The Astounding Tortures the demons put Padre Pio through

Padre Pio was in his room mainly at night.  Loud thuds were heard that scared the friars.  When they would go to Padre Pio’s room, they would discover him “drenched in sweat, and his clothes had to be changed from head to foot.”[1]

Certain people who came to the friary didn’t believe the reports of such strange occurrences; they laughed at it as the product of a monk’s imagination.  One time Bishop Andrea D’Agostino, the Bishop of Ariano Irpino was a guest at the monastery.  He looked at Padre Pio’s story as a fabulous, medieval tale.  However, while he was eating with the friars, he was startled by a great rumbling noise above in the ceiling.  He turned pale and trembled.[2]  The Bishop’s assistant, who was eating in the guest room, ran into the refectory filled with fear.  The Bishop was so scared that he did not want to sleep alone that night.  The next morning he left the monastery and never came back.[3] 

Early one morning, after everyone had fallen asleep, Padre Pio heard a knock on his door.  It seemed to be Fr. Agostino (his spiritual director) asking to come in.  Padre Pio said, “Come in …why have you come… How did you get here?”  Fr. Agostino said: “God sent me.  He is displeased with you.”  Padre Pio was stunned:  “What?” said Padre Pio as he swung his legs over the bed and began to get out of bed.  “No, no, no need to rise.  I only came to say God does not approve of your practice of penance.”  Padre Pio said: “If you are truly here at God’s request, you must give me a sign.  I ask you to say the name of Jesus.”  At that moment Agostino’s lips parted and he started to laugh; his voice changed.  Padre Pio tried to reach out and touch his brown robe.  The apparition vanished, leaving behind a strong smell of sulphur.[4]  Speaking about this event in a letter on July 28, 1914, Padre Pio said: “The devil, as you know, is a great artificer of evil… he could deceive you by some diabolical illusion or apparition disguised as an angel of light…This unhappy apostate even knows how to disguise himself as a Capuchin and to act the part quite well.  I beg you to believe one who has undergone an experience of this nature.”[5]

In a letter to his spiritual director on December 18, 1912, Padre Pio said: “The other night the devil appeared to me in the likeness of one of our Fathers and gave me a very strict order from Father Provincial not to write to you any more, as it is against poverty and a serious obstacle to perfection.  I confess my weakness, dear Father, for I wept bitterly, believing this to be a fact.  I should never have even faintly suspected this to be one of the ogre’s snares if the Angel had not revealed the fraud to me.”[6]

Padre Pio was attacked quite frequently by devils which were called by Padre Pio “impure fiends” and “ugly monsters.”  There were interior and exterior assaults, which included howls, tremors, noises, and flying objects.  One incident he described to his spiritual director:

“It was late at night and they began their assaults with devilish noise.  Although I saw nothing at first, I understood who was producing the strange sound.  Instead of getting terrified, I prepared for the battle by facing them with a sneering smile. Then they came before me under the most detestable appearances.  Then to get me to abuse God’s grace, they began to treat me with kid gloves.  But thank heaven I told them off good, and dealt with them according to what they were worth.  When they saw their efforts go up in smoke they hurled themselves on me, threw me to the floor, and gave me terrific blows, throwing into the air pillows, books, and chairs, at the same time letting out desperate cries and uttering extremely filthy words.”[7]

Padre Pio’s letter to his spiritual director, October 14, 1912 states: “The devil wants the absolute ending of all relations and communications with you.  He threatens that if I obstinately refuse to pay attention to him, he will do things to me that the human mind could never conceive.”[8]

Speaking about the devil and his demons, Padre Pio revealed the mind-boggling ferocity of their devilish malice: “The ogre won’t admit defeat.  He has appeared in almost every form.  For the past few days, he has paid me visits along with some of his satellites armed with clubs and iron weapons and, what is worse, in their own form as devils.”[9]

Padre Pio revealed more of the incredible sufferings the devil put him through: “Who knows how many times he has thrown me out of the bed and dragged me around the room?...The other night was one of the worst.  From ten o’clock when I went to bed until five o’clock in the morning, that evil one did not stop beating me…I really thought that that was the last night of my life; or, if I did not die, I would go insane.  At five o’clock in the morning, when the evil one left, my whole being was enveloped in such cold I was shivering from head to foot.  It lasted a few hours.  I was bleeding from the mouth…”[10] 

Another time Padre Pio described the demons’ reaction when he received a letter from his spiritual director: “When I received your letter recently and before I had opened it, those wretches told me to tear it up or else throw it in the fire.  If I did this, they would withdraw for good and would never trouble me again.  I kept silent without giving them any answer, while in my heart I despised them.  Then they added: ‘We want this merely as a condition for our withdrawal.  In doing so you will not be showing contempt for anyone.’  I replied that nothing would make me change my mind.  They flung themselves upon me like so many hungry tigers, cursing me and threatening to make me pay for it.  My dear Father, they kept their word!  From that day onward they have beaten me every day.”[11] 

The devil appeared sometimes in the form of... a naked young woman performing an impure dance, or as a prison-guard who would whip him, or under the appearance of Christ Crucified, his spiritual father, his Father Provincial, his guardian angel, Our Lady, or St. Francis.[12]  Other times the devil would spit in his face and torment him with deafening noises.[13]

Padre Pio referred to the Devil and demons as: “big whiskers, whiskers, the ogre, scoundrel, miserable, evil spirit, wretch, filthy wretch, foul beast, woeful wretch, hideous faces, impure spirits, those scoundrels, wicked spirit, horrible beast, accursed beast, infamous apostate, impure apostates, gallows-bird, howling wild beasts, malignant deceiver, prince of darkness.”[14]

On the evening of July 5, 1964, a cry for help was heard in the Friary: “My brothers, help me!”  It was Padre Pio asking for help.  His brothers ran to help him and found Padre Pio lying on the floor, bleeding from the nose and forehead, and with a number of wounds above his right eyebrow.”[15]

One time the evil one spoke through a possessed person, and shouted: “Padre Pio, don’t snatch the souls from us and we will not molest you!”[16]

A spiritual son said to Padre Pio, “Father, some people deny the existence of the devil”; Padre Pio responded: “How can one doubt his existence when I see him around me all the time?”[17]

One time the devil entered the confessional and pretended to make a confession.  Padre Pio recalled the incredible occurrence:

“One morning, while I was confessing the men, a tall, thin man dressed in a rather refined manner and with good manners presented himself to me.  When he knelt down, this stranger began to confess his sins which were of every kind against God, against his neighbor, against the moral law; they were all aberrant!  One thing struck me.  After my reprimanding all those accusations, using the word of God, the Teaching of the Church, and the moral teaching of the Saints to back up my words, this puzzling penitent counterbalanced my words, justifying, with great ability and rare gentility, all types of sins, emptying them of all malice and trying, at the same time, to make all sinful acts appear to be normal, natural, humanly indifferent.  And this did not only concern horrifying sins against God, Jesus, Our Lady and the Saints…but also sins that were morally so dirty and coarse that they reached the most nauseating levels imaginable.

“The replies that this mysterious penitent gave every now and then to my arguments, with able subtlety and with cotton-wooled malice, made a terrible impression on me.  I thought to myself: ‘Who is this?  What world does he come from.  Whoever is he?’  And I tried to look at him carefully in the face in order to perhaps eventually read something from between the lines of his face, and at the same time I listened very carefully to his every word so that none of them would escape me and I could weigh them up in all their significance.  At a certain point, by way of an interior, vivid and brilliant light, I clearly perceived who it was before me.  And with a decided and urgent tone I said to him: ‘Say: Live Jesus!  Live Mary!’  As soon as I pronounced these most sweet and powerful names, Satan immediately disappeared in a flicker of fire, leaving behind him a suffocating stench.”[18]    

In a letter on March 2, 1917, Padre Pio said: “You must turn to God when you are assaulted by the enemy; you must hope in Him and expect everything that is good from him.  Don’t voluntarily dwell on what the enemy presents to you.  Remember that he who flees wins…”[19]

Padre Pio also explained that the devil cannot harm us spiritually unless we let him in:

“The devil is like a mad dog tied by a chain.  Beyond the length of the chain he cannot catch hold of anyone.  And you, therefore, keep your distance.  If you get too close you will be caught.  Remember, the devil has only one door with which to enter into our soul: our will.  There are no secret or hidden doors.  No sin is a true sin if we have not willfully consented.”[20]

Padre Pio said: “I don’t have a minute of free time; it is all spent releasing brethren from the grip of Satan.  Blessed be God!  The greatest charity is that of liberating souls captivated by Satan and winning them for Christ.”[21]

At the end of Padre Pio’s life (at the age of 80) he was not able to even turn over by himself in bed.  Padre Pio had to be lifted into and out of his chair.  At times when he would be in his chair, praying the rosary, he would suddenly be thrown out of the chair and onto the ground by the devil.[22]

Padre Pio said: “If the devil is making an uproar, it is an excellent sign: what is terrifying is his peace and concord with a man’s soul.”[23]