Francesco Forgione was born in Pietrelcina, near Benevento, on May 25, 1887. He entered the Capuchins at fifteen and was ordained in 1910. In 1916 he was sent to the friary of Our Lady of Grace at San Giovanni Rotondo on the Gargano, and he never left. In September 1918 the wounds of Christ appeared on his hands, feet and side and remained until shortly before his death.
For half a century pilgrims came to his confessional and to his Mass, which could last well over an hour. In 1956 he opened the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, the House for the Relief of Suffering, still one of the largest hospitals in southern Italy. He died on September 23, 1968.
St. John Paul II, who had gone to confession to him as a young priest, beatified him in 1999 and canonized him on June 16, 2002. Since 2013 his body has rested in a glass case in the crypt of the Church of St. Pio, below mosaics by Marko Rupnik. San Giovanni Rotondo is not one of our ten hubs, but it combines naturally with Rome and Assisi.