Padre Pio on the Gift of Healing

One of the many wonderful attributes of Padre Pio is his amazing gift of healing, and below are just some of them:

The first ever newspaper article about Padre Pio was published on IL MATTINO of Naples on June 20, 1919: "Padre Pio, il ‘santo’ di San Giovanni Rotondo, opera un miracolo sulla persona del Cancelliere del paese. Presente un nostro inviato." Translated, "Padre Pio, 'the saint' of San Giovanni Rotondo, performs a miracle on the local courthouse's chancellor. Our envoy was present." 

The journalist, Renato Trevisani, reported that Padre Pio saw the 35 year old Pasquale Di Chiara walking painfully with two canes. Padre Pio: "Throw away those canes." 'How could I? I will fall to the ground.' "Throw away those canes," Padre Pio insisted. Pasquale let the canes go while trying to reach for a support. But there was no need. He was standing normally. "Man of little faith. Go and walk." Renato Trevisani and several people were present, and all of them clapped their hands in admiration.

Alberto Del Fante was a journalist who despised Padre Pio. He denounced him in magazines as a charlatan who preyed upon gullible people. A few years later, Del Fante’s grandson, Enrico, was struck with kidney disease and tuberculosis. The doctors gave little hope that Enrico would recover. Relatives of Enrico traveled to see Padre Pio and ask him to pray for him. Padre Pio assured them the boy would recover. Desperate and distraught, Del Fante himself even said: "If Enrico gets well, I will make a pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo myself." He was convinced that nothing would happen, but the boy was healed. Del Fante was deeply moved by this miracle, and went to see Padre Pio who helped him turn to God. After Del Fante’s conversion, he became a dedicated promoter of Padre Pio.

Pasquale Di Chiara's daughter had braces on her legs due to infantile paralysis. When she met Padre Pio, he asked her to take them off. She was able to walk and never use them again.

Francesco Visco, age 43, had walked on crutches because of a deformity contracted since birth. He lived near the convent and children used to make fun of him all the time. He asked Padre Pio, "Heal me." Padre Pio said, "Throw away those crutches." Francesco walked normally for the first time, and for several years until his death.

Pasquale Urbano of Foggia had been walking with two canes after falling from a carriage. After confession in 1919, Padre Pio said, "Get up and go. Throw away those canes." He walked away to every one's amazement.

In 1919, a 14 year old boy who had severe deformations on the back due to typhoid fever at age 4 went to Padre Pio for confession. After confession, Padre Pio touched him with the wounded hand. The back returned instantly normal.

On July 1930, 24 years old Giuseppina Marchetti had her right arm and shoulder badly crashed in an accident. Several doctors could not help. She went to Padre Pio with her father. Padre Pio told her, "You will recover." Back home, on September 17, father and daughter smelled an intense perfume of daffodils and roses lasting 15 minutes. She felt healed. An x-ray showed she was perfectly normal.

A woman involved in an accident broke her arm and shoulder, and after 3 years of surgeries, the doctors declared that she would never be able to use her arm. She went to Padre Pio. "Don't despair. The arm will recover." She went back home. No improvement. Three months later, on September 17, 1930, feast day of the wounds of St. Francis, she and all in the family and the neighbors smelled a strong perfume of daffodils and roses. It lasted about 15 minutes. The arm returned normal. The radiographs showed no abnormality in the bones and cartilages.

A woman from Pesaro, the wife of a workman, brought her deaf and dumb daughter to Padre Pio. He cured her instantly. In an outburst of gratitude, the woman took a gold chain from the child's neck, the only object of value that she owned, and gave it to Padre Pio for the Virgin Mary. When she returned home, she told everything to her husband. He flew into a rage at the offering she had made to the Padre. He said that she should have chosen some other article rather than the gift that he himself had made to his daughter. The next morning they found the chain on the bed table.

On May 21, 1945, Giuseppe Canaponi of Firenze was hit by a truck while driving his motorcycle. He sustained multiple fractures from skull to feet, including 5 fractures of the left femur and had undergone multiple surgeries. Walking on crutches since, in 1948, he confessed to Padre Pio. After confession, he walked away normally without realizing it. He went back to thank Padre Pio. "I didn't do the miracle. I only prayed for you. The Lord healed you." 

On October 1949, Maria Galiano was about to die from uterine adenocarcinoma. The daughter sent a telegram and two letters to Padre Pio. On April 29 1950, Maria smelled an intense perfume. It lasted for 2 days. The third day she felt healed. The doctors ran some tests and found that 'the tumor has completely disappeared.'

A woman testified: "My husband was taken to the hospital in Taranto with life threatening injuries after a car accident. After several days of no improvement, I prayed to Padre Pio. I smelled a marvelous perfume of lily. From then on my husband made a fast recovery." 

In 1952, a woman was about to die during delivery because of an erroneous blood transfusion. She received the Last Rites. When the priest left, she saw a monk: "I am Padre Pio and you will not die. Say an 'Our Father' and one day you will come to see me." About a year later, she went to see Padre Pio. He told her: "You got the miracle because the Sacred Heart sent me to save you, since you are devouted to him and did the First Fridays of each month."

Padre Carmelo showing Padre Pio a framed Crucifix

In 1953, Padre Pio was sitting with other monks for a presentation. Padre Carmelo, the Superior, was sitting by him. He reported that Padre Pio "placed his arms on the back of the chair in front of him and rested his head on them, remaining silent and motionless for few minutes". The next day, Padre Carmelo went to visit a sick man and was amazed when the man expressed his appreciation for permitting Padre Pio to go visit him the previous evening. Padre Carmelo then understood what had happened.

Ettore Masone, Padre Pio's only nephew, was not yet thirty when he became gravely ill, fell into a coma, and the family made arrangements for the funeral next day. But all of a sudden, he woke up and shouted: "I'm not dying anymore." He recovered completely and was instantly healed. He recalled: "I was at the gates of heaven and saw my sister Giuseppina who died many years ago standing there at the door. Then I also saw Padre Pio. Both wouldn't let me in." That's when he woke up.

Padre Michelangelo Bellini reported that his grandma was over eighty years old and in a coma when he prayed to Padre Pio that she could live long enough to see him celebrate his first Mass. By the morning, she had made an extraordinary recovery and told him that she had seen in a dream a monk who had brought her ten more years of life. She lived exactly for ten more years on the day.

On January 29, 1957 in Alençon, France, Daniel Batonnier was about to die of cerebrospinal meningitis. The mother, at 1:30 PM, sent a telegram to Padre Pio. At 4 PM, the child was fully recovered. The doctors were puzzled. The child, seeing a picture of Padre Pio, exclaimed, "Mom, I know that friar. He came to see me twice today. He was humming so as not to scare me, and then he left. Mom when I grow up I want to be a friar like him." 

Frank Tenaglia with his parents

Frank Tenaglia of Philadelphia was born in 1965 with severe neurological brain malformations. His parent went to Padre Pio: "Don't worry about little Francis. He will be fine and I will always look after him". Frank became a opera tenor, performing with major orchestras.

Padre Pio restores sight to the blind

A blind man begged Padre Pio to restore his sight "even if only in one eye," so that he might again see the faces of his dear ones. Padre Pio questioned him repeatedly, "Only in one eye?" Padre Pio told the man to be of good heart and that he would pray for him. Some weeks later, the man returned in tears to thank Padre Pio because his sight was restored! Padre Pio said, "So, you are seeing normally again?" The man replied, "Yes, from this eye here, not from the other." Padre Pio said: "Ah!  Only from one eye? Let that be a lesson to you.  Never put limitations on God. Always ask for the big grace!"

One young man asked Padre Pio to cure him of his blindness. Padre Pio asked him: "Do you want to have your sight restored, or to save your soul?" The man responded, "If it is a strict choice, I should rather save my soul." "It is a strict choice," said Padre Pio, and it was a very bitter and hard thing for the young man to accept.

In 1919, a priest named Padre Carlo Naldi came with his Jewish friend, Lello Pegna. The priest explained that Pegna had recently become totally blind. They had come to Padre Pio to see if he could be healed. Padre Pio told Pegna, "The Lord will not grant you the grace of physical sight unless you first receive sight for your soul. After you are baptized, then the Lord will give you your sight."

Months later, Pegna came back without the dark glasses that he normally wore. Pegna explained to Padre Pio that, despite opposition from his family, he had become a Christian and was baptized. At the beginning, he was discouraged when his blindness continued, but after a number of months his sight returned. The physician who had earlier told Pegna that he was hopelessly blind now had to admit that his eyesight was in perfect condition. Father Paolino kept in contact with Lello Pegna for nearly thirty years, and reported that his vision was still perfect.

Amelia, 27 years old, born blind, after the confession asks Padre Pio to be able to see. He says, "Have faith and pray a lot." At that point, she saw the face of Padre Pio, and the arms with the half gloves. For the first time she was able to see. She thanked Padre Pio. He said: "Let's thank the Lord."

A Girl Without Pupils Sees!

Gemma di Giorgi was a child born without pupils in her eyes. Gemma was declared to be incurable by a number of specialists. At the age of seven (1947), Gemma’s grandmother brought her to meet Padre Pio. About half way there Gemma began to see. Gemma’s grandmother and other friends marveled at this miraculous occurrence; they called it a miracle! When Gemma arrived, Padre Pio, although never having seen Gemma before, called Gemma by name in front of the congregation at church, and heard her confession. During the confession, despite the fact that Gemma mentioned nothing of her blindness, Padre Pio made the sign of the cross over each eye. At the end of the confession, he blessed her, and said, "Be good and saintly."

         

Decades after this event, Gemma sees perfectly and still undergoes eye examinations by specialists who agree that there is no explanation for her ability to see. Gemma has no pupils, and it is a scientific fact that without pupils a person cannot see. Gemma’s grandmother also said: "Many eye doctors have arrived here in our home and all have declared the same thing: that without pupils in one’s eyes one should not be able to see and that, therefore, this is a miracle." 

Sometime in May 1925, a mom gave birth to a child with severe malformations. The doctors declared there was nothing that medicine can do. The mother decided to see Padre Pio and hurriedly boarded a train to San Giovanni Rotondo. However, her newly born baby died while en route, but she went to see Padre Pio anyway. At San Giovanni Rotondo, she implored Padre Pio for help. Deeply moved, Padre Pio put his hand on the head of the child. The mother cried loudly. Padre Pio said, "Why are you crying . . . Don't you see that the child was just asleep?" The child started moving like he had just been awakened from a long, deep sleep.

Paolina was a mother of five from San Giovanni Rotondo, and was known to Padre Pio as a special soul. She fell gravely ill before Easter and the doctors said there was nothing that they could do to save her. The husband and children went to Padre Pio to implore his help. He said: "She will resurrect on Easter Sunday." On Good Friday, she lost consciousness and on the morning of Holy Saturday, she went into a coma. The relatives went again to Padre Pio. He said: "She will resurrect." She died late Saturday evening. The family made the preparations for her body to be dressed in her wedding gown as it was customary in the area. Padre Pio started the Easter Vigil Mass and at the moment of the Glory, when the bells rang and the organ resounded, he started crying. At the same time, Paolina got up unassisted, knelt beside the bed and started reciting aloud the "Credo". Everybody was astonished. They asked her what had happened. She said: "I was climbing and climbing happily. When I was about to enter in a great light I started coming back and went back." Padre Pio had not said "She will recover" but  that "She will resurrect."

In 1926, Concetta Bellarmini, while in critical condition, was told to pray to Padre Pio. She did. Later, a capuchin friar standing and smiling at her bedside said: "Sunday morning you will be healed." She did recover. Weeks later, she went to thank Padre Pio. From afar she exclaimed, "That's him. That's exactly him." 

A woman went to stay with her daughter and son in law in Bologna while waiting to have surgery for a malignant tumor in her arm. She was sitting alone in the living room when a capuchin friar came through the door. "I am Padre Pio da Pietralcina." He exhorted her to have faith in the Madonna and blessed her arm. Then he said good bye and left. The day after, she met the doctor to go over the details of the surgical intervention. The surgeon examined the arm. There was no trace of the tumor.

Father Joseph reported that Dr. Millilo, a plastic surgeon at the Casa Sollievo, had a brain hemorrhage while in Milan, and the doctors wanted to operate. He asked to talk to Padre Pio first. Padre Pio: "Tell them to operate on their own brain. Get out at once." His wife picked him up by car, while his colleagues were nervously observing. A week later he was back on duty in San Giovanni Rotondo. 

Mario Avignone of Chicago

"I was stationed in Italy at Cerignola with the 304th Bomb Wing of the 15th Air Force under commanding general Nathan F. Twining. We were told about Padre Pio. We had never heard about him. Four of us went to see him. My buddy Joe served at the Mass. They say that when he said Mass he was with Christ being crucified. You could see the tears going down his face.

Padre Pio beside Leo Fanning with Joe Asterita and Mario Avignone

After padre Pio' birthday party, just before we left in ’45, Leo, Joe and I were at the monastery, and we asked Father Ignatius if we could have a piece of one of his bandages that he’d worn over his stigmata. "Oh, no!" he said. What you’re asking me to do is forbidden, and I could get into a lot of trouble. We finally convinced him to get one of those bandages if we promised not to tell anybody -including Padre Pio. 

He got us one small bandage and divided it in three. We came back to the monastery not so long after, and Padre Pio stopped us in the hallway. "You naughty boys," he said, really stern. "You caused one of my brothers to commit sin!" "Come on, Padre Pio," says Joe, "what did we do?" "You know what you did," he said. "You had Father Ignatius sneak into my room and take one of the bandages and give it to you." Nobody told him, but you couldn’t fool Padre Pio. He just knew things, which is why he was such a popular confessor. He was serious. But then he shook his head and his face sort of softened. He said to Father Ignatius, "I forgive you, Father. And I forgive you boys, too, but don’t go telling anybody. I wore those bandages over my heart. Go in peace." And we did. 

"I told Padre Pio that it’d be great to come back and bring along my wife and kid. "Don’t waste your money," he said. "Every time you receive Communion at church, I’ll be at your side." But a year or so after he died, in 1968, my wife and I went to pay our respects. When we went to visit his tomb at the church, my wife said I was in ecstasy, tears streaming down my face while I was there at his tomb, kneeling down and praying. She said I was talking out loud, carrying on a conversation with Padre Pio, but she couldn’t hear his voice, just mine. But I could hear his voice. He said he was happy I came to see him. Heck, who’d have thought a kid from the South Side of Chicago would end up back in Italy — you know, where my family came from, in the Piedmont - get wounded when a German plane bombed our Liberty ship in the bay in Naples, and end up having a saint as my friend and spiritual father. No, nothing surprises me." 

Back in Chicago he expresses his devotion to the saint by sharing his experiences with others, visiting the sick, and praying with the aid of relics. 

"For example, well, there was the undertaker. I still see him around the neighborhood. His wife called me up one day, and she was crying. She said, "My husband’s been diagnosed with cancer, and we wonder if you could have him come over and say some prayers to Padre Pio and bless him with the things you’ve got." So he came over to my house. We went down to the basement with my little altar there. And we prayed together to Padre Pio to ask him to help cure my friend’s cancer. About 10 days or so later, his wife called me up. She was crying and laughing and told me, "My husband just got home from the doctor and told us the cancer is gone." And then she asked me, "How can I thank Padre Pio?" "Don’t thank him, thank God," I tell her. "He’s his boss." 

Carol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II

The following notes were written in Latin, and were sent from Rome, where Bishop Wojtyla was visiting the Pontifical Polish College:

On November 17, 1962, Padre Pio received a handwritten letter from Monsignor Karol Woityla asking to pray for Wanda Poltawska from Cracow, having terminal throat cancer. Angelo Battisti, administrator of Casa Sollievo, reported that Padre Pio told him: "Angelino, conserva questa lettera, perche' un giorno diventera' importante." Translated, "Angelino, keep this letter, because one day it will become important."

Venerable Father, 

I ask you to pray for a mother of four girls, forty years old, from Cracow in Poland, (during the last war she was in a concentration camp in Germany), now she is extremely in danger for her health and her life because of cancer: May God use his misericordy to herself and her family, with the intercession of the Very Blessed Virgin. 

Very much obliged in Christ,

+ Carol Wojtyla 

Titular Bishop of Ombi, Capitular Vicar of Cracow

in Poland. 

Roma, Pontifical Polish College

Piazza  Remuria 2A

Roma

A few days later, in a letter to Padre Pio on November 28, 1962, Monsignor Karol Woityla wrote: "Wanda was completely healed from cancer on November 21, and surgical intervention was canceled. Deo gratias. Thank you Venerable Father."

Venerable Father,

The woman living in Cracow, Poland, mother of four girls, on November 21, regained her health immediately before surgery. Thanks to God. And also to you, Venerable Father, the biggest thank you from the woman, her husband, and the entire family.

In Christ,

+ Karol Wojtyla

Capitular Vicar of Cracow

Roma, November 28, 1962

Below is a follow up letter to Padre Pio from the future John Paul II, sent from Rome on December 14, 1963:

Venerable Father,

Your Paternity will certainly remember that already some few times in the past I took the permission to recommend to your prayers some particularly dramatic cases in need of attention. 

I'd like therefore to thank you deeply on behalf of the people involved, particularly about a lady, catholic physician, ill with cancer, and of the son of an attorney, gravely ill since birth. Both the persons are doing well, thanks to God. 

Allow me moreover, Very Reverend Father, to entrust to your prayers, a paralyzed lady, of this Archdioceses. 

At the same time I let myself to recommend to you the vast pastoral difficulties that my poor work faces in the current situation.

I take the opportunity to renew to you the senses of my religious regards, with which I love to prove myself, 

of your Paternity very devout in Jesus Christ 

+ Karol Wojtyla

Titular Bishop of Ombi

Capitular Vicar of Cracow

Acknowledgement

Images courtesy of caccioppoli.com