Star Wars: The Last Jedi presented many unexpected twists. One of them was Luke Skywalker’s ability to bilocate, fighting Kylo Ren on Crait while strenuously meditating on Ahch-To.
Surprisingly, while this may seem like a strange piece of science-fiction, it is not. There have been countless saints in the Christian tradition who were able to bilocate, including one famous saint in the past century (who looks very similar in appearance to Luke Skywalker).
The Catholic Church itself does not have an official stance towards bilocation. However, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “Catholic philosophers maintain that there is no absolute impossibility in the same body being at once circumscriptively in one place and definitively elsewhere.”
The basic consensus is that if bilocation is possible, it is a miracle that God ordains and brings about.
One of the most famous cases of bilocation is St. Padre Pio, a Franciscan monk who lived from 1887 – 1968. This miraculous gift was investigated during his lifetime, first by Padre Carmelo Durante.
At the end of 1954 I was the Superior of the religious community that included Padre Pio. With the aim of’ gathering information on the Padre’s first years in San Giovanni Rotondo, from 28 July 1916 on, I decided to question the Padre’s first spiritual children and organised some meetings.
At the first meeting we were ten in all. The Ventrella sisters, the Pompilio sisters, Filomena Fini, Rosinella Gisolfi in Placentino, Rachele Russo, Rachelina Gisolfi and Nina Campanile were present
I knew from Mrs. Gisolfi’s friends that she had had the privilege – a well documented fact – of seeing Padre Pio in bilocation from the first years of spiritual direction.
During the meeting, she suddenly announced in a whisper that the Padre was present. “Everyone was happy,” I noted. Like all those present, I believed the announcement, but … I wanted to get to the bottom of this. This was my first case of bilocation and I wanted to know how it worked.
The same evening, when I returned to the friary, I asked one or two confrères (naturally without revealing the true motive, which I do today), what the Padre had done in the late evening.
They answered: “The usual: he conducted the evening Benediction, then he received his friends and we chatted together.” I was afraid to ask the Padre himself about the bilocation, being such a delicate matter.
There are many more stories about Padre Pio’s ability to bilocate, including an appearance he made in the United States, where according to one family, “He came to give the Last Rites to your father and he looked exactly like I remember him when I used to deliver eggs to him in Pietrelcina.”
Besides Padre Pio, there is also the case of a Spanish nun who visited the New World.
Sister Maria became most well known for her apparent bi-location between Spain and New Spain (Texas and New Mexico). It is reported that starting in 1620 Sister Maria was mystically transported to a tribe of Native Americans in the New World and converted them to the Christian faith.
It is said that she encountered the Jumano Indians more than 500 times and, according to DesertUSA, “instructed them in the fundamentals of the Faith, speaking to them in their own language. Her spirit carried rosaries from her cell to give to her charges… healed the sick [and] won converts.” Sister Maria later urged them to contact the local Franciscan missionaries for assistance in starting a new mission.
The phenomenon was investigated by a priest who visited the area where these Native Americans were located. The priest spoke with the local Franciscans, who recounted how a tribe sought them out and told them a lady dressed in blue taught them the Christian faith.
The priest then showed the natives a painting of an older nun from the same religious community. They responded that the woman was wearing the same clothes, but that the woman they saw was younger and came from the sky.
This particular case is being investigated again and according to Father Stefano M. Cecchin, “There is a lot of proof that the Lady in Blue appeared to the Jumano Tribe. If that’s the case she would be the first woman evangelist in America.”
So while bilocation may seem “out of this world,” it truly is; except not in the sense that it doesn’t exist, but that the One who allows it is not bound by time or space and can make the impossible, possible.
Philip Kosloski
Philip Kosloski is the founder of Voyage Comics & Publishing and the writer and creator of the comic book series, Finnian and the Seven Mountains.