I remember reading that St. Pio's spiritual children would often smell flowers when he prayed fo them.

I think that olfactory sense is not normally something that indicates a spiritual
essence, any more than sight, sound, touch, or taste do.

What we smell is a material reality, and is naturally bound to this temporal world.

But as with all 5 senses, we can receive clues of spiritual reality by way of
any sense. It would seem the term, "in the odor of sanctity," comes from an
ancient time when those kinds of things were more common. For example, when
the altar boys lift the chasuble of the priest as he elevates the host, they are
following a tradition that comes from a time when priests were somehow
commonly known to levitate at the consecration. The altar boys had to grab
the vestments of the priest to keep him from drifting away. Anyone who doubts
this should check out the facts regarding the life of St. Joseph Cupertino, who is
the patron saint of aviators, because he protects those "who fly."

The levitation of priests in ancient times isn't docuмented, as far as I have heard,
because it's very ancient. There was a lot of very extraordinary things that took
place all the time in the early years of the Church and they didn't keep records,
for many reasons, mostly because practicing the Faith was illegal and any
evidence could be used against them.

The charisms of the Apostles were there to help the spread of the Faith in its
infancy, and after they died, some of the things continued to happen for a time,
but they gradually faded out, especially after Constantine, when it was no longer
illegal to be Catholic.

In our age, even in our present time, people have smelled roses on certain
occasions, like in the presence of Padre Pio, for sure. They even said that they
could tell if Padre Pio had been in a certain place recently because the aroma
of roses lingered long after he left a place. I have known people in my area
who have reported the odor of roses around a particular, good priest, who was
buried at the San Gabriel Mission, named Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria. He died in
1981. I know he celebrated the Novus Ordo liturgy, but I don't recall if he
ever continued to say the Canonized Latin Mass. He has a website that doesn't
mention that, but they are trying to promote the cause of his beatification.

I wish I could direct you to a credible source for mystical phenomenon but
unfortunately, the outbreak of demonic deceptions since Vatican II renders more
recent testimony questionable. I would caution against presuming that just
because someone experiences something that it's therefore legitimate. If you
have something to report, I would suggest talking to a traditional priest, like an
independent, or SSPX, or CMRI before you go to the local diocese. However, in
matters of exorcism and supernatural phenomena, local jurisdiction is a big part
of the matter, and you'll only be likely to find that in the local diocese.

Matters that I have known about, when they are concerning someone who
practices the traditional Faith, they have a very hard time getting the cooperation
of the local diocese, as if they don't want to promote something that doesn't help
to give their Modernized liturgy a plug. JMHO

I hope I can add this.

There was a Hindu ceremony at the Fatima shrine a few years ago, and a
journalist interviewing the Hindus reported that they like to come there because
they feel "a vibration" at Fatima that they think is spiritually significant. Looking
into their belief system, it turns out that they have terms that refer to various
senses receiving signals from persons or places of great holiness. But remember,
these are not Catholics, and they get such sense from Mahatma Ghandi as well as
JPII. So I would put this in the same category as "watch out!"