and canonized as St. Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002, by Pope St. John Paul II. Many Catholics pray a nine-day novena to him ending on his feast.

Did Padre Pio battle the devil?

His own letters describe severe trials, including what he understood as physical and spiritual assaults from the devil. These accounts are his personal testimony and spiritual witness, not the defined teaching of the Church, and their consistent lesson is confidence in God, not fascination with evil. What the Church declared in canonizing him is the holiness of his life and the miracles attributed to his intercession — and the path he pointed to for a lifetime: confession, the Eucharist, and the Rosary.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio)

The Capuchin friar of the confessional and the stigmata — whose counsel to a fearful world was simply, "Pray, hope, and don’t worry."

Feast: September 23By Brother MichaelUpdated Jul 21, 2026

Quick Facts

Born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy; died September 23, 1968.
A Capuchin friar and priest, known for hearing confessions many hours a day.
Bore the visible stigmata — the wounds of Christ — for about fifty years, from 1918 until near his death.
Founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza ("Home for the Relief of Suffering") hospital in 1956.
Beatified in 1999 and canonized on June 16, 2002 by Pope St. John Paul II.

Who Was Padre Pio?

Francesco Forgione was born in 1887 to a farming family in the southern Italian village of Pietrelcina and entered the Capuchin Franciscans as a teenager, taking the name Fra Pio. Ordained a priest in 1910, he spent almost his entire life at the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo in the region of Puglia. On September 20, 1918, while praying before a crucifix, he received the stigmata — the visible wounds of Christ’s Passion in his hands, feet, and side — becoming the first priest known to bear them, and he carried them for roughly fifty years. The phenomenon drew immense attention and, for a long period, caution from Church authorities, who at times restricted his public ministry while his case was examined; he accepted these restrictions in obedience. What most defined his life was not the extraordinary but the relentlessly ordinary demand of the confessional: Padre Pio heard confessions for many hours a day, year after year, and pilgrims came from across the world to confess to him and to attend his Mass. He was a man of intense prayer, devotion to the Rosary, and practical charity — in 1956 he opened the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, "the Home for the Relief of Suffering," a hospital that still operates today. His letters and spiritual direction, gathered in his published correspondence, are marked by a robust realism about the spiritual life, including his own accounts of severe trials and what he described as physical and spiritual assaults from the devil. These accounts come from his personal letters and testimony — the ardent record of one friar’s inner life — and should be read as pastoral and devotional witness rather than as the defined teaching of the Church. He died on September 23, 1968. After a thorough examination of his life and heroic virtue, Pope St. John Paul II beatified him in 1999 and canonized him as St. Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002 — recognizing the sanctity of his life and the miracles attributed to his intercession, which is what the Church’s canonization actually declares.

Why Padre Pio Matters Today

Padre Pio speaks with unusual directness to an anxious generation, and his most famous words are almost a whole spirituality: "Pray, hope, and don’t worry." He is proof that the front line of the spiritual life is not the dramatic confrontation but the confessional — that the Church’s ordinary, unglamorous means of grace are exactly where souls are actually defended and healed. For anyone weighed down by fear, scruples, or the sense of being under spiritual pressure, Padre Pio’s counsel is bracingly practical: go to confession, receive the Eucharist, pray the Rosary, entrust your worries to God, and stop rehearsing them. His own accounts of struggle with the enemy are told from the inside of a life utterly surrendered to Christ, and their lesson is never fascination with evil but confidence in God and fidelity to the sacraments. He is invoked today by the suffering and the sick, by those preparing to confess, by young people, and by the simply overwhelmed — a saint of our own century who understood both the reality of spiritual combat and the peace that outlasts it.

Prayer to Padre Pio

Dear St. Pio of Pietrelcina, faithful friar of the wounds of Christ, you spent your life in prayer and at the altar, and welcomed the weary and the fearful in the confessional with the words, "Pray, hope, and don’t worry." Ask for me the grace I now entrust to your prayers (name your intention), and above all the grace of a true and humble confession, a deeper love of the Eucharist, and peace of heart in every trial. By your intercession, may I be freed from needless fear, steadfast against temptation, and kept close to Jesus and Mary all my days, until I come at last to the joy of heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

When and How to Pray to Padre Pio

Padre Pio is a saint for the confessional and for the anxious heart — pray to him before going to confession, in seasons of fear or scruples, for the sick and suffering, and for young people. His whole counsel was to entrust everything to God: "Pray, hope, and don’t worry." Because he lived and died in the twentieth century, prayers to him are in the modern languages rather than in a fixed Latin text. A traditional practice is to name one intention and carry it in a novena; many Catholics also pray the "Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus," which Padre Pio himself is said to have prayed daily for those who asked his prayers, and the prayer beginning "Stay with me, Lord," long associated with his thanksgiving after Communion (its exact authorship is uncertain, so it is best received simply as a prayer connected with his devotion). All of these are petitions to God through St. Pio’s intercession. If you feel yourself under real spiritual pressure, follow the path Padre Pio himself pointed to for a lifetime: confession, the Eucharist, the Rosary — and, in serious cases, the counsel of your parish priest.

Novena to Padre Pio

A novena to St. Pio is nine consecutive days of prayer for his intercession, often prayed before his feast on September 23 or before a specific need — a confession, an illness, a burdened conscience. Each day the faithful bring one named intention, ask St. Pio’s prayers, and commonly add an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. Padre Pio’s own daily practice points to a related devotion: he is widely reported to have prayed the "Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus" every day for the many people who begged his prayers — a novena addressed to Jesus, drawn from the Gospel promise "ask and you shall receive." Whether praying to the Sacred Heart in Padre Pio’s manner or asking St. Pio’s intercession directly, the form is the same: persistent petition to God, carried faithfully over nine days, in the spirit of his own words — "Pray, hope, and don’t worry."

Frequently Asked Questions

Prayers to St. Pio ask his intercession in the spirit of his own famous counsel, "Pray, hope, and don’t worry" — especially for a good confession, for the sick and suffering, and for peace in times of fear. Because he lived in the twentieth century, these prayers are in the modern languages rather than a fixed Latin text; the one on this page names a personal intention and asks his prayers.