| 1904 |
 On
January 25, 1904 the future Padre Pio
moved to the convent of Sant’Elia a Pianisi, and stayed there for
almost four years, until October 1907, for middle and high school studies.
Sant'Elia is a mountaintop village of 2000. |
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In Sant’Elia, on January 18, 1905 brother Pio
experiences the first bilocation.
Padre Pio noted in a letter to his spiritual director:
"I found myself in Udine, were a father was dying
and a child was being born." The Virgin Mary told me: 'I'm entrusting
this child to you.'
" He was 16 years old. |
| |
 The child being born was
marchioness Giovanna Rizzani Boschi. She is
one of 6 witnesses who testified at the Process of beatification of
Padre Pio. Her
life was full of coincidences that don't have a rational explanation.
She was born January 18, 1905. Giovanna,
while living in Rome in the summer
1922, in St. Peter’s basilica she asked a friar to confess her, and he
did.
In 1923 she heard about Padre Pio and went to see him. He told her:
"Giovanna I have been waiting for you. The Virgin Mary took me to Udine
when you were born to be present at your father's death. Also last year
in St. Peter's I was the capuchin priest who confessed you." And: "One
day you will be present at my death." Later she described the vision she
had of Padre Pio's cell the night he died. She reported every detail of
what happened, and described every person that was in the room.
|
| |
 
In the summer of 1905, brother Pio saw the devil coming in his cell. He
reported in a letter to his spiritual director: “He was in the form of an enormous dog, with a lot
of smoke coming out of his mouth, and the dog talked and said: ‘It’s
him, it’s him.’ He had a strong smell of sulphur. The horrible animal
leaped out of the window, jumped on the roof of the nearby building, and
disappeared.” |
|
In October 1905 the convent of Sant’Elia had
to be temporarily abandoned to allow a substantial remodeling of the
church and the convent. Everybody moved to San Marco La Catola.
In April 1906, brother Pio returned to
Sant’Elia a Pianisi, since the
remodeling had been completed.
On Sunday January 27, 1907 Padre Pio made the
solemn profession of wows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. |
| |
The church in Sant'Elia a Pianisi. |
| 1905 |
The future Padre Pio went to Campobasso from
Sant'Elia a Pianisi in 1905, with fellow students, for few days, to help
with the sacred liturgies. |
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The convent of Santa Maria al Monte sits high over the city of
Campobasso. |
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The convent on a mountaint top with the Monforte
castle. |
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Padre Pellegrino da Sant'Elia a Pianisi, who had
been at the side of Padre Pio during his last hours of life, reported
that Padre Pio had told him that the "Madonna di Santa Maria a Monte" had
appeared to him several times. Padre Pellegrino then asked the artist
Amadeo Trivisonno to put in painting what Padre Pio had described to
him. Trivisonno made the painting in 1972. |
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Padre Pio also was sent briefly to Campobasso in October 1909 to improve
his health with "mountain air". |
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Serracapriola is a mountaintop village of about
5000. |
| 1907-8 |
The church, the convent and the chapel in the garden were Padre Pio used
to retire in prayer in 1907. |
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The future Padre Pio went to Serracapriola convent in
October 1907 to study theology under the guidance of
Padre Benedetto di San Marco in Lamis . |
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Padre Pio's room in Serracapriola. The future Padre Pio left
Serracapriola in November 1908, for Montefusco. |
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Padre Pio's words in stone, books used, original
centuries old stairs to his room, garden. |
| |
 The
pictures remind of an episode in the fall of 1907 when Padre Pio
was student in Serracapriola. The friars were stomping on the fermenting
grapes and the fumes were inadvertently inhaled by the future Padre Pio
and he got inebriated. Later he used to say that he got drunk
without drinking a single drop of wine. |
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Padre Antonio Belpiede extremely kind,
patient, and knowledgeable Capuchin friar.
|
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Montefusco is a mountaintop village of about 2000
people in the Avellino province. |
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The Capuchin convent and the church in Montefusco. |
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Padre Pio arrived in Montefusco at the
end of November 1908, to continue studying in preparation for the
ordination to priesthood.
He stayed there only few months, until May 1909.
|
| |
One special episode occurred while Padre Pio
was in Montefusco in 1908. One day he gathered chestnuts growing in a nearby
forest into a bag and sent the bag to Pietrelcina to his aunt Daria. She
always had a great affection for him. The woman received and ate the
chestnuts. She saved the bag as a souvenir. A few days later she was
looking for something in a drawer where her husband usually kept the gun
powder. It was in the evening so she used a candle to light up the room
when suddenly the drawer caught on fire, and aunt Daria’s face got
burned. After a moment, she took the bag father Pio sent and put it on
her face. Immediately, her pain disappeared and no wound or burn mark
remained on her face. |
| |
Because of poor health brother Pio left the
convent of Montefusco for his home Pietrelcina in May 1909, accompanied by Padre
Agostino in the hope that in Pietrelcina he would recover.
During that time Don Salvatore Pannullo
thought him liturgical ceremonies, and Don Giuseppe Orlando, the pastor
of the parish, thought him dogmatic theology to prepare him for
ordination. He stayed home almost seven years. He returned
to Montefusco few months later.
|
| |
In 1923, when Padre Pio was about to
be transferred fro San Giovanni Rotondo he wrote to his superiors: "If I
have to be transferred in another convent I'd like to be transferred to
the convent in Montefusco. |
| |
The minimal canonical age to be ordained
priest by Canon Law is to have completed 24 years. Padre Pio was 23
years and 3 months old, in poor health and
fearful he could die soon. So he asked for dispensation to be ordained
at 23. On January 22, 1910, he wrote a letter to Padre Benedetto,
provincial minister, begging him to petition the Holy See and recommend
favorably for the dispensation:
“…explaining the current status of my health … so that if God has
decided to abbreviate my exile on earth, I will die very happy.”
On July 6, 1910 Padre Benedetto informed
Padre Pio that the Holy See had granted the dispensation.
|
| |
On August 10, 1910, age 23, Padre Po was ordained
priest. |
| |
The ordination to priesthood took place in the
Cathedral of Benevento. |
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This is the spot were Padre Pio lay prostrated to be ordained. |
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Padre Pio was ordained
by Mons. Paolo Schinosi, titular archbishop of Marcianopolis. |
| 1910 |
This is the certificate of Ordination. |
| |
Padre Pio wrote on the souvenir prayer card:
"O Jesus, may I be with you the way, the truth and life for
the world".
"O Jesus may I be with you a perfect victim".
The picture shows
the handwritten statement by Padre Pio.
|
On
January 25, 1904 the future Padre Pio
moved to the convent of Sant’Elia a Pianisi, and stayed there for
almost four years, until October 1907, for middle and high school studies.
Sant'Elia is a mountaintop village of 2000.
In Sant’Elia, on January 18, 1905 brother Pio
experiences the first bilocation.
The child being born was
marchioness Giovanna Rizzani Boschi. She is
one of 6 witnesses who testified at the Process of beatification of
Padre Pio. Her
life was full of coincidences that don't have a rational explanation.
In the summer of 1905, brother Pio saw the devil coming in his cell. He
reported in a letter to his spiritual director: “He was in the form of an enormous dog, with a lot
of smoke coming out of his mouth, and the dog talked and said: ‘It’s
him, it’s him.’ He had a strong smell of sulphur. The horrible animal
leaped out of the window, jumped on the roof of the nearby building, and
disappeared.”
In October 1905 the convent of Sant’Elia had
to be temporarily abandoned to allow a substantial remodeling of the
church and the convent. Everybody moved to San Marco La Catola.
The church in Sant'Elia a Pianisi.
