The Shoulder Woundof Jesus calls to mind the wound that Jesus is said to have received carrying the cross on which He was crucified. It is attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux and to St. Gertrude.
According to Stefano Campanella, author of “The Pope and the Friar” Karol Wojtyła ( future Pope St. John Paul II), while still a priest, visited St. Padre Pio and asked the question of which was his most painful wound – much like the manner Bernard did to Christ. The young priest expected that it was Pio's chest wound, but Padre Pio replied: "It is my shoulder wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated."
Prior to his death, Padre Pio confided to Brother Modestino Fucci at his friary in San Giovanni Rotondo that his greatest pains happened when he took off his shirt. At the time, Brother Modestino believed it to be his chest wounds much like St. John Paul II. When he was later assigned the task of inventorying all the items inside the cell of the late Padre Pio, he noticed his undershirts had blood stains on the right shoulder.
That night, Brother Fucci prayed asking Padre Pio for a sign if he truly bore the shoulder wound of Christ. At 1 A.M., he awoke with an excruciating pain in his right shoulder and the room was filled the aroma of flowers, the sign St.Padre Pio’s spiritual presence, and he heard a voice call out: “This is what I had to suffer!”
Scientific evidence related to the Turin Shroud: Four university professors have published an article in “Injury” magazine revealing that the crucified man that was wrapped in the Turin Shroud suffered a dislocation of the humerus, the paralysis of one arm and a violent trauma to the neck and chest.
The person whose figure is imprinted on the Shroud is believed to have collapsed under the weight of the cross, or the “patibulum” as it is referred to in the study, the horizontal part of the cross.
On the basis of this report, we may draw the connection with the biblical passage on Simon of Cyrene, as the bearer of the cross would not be able to continue to carry the cross, at any rate not without help.
Prayer of St. Bernard:
O Loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God, I a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Your Shoulder on which You bore Your heavy Cross, which so tore Your flesh and laid bare Your Bones as to inflict on You an anguish greater than any other wound of Your Most Blessed Body. I adore You, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify You and give You thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching You by that exceeding pain, and by the crushing burden of Your heavy Cross to be merciful to me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins, and to lead me on towards Heaven along the Way of the Cross. Amen.