Padre Pio and the Russian Prince

A Russian prince, Karl Klugkist, born in Kiev on March 25, 1871, went into exile to Italy at the start of World War I. He was, as a prince, very well educated and had a healthy interest in religious matters. From what I gather from a short account of his experience with Padre Pio (found on the Padre Pio Foundation website) Prince Karl was a Roman Catholic. Whether or not he was born so, I could not discover.

While living in Rome he befriended a priest who told him about a young Capuchin friar who had the stigmata and could read souls. His name was Padre Pio. The prince determined to go and see Padre Pio who resided at a monastery, Our Lady of the Angels, in San Giovanni Rotundo, near Foggia, not too far from Rome, about a two hour bus ride. He was hoping to talk to the holy man and ask him some questions concerning spiritual matters that were troubling him. He carried a letter of introduction from the Bishop of Gaeta.

The Russian prince later joined the Trinitarian Order and was ordained a priest around 1924 in Canada. As a Trinitarian he took the name, Father Pio of the Most Holy Trinity. All the good that he did as a priest he attributed to Padre Pio. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1948.

Here is the story of his encounter with Padre Pio which took place around 1919. Padre Pio was then thirty-two years old. He had received the stigmata in 1910.