I think one may and should safely rule out psychosis in the case of St. Padre Pio.
It’s important to remember that he constantly submitted to the authority of those who, during his earthly life, were responsible for scrutinizing such things and that during the processes for the cause of his beatification and canonization all those considerations would have been subject to re-examination and re-scrutinization.
So let’s rule out psychosis from the get-go ; otherwise we remain only one step away from referring to the nature of his stigmata as psychosomatic… which would leave us stranded with either no spiritual perspective at all or, at least, a severely restricted field of spiritual vision.
It can be established that he was not only a mystic, but according to many, including Pope John Paul II, Saint “Padre Pio was the greatest mystic of the twentieth century.” In his article Mysticism, Visionaries and Visions,
therealpresence.org/archives/Mysticism/Mysticism_001.htm
Father John A. Hardon, S.J distinguishes , “…between the mysticism in Christianity and the pseudo-mysticism among the Hindus or Buddhists.”
That article isn’t too lengthy and it sheds a lot of light on how we, as Catholics, should/can view mysticism (within the Church).
As Jacafamala pointed out, such attacks are rare (but not so rare among the saints) , and perhaps our knowledge of them is a little too rare in itself.
Here’s an excerpt quoting Pope John Paul II (who ends up quoting Padre Pio) from the homily at the canonisation of St. Padre Pio,
ewtn.com/padrepio/saint/homily.htm :
He sought greater conformity with the Crucifed Lord
- “But may I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6,14).
Is it not, precisely, the “glory of the Cross” that shines above all in Padre Pio? How timely is the spirituality of the Cross lived by the humble Capuchin of Pietrelcina. Our time needs to rediscover the value of the Cross in order to open the heart to hope.
Throughout his life, he always sought greater conformity with the Crucified, since he was very conscious of having been called to collaborate in a special way in the work of redemption. His holiness cannot be understood without this constant reference to the Cross.
In God’s plan, the Cross constitutes the true instrument of salvation for the whole of humanity and the way clearly offered by the Lord to those who wish to follow him (cf. Mk 16,24). The Holy Franciscan of the Gargano understood this well, when on the Feast of the Assumption in 1914, he wrote: “In order to succeed in reaching our ultimate end we must follow the divine Head, who does not wish to lead the chosen soul on any way other than the one he followed; by that, I say, of abnegation and the Cross” (Epistolario II, p. 155).
Now if we consider (from the first link provided [bolds are mine]) Father Hardon’s definition of a Catholic mystic :
“The language of Catholic theology is fluid in this matter. That is why we describe a mystic in three ways. He or she may be any one or all three. For the present, we shall simply explain the quality of these persons that in the Catholic vocabulary are called mystic.
Mystics are holy persons who have reached Christian perfection. They are no longer beginners, proficients. They may, of course, still grow in virtue. But their main concern is to remain united with God.
Mystics are gifted contemplatives. We must carefully note that a person can be very holy and pleasing to God without being a gifted contemplative. On this level mystics possess what is called infused contemplation. The most authoritative description of a mystic as a gifted contemplative is given by St. Teresa of Avila in her masterful work, The Interior Castle. The description is given in the 4th to the 7th mansions of St. Teresa’s description of infused contemplation.
Mystics may finally be persons who manifest charismatic phenomena. Such phenomena do not occur in the normal development of the spiritual life. They are called charisms because they are given by God for the benefit of others than the mystic. In other words, these phenomena are apostolic by nature. They may be true miracles, like private revelations, divine locutions, the stigmata, speaking in tongues, levitation, transportation through space, knowing events at a great distance of space, the gift of prophecy.
It is here, especially, that we must carefully distinguish between the mystic and these phenomena. It does not follow that because a person has these phenomenal gifts that he or she is necessarily either very holy or even gifted with infused contemplation. The single most important thing to remember about these charismatic gifts is that they are not for the benefit of the person who possesses them.
If genuine, such charismata are always for the benefit of others. They are apostolic and not personal gifts from God…”
We can draw at least several conclusions, the primary being that the attacks which St. Padre Pio suffered, were not so much for his disadvantage/hindrance as they were for our benefit. The sentiments in the OP’s post are sensitive and contemplative and would seem to say about these attacks on Padre Pio,
"… imagine how he must have felt."
If we turn our focus for a moment to several possibilities as to “why” he felt instead, bearing all the aforementioned in mind, it could be said that:
- Too often today we hear the existence of the devil being denied. Though we needn’t dwell on the fact of his existence continually, if we say there is no devil then we’re saying there is no such thing as sin; which then begs the question: Then why did Christ come…What did he come to redeem us from ? Padre Pio’s experiences assure us in those respects.
- His experiences further remind us that we are in a spiritual battle. I personally think those attacks could also be meant to remind us that the devil attacks us as well and if we continually weaken ourselves by sinning and go without the sacraments of healing, the eventual state of our souls could well end up mirroring someone who has taken a severe physical beating.
- It is an unfortunate thing that we are not much able to converse with angels because I think St. Padre Pio’s own guardian Angel would have the most pertinent answer of all as to why he was subjected to such attacks.
…just my own limited opinion.
