Since I have been crucified with Christ through my death to the law, it is no longer I but rather the Christ who lives in me. St. Pius of Pietrelcina, or as he was popularly known, Padre Pio, was born born Francesco Forgione in the small Italian village of Pietrelcina. He joined the Franciscan Capuchin Friars at the age of fifteen, and was ordained a priest seven years later. For fifty years, Padre Pio lived at the monastery of San Stefano Rotundo, where his miraculous abilities as spiritual advisor, confessor, and intercessor attracted the attention of the world. Despite the gifts with which the Lord blessed him, including the reception of the holy Stigmata, Padre Pio remained a humble friar who devoted his life to the Eucharist and to prayer. He would often remark, “I only want to be a friar who prays.” He died September 23 ^rd 1968 at age 81. He is considered the patron saint of civil defense volunteers and Catholic adolescents. 
Whereas Padre Pio later became famous and renowned around the world because of his miraculous abilities, I don’t think that was his reason for joining the Capuchin Friars. As an Italian boy, he might have had admiration for St. Francis of Assisi as he heard tale after tale of his countryman whose popularity as a saint topped everyone else. However, I do not think that receiving the stigmata was ever in his dreams. His reason for joining the Capuchin Franciscans must have been motivated by the desire to live a saintly life in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi and the other great (Italian) Franciscan saints. Although only a teenage when he entered the monastery, it seems Padre Pio had already internalized the words of St. Paul which we have heard in the First Reading: “ I have been crucified with Christ…it is no longer I who live but the Christ who lives in me.” Even as a mere teenage, Padre Pio understood that through his baptism, he had already died to himself and given his life over to Christ. As such, joining the Capuchins in order to become a friar must have been a mere formality to him. And this must have been the reason why he refused to glory in his miraculous gifts. Having given his life over to Christ, anything that issued from him had to be attributed to Christ. He couldn’t take any credit for the things that the good Lord was doing since Padre Pio had died and his place taken by Christ.