I met Padre Pio during World War II, when I was stationed in Cerignola, not far from San Giovanni Rotondo. I was able to attend Padre Pio’s Mass and even visit with him in the garden of the monastery, where he would sometimes have his lunch. Meeting Padre Pio was a blessing that has remained with me my entire life. When I returned home to New York after the war was over, I used every opportunity to tell others about Padre Pio. I have been a parishioner at the Sacred Heart parish in Queens for more than sixty years. A number of years ago, our pastor’s sister, who was a Dominican nun, asked me if she could borrow the Rosary that I have, which was blessed by Padre Pio. I agreed and she took it to where she worked at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica, New York. Later, when she returned it, she told me that one of the patients in the hospital heard about the Rosary and asked her if he could pray with it. He was healed for when he went into surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed, it had disappeared.

– Ray Ewen