Padre Pio
Padre Pio is the patron of civil defense volunteers because Italy’s Protezione Civile chose him as their heavenly protector in gratitude: he had founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (“Home for the Relief of Suffering”), a great hospital, and his whole life was spent relieving bodily and spiritual affliction — the very work of those who rush to help in disaster. He is invoked for stress relief and by adolescents because of his gift for reading souls in the confessional, where he spent up to sixteen hours a day; troubled young people in particular found in this gentle, suffering friar — who bore the stigmata for fifty years — a confessor who understood their inner storms before they spoke.
Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was an Italian Capuchin friar who bore the stigmata for fifty years. Born Francesco Forgione in 1887, he experienced mystical phenomena including bilocation, healing, and the ability to read souls. His Masses drew enormous crowds and he spent hours each day hearing confessions. He founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza hospital.
