By Roxanne King
One of the most popular modern-day saints, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, was a humble Capuchin Franciscan priest who ministered in an Italian village and bore the stigmata—the wounds of Christ—for 50 years.
Miraculously, the stigmata disappeared without a trace as he died at age 81 in 1968. The Church observes his feast on the day of his death, September 23.
During Pio’s ministry, a flowery scent emanated from his wounds, he was known to bilocate and he could read souls. He is credited with conversions and miraculous healings. His spiritual fatherhood continues today as a powerful intercessor, perhaps most famously recently in the conversion of A-list actor Shia LaBeouf.
LaBeouf was at the lowest point in his career and personal life when he was asked to play Padre Pio in the eponymous 2022 biopic by director Abel Ferrara. The Capuchin friars at San Lorenzo Seminary in Santa Ynez, Calif., welcomed him into their fraternity as LaBeouf, living in his truck in the parking lot, researched their way of life, Pio, the Mass, the Gospels and, ultimately, the Catholic faith.
LaBeouf took the role hoping to save his career, which was effectively being cancelled. Unexpectedly, it became his “salvific journey.”
“Pio…changed my life,” LaBeouf told Bishop Robert Barron in a 2022 interview. “I feel a deep identification with the Pio figure.”
Describing himself as “an immersive actor” and a “feeler,” LaBeouf told the prelate he was drawn to Pio’s full emotional immersion in the Masses he celebrated: “It feels like there’s a death that happens and a resurrection. … He was an extraordinary feeler, a pro-feeler.”
When Pio was falsely accused of calumnies and the Vatican restricted his public ministry and investigated, the saint accepted the exile with patience and humility. LaBeouf took that as a model for his own exile from Hollywood. “(Pio’s way) was to get quiet and cultivate more of the Christ in him,” he told Bishop Barron. “That became my…modus operandi.”
Speaking about Padre Pio in 1971, St. Paul the VI said, “Look what fame he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? …
“Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was … the one who bore the wounds of Our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering.”
The stigmata was painful, but Pio welcomed it out of compassion for the Suffering Christ and for suffering humanity. Whereas he once saw his own suffering as “pointless,” LaBeouf said he learned that one can offer up their suffering “as purposeful, as intrinsically valuable.”
Br. Jude Quinto from Denver was spending the summer with the friars at Santa Ynez and introduced LaBeouf to the Gospels.
“I told him that the way for him to learn more about Padre Pio—to understand him—was to learn about Christ,” Br. Jude told The Porter.
“The Gospel gave me this invite to just let go,” LaBeouf told Bishop Barron. “At a certain point with Jude I just really fall in.”
LaBeouf let go of trying to control things and surrendered to God.
“Our fraternity is a Gospel brotherhood,” Br. Jude told The Porter. “How we loved and prayed together as a Gospel brotherhood showed how authentic the spirituality of Padre Pio was and how the same spirit of Gospel brotherhood that Padre Pio professed and lived is very much alive in our fraternity and in our order.”
LaBeouf also spent time at Padre Pio’s friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy. His admiration for Pio deepened as he spoke to friars who had known him. He also visited Pio’s tomb. Br. Alex Rodriguez from Santa Ynez accompanied LaBeouf to Italy to serve as spiritual advisor for the film. He also appears in the film.
Bishop Barron told LaBeouf that he believes Padre Pio, like the Capuchins, played a role in drawing him to God.
“Your playing Padre Pio, I see, is a result of his intervention in your life from his heavenly place,” he said. “Praise God for that.”
Br. Jude agrees.
“The saints are living,” he told The Porter. “They are with God, and in God, and working through God. Even before the whole fiasco and downfall and all the struggles Shia LaBeouf was facing, God already knew about it and had sent Padre Pio to him.”
Bishop Barron received LaBeouf into the Church on Dec. 31, 2023. Br. Alex was LaBeouf’s Confirmation sponsor. Br. Jude served as an acolyte at the Mass.
