From The Maryfaithful, Powers Lake N.Dakota, 
1979.

from THE MARYFAITHFUL, F.Fred Nelson, Powers Lake  N.D.
Page 40
PADRE PIO: HIS WOUNDS AND THEIR DISAPPEARANCE
September-October, 1979

    Four or five months before September 23, 1968, the still open wounds were bleeding less and less. All the faithful who assisted at his celebration of Mass
noticed this phenomenon. And they also noticed that Padre Pio, who had always been very scrupulous about hiding the wounds in his hands with his
shirtsleeves, let his hands be seen freely in his last days... The pieces of cloth were less and less bathed with blood!
   
    "On September 22, 1968, while Padre Pio was celebrating his last Mass, two almost-perfectly white scales fell from his hands. On the morning of the 23rd, while Dr. Sala and I were preparing his lifeless
body, the last scale fell from his left hand. Then Dr. Sala, the Superior, Father Mariano, and I noticed that there were no longer any wounds in his side, his feet, and his hands. There were no scars
either. Father Giacomo took photographs."
(Fr.Raffaele, Feb 21, 1969)

The closing of the wounds, therefore, progressed gradually in his last months of life. So it could be thought that this was the explanation of the
disappearance of every trace of the wounds after his death. However, the disappearance of every trace of the wounds which had bled for fifty years poses a
problem. Every deep and lasting injury resulting in lesions of the tissues leaves an easily seen scar. Concerning this mystery, here is the testimony of
Dr. Sala, Padre Pio's personal physician in the last years of his life (signed July 7, 1969):

  "Padre Pio had wounds of circular shape...of two centimeters on the back of his hands and his feet on
the palms and the soles...A look at his hands, which was possible on certain occasions, showed clean
injuries, with tissues of a vivid dermal colour. Shining blood flowed from them, and they were surrounded by
clotting which was layered irregularly. There was no sign of circuмscribed inflammation or secretion of
pus. The margins of the injuries were clear.
The injury on his side was seven centimeters long and had the shape of a slightly oblique rhombus. It was located horizontal to the fifth space between the
ribs. It began at the left sternal margin. It was obviously deep with clear borders and without formations of crust...His hands and feet...especially
the left foot, were edematous, and did not have a cyanotic color.
    Some months before his death, his feet became dry, and there were no more of the above-mentioned symptoms, which had been evident up to that time.
But his hands still showed the same symptoms up to the day before his death. On this day there was an accentuation of the pallor of the skin, a diminishing of
the formations of crust, and the disappearance of the wounds on the backs of his hands.
  During his very short agony the palm of the left hand still had a crust [which remained and was collected after his death]. Ten minutes after his death
Padre Pio's hands,thorax,and feet were held up by me...and were photographed by a friar in the presence of four other friars. His hands, his feet, his
thorax, and every other part of his body did not show any trace of injury, nor were scars present on his hands and his feet, neither on the back, nor on the
palms, nor on the soles, nor on the side. The skin on the above-mentioned parts was the same as on every other part. It was soft, elastic, and mobile. When it
was pressed with the fingers, there was no evidence of dermal or subcutaneous collapse. There was also no evidence of signs of pregressive incision, laceration,
injuries, wounds, or inflammation.
Such symptoms and behaviour ...must be considered as outside of every type of a clinical nature. They have an 'extra-natural' character". (Dr. Sala)

  What more would we want to ascertain the reality of the stigmata? This is especially true if these wounds were an integral part of a life wholly dedicated to God
and to prayer and to the service of his neighbour and not a cloistered life of contemplation alone; of a life of continuous fidelity, without the ups and downs of a
neurotic nature, of a life of patience and heroic obedience in the midst of disciplinary measures taken against him of a life of exemplary charity in his community. He never wanted to hurt anyone. His
strong character, which made him capable of decision without hesitation or irresoluteness, is all the more admirable because he was surely, as we have said, of
weak temperament, a little anxious, and subject to brusque reactions.