Defending Padre Pio

I came upon an article about St. Pio in the London Telegraph published sometime in 2007. The article reports on a book by Sergio Luzzatto written about the saint. The book alleges that St. Pio used carbolic acid to fake his stigmata. This allegation left me a little disturbed, to say the least. After all, he is my patron saint. And here, I want to say a few words in his defense. I have not had the chance to see the book; much less read it. Agreed, in order to make a good defense, one ought to examine its contents. Looks like, I am not going to bother taking a look at it. I just need to focus on one line in the article.The article cites one incident where Padre Pio requested a Maria De Vito to get him 4 grams of pure carbolic acid. The article also emphasizes that Padre Pio instructed her not tell anyone about it. This is taken to mean that Padre pio was using carbolic acid to inflict stigmata like wounds on his body.
I would like to mention a few words about the chemical and pharmacological properties of Carbolic acid. Carbolic acid is an old name for phenol. It has been used in curing certain cases of ailments. But phenol is a highly toxic compound. The lowest reported lethal dose for human is 140mg per kg of body weight. It is used for execution by injection at least in the Nazi concentration camps. It is a neurotoxic compound with offensive smell. Phenolic fume causes irritation of eye and the respiratory tract.
Padre Pio’s biography tells us that he received stigmata sometime in 1911. If Padre had discovered that by applying carbolic acid on the skin he could produce wound resembling Christ’s wound on his body, then its seems logical to assume that external application of an agent would produce a visible external lesion, and yet biographical accounts of padre Pio clearly state that stigmata were of internal in nature at the beginning.
According to the news article, it was July of 1919, when Padre Pio made the request for Phenol. Clearly, this would suggest that one-time application of phenol is not sufficient to create a permanent wound. Therefore, one would have to apply phenol from time to time to give a look of permanency to the wounds. Padre carried stigmata on the palms, back of his palms, feet and side of his chest for 50 years. Four grams of phenol that he procured in 1919 surely would not have been enough to keep it going. He must have needed new supplies of phenol. Was Maria De Vito his only source? Or there were others? If there were others, have they come forward to testify?
Phenol is a systemic poison. It is also a strong denaturing agent. It destroys protein component of the cells. So, chronic exposure to it for 50 long years, even at sub-lethal dose, would produce, besides skin lesion, other harmful effects on the body. I would expect he would exhibit symptoms of semi-paralyzed fingers due to the damaged nerves at least in and around the regions where phenol was applied. But he did not seem to have such problems as evidenced by his continued ability to offer Eucharistic Sacrifice which required tactile fingers for the operation till his very old age. Besides, phenol is very readily absorbed by the skin. If the allegation of Sergio Luzzatto is true, Padre Pio would have sub-lethal amounts of phenol circulating in his body for 50 years. I can neither reconstruct his health profile nor tell how he would look like after poisoning himself continually with phenol for 50 years. But even a quick google search would reveal the range of debilitating effects phenol would have on human health. By contrast, and from all accounts, Padre Pio, in his later years, enjoyed good health.
Phenol has a very strong disagreeable smell. The smell is irritating and produces burning sensation. Even a trace amount of phenol produces readily detectable and unmistakable smell. A person applying phenol on his body on a regular basis ought to be carrying phenolic smell around him. It is said that Padre Pio exuded odor resembling rose fragrance. Smell of pure phenol is not rose fragrance. So he must have perfumed himself with fragrance of rose. A Franciscan who wears perfume! Now that’s news! A boy of nine, who fasted regularly, slept on hard surface, used rock as pillow, spent long time on his knees praying, was now beginning to wear perfume to hide a secret. Seems like an overextended thread of storyline. But let’s go along with the story. So if he needed perfume, then he must have had a perfume supplier also. Has anyone come forward identifying him/herself as the perfume supplier?
Finally, Man who spends hours praying to God is also man with conscience. A man who sits in the confessional hearing confessions of others is also a man trying to ease the conscience of the penitents. Would or could such a man with his own unconfessed sin sit before God all those hours all those years with a clear conscience? He couldn’t have. Because, Lord may be readily forgiving but not the conscience of man! Padre Pio was a man in perpetual prayer. Lord gave him ample grace and mystical gifts. He didn’t need carbolic acid!