My mother had a friend who was going to have a relic of Padre Pio brought to her home by a priest. She invited my mother to come to her house on the day that the priest was scheduled to visit. The gathering was to be at 1:00 in the afternoon. My mother invited me to go with her but I was not interested. I had never heard of Padre Pio so I declined the invitation. About five minutes before the set time of the gathering, I suddenly changed my mind and decided to go with my mother.

When we arrived at her friend’s house, there were about six people there. One had cancer and several of the others were sick. The priest passed Padre Pio’s glove to each person. The people held the glove and prayed in silence for their needs.

At that time, I was not a practicing Catholic. I did not know what to pray for when the glove was passed to me. I felt that my life was going along fine and that I had nothing to ask for so I prayed for my children. While holding the glove, I began to cry. I thought that was indeed strange since I did not know anything about Padre Pio.

The next morning when I woke up, I had a strong urge to go to confession. I had not been to confession in twenty years. I made my confession and told the priest about Padre Pio’s relic. I told him that after I held Padre Pio’s relic, something changed inside of me. The priest told me that I was in a state of grace. I have gone to Mass every Sunday since that day, six years ago when I held Padre Pio’s glove in my hand. I do pray to St. Pio and I trust in him as an intercessor with our Lord.

– Stephanie Nicolo

My husband, Ricardo and I made a pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo in 2005 to visit the church and friary where Padre Pio spent so many years of his life. It was a beautiful experience. We stayed at a hotel close by and one of the employees there was named Louie. He helped us in many ways, especially by giving us information on how to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Michael the Archangel which is near San Giovanni Rotondo. Padre Pio, in his younger years, had also visited the shrine of St. Michael the Archangel and he often encouraged people to go there.

Louie told us that his father had lived in the same area where Padre Pio lived and he had met Padre Pio. One night Louie’s father had a vivid dream. In his dream, he saw Padre Pio who said to him, “Get up at once and get your animals because they are being stolen at this very moment.” The dream was so vivid that Louie’s father woke up, but he did not feel well so he decided not get up to check on his animals. The next morning he discovered that they had been stolen. The next time he went to the church, Padre Pio shook his head and simply said, “I tried to help you.”

– Dolores Valadez

I had prayed and asked Padre Pio to help so that my dad would go to confession. He had not gone since he was first married and that was 48 years ago. When I used to ask him to go to confession, he would get very angry. He went to confession on Good Friday of this year. To me this is a miracle. There is no doubt in my mind. Padre Pio continues his work from above and I thank him.

– Name Withheld

I had developed heart trouble and along with palpitations, I could often sleep only in a sitting position….During his Mass on the first morning of my visit to San Giovanni Rotondo, I bombarded Padre Pio continuously in thought, asking him to obtain the favor of a healing for me. Toward midday I saw him in the monastery. Addressing me as though I had actually spoken to him, he said in a calm and gentle voice, “Listen to me. My prayer for you is that you go to Heaven. Let that be enough for you. And naturally, do pray for me with the same intention.”… Some time later and on several occasions in the course of normal conversation, Padre Pio placed the palm of his right hand and therefore its wound against my heart. Since then, there has been no more heart trouble.

– John McCaffrey

I thank and praise God for having granted my request through the intercession of Padre Pio. After three years in a wheelchair, walker, cane, etc. and being told by doctors that nothing could be done, I am now mobile. I did not pray for a cure. I prayed that I might be healed enough so that I could attend daily Mass. I thank the Lord for working His marvels through His holy servant, Padre Pio.

– Mrs. F. Woodley

I made the trip to San Giovanni Rotondo, very curious to see for myself this extraordinary friar who I had seen so many times in newspapers and magazines. When Padre Pio entered the sacristy, I was only just able to see him. He was accompanied by two friars to protect him from the crowd. When he came down for Vespers, I was able to observe him well and from close up. I received such an impression that, still to this day, after having got to know him well from many visits, am unable to describe. He was a figure, dare I say, indefinable. He was fatherly, austere, sullen, happy, sarcastic, ironic. His eyes scrutinized you as if they wanted to penetrate your very flesh and they forced you to lower your eyes… The first thing I experienced when I was in Padre Pio’s presence was a marvelous perfume which seemed to me to be the fragrance of violets. After my confession to him, I asked for his blessing for myself and all of my family. He placed his hands on my head and said, “This is also for your family. Young man, always be good.”

– Alfredo Lapertina

I was raised in the Pentecostal church as my father and my relatives on his side were all Pentecostals. My mother was a Catholic. However, she never taught me anything about her faith and then she passed away due to kidney disease. When I was 36 years old my health started declining. A friend gave me a book about Padre Pio and one day when I was at the hospital, while waiting to see the doctor, I started reading the book. I wanted to learn more about my mother’s Catholic faith. That day, the doctor told me that I had kidney failure. In 2003, I started on kidney dialysis. I had other serious health problems as well. I had an enlarged heart and on one occasion I went into cardiac arrest. I collapsed and was in a place of total darkness. I felt myself pushing frantically against a black wall. I could hear my two daughters in the next room. All I could think of was to ask God not to let me die. I am a single parent and I wanted to live to see my girls grow up. I survived the experience but it was very frightening. My doctor told me I was very lucky to be alive.

My neighbor invited me and my daughters to go to church with her and I began studying the Catholic faith with the parish priest, Father Francis. However, I was getting sicker and sicker each day. I had been on the kidney transplant list for one year. In 2007, I started a novena to Padre Pio, for healing. I would pray the novena while on dialysis. I became friends with a lady named Patsy who was on the dialysis machine next to mine. We talked together about Padre Pio and she too was praying to him. On the ninth day of the novena, while I was on the dialysis machine, I raised a cross I was holding and kissed it and before I could even begin the novena prayer to Padre Pio, I heard one of the nurses shouting for joy and saying to me, “We have a kidney for you!” Patsy was so happy for me that she began to cry. Three days earlier I had told Patsy that I was so tired and in so much pain that I was ready to die.

I had the kidney transplant and am doing so much better. Father Francis told me that there was someone in Heaven who was praying for me. I immediately knew that it was Padre Pio and my mother. My daughters and I were baptized into the Catholic church in December. We chose Pia as our confirmation names.

– Maria Giuseppa Pia Camilla

In the early 1950’s, my brother, Francis Briguori, made a trip from Naples to San Giovanni Rotondo to see Padre Pio. He was able to make his confession to him. While making his confession, he told Padre Pio that he wanted to join the Navy but did not think he would be accepted because he had a heart defect. Padre Pio looked at him with a very piercing gaze and said, “Tu Vai, Kapish!”which means, “You go, do you understand!” At the end of the confession Padre Pio told my brother to pray to St. Michael the Archangel. He said to my brother, “Michael is your name, too.” My brother’s name is Francis Mario Michael Briguori. He was so completely taken aback that Padre Pio knew his name that when he left the confessional, he told all the people waiting in the sacristy, “I can’t believe it, he knew my name!”

Right after that, my brother enlisted in the Navy. On the day that he went in for his medical examination, there were many other young men there who were also having their medical exams. When my brother’s name was called, he was told, “Tu Vai” the very same words that Padre Pio had said to him. Evidently he looked so healthy that he was waved on ahead of the others and was accepted without a physical exam. My brother had a wonderful career in the Navy working in the field of shortwave communication. He traveled to many different parts of the world and was never sick nor troubled by any problems with his heart. My brother turned 82 years old this year, 2007. He told me that as long as he lives, he will never be able to forget the way Padre Pio looked at him with those beautiful, piercing eyes.

– Enrichetta Spinelli

I went to the hospital to give Holy Communion to one of the patients there. As I was about to leave, the Sister who worked at the hospital said to me, “The man in the end bed is a Catholic. Please go and see him.” When I saw the man I said to him, “I believe that you are a Catholic” and he replied, “I used to be a Catholic many years ago, but I have not been to church since I don’t know when.” We spoke awhile and before I left I gave him a relic card of Padre Pio and asked him to read it when he felt like it. He took the leaflet from me and just placed it on his bedside with little interest in it. Some days later I went to the hospital again to make my rounds. The man who I had taken Holy Communion to said to me, ‘The man in the end bed wants to see you. He has been asking when you were coming in.” I went to the man and he invited me to take a seat. He said, “I have made every provision for my business and my family, but as I read the little history about your friend Padre Pio, I began to realize that I forgot about my own situation. Is it possible that I could make my confession to an understanding priest? I do not want to be interrogated.” I told him that I knew a very gentle priest. The priest came right away. In the meantime the man’s wife, son and daughter came to visit him and when they saw the curtain pulled round the bed they thought the worst until they saw the priest pulling the curtain back. His wife said to us that she had never seen her husband looking so relaxed and happy since he came to the hospital. The man showed the relic card of Padre Pio to his family and he said to me, “Please give my wife one of the lovely leaflets of Padre Pio.” Three days later he died a very peaceful and happy death. May he rest in peace.

– Peter Barrett

I have had a difficult marriage due to my husband’s struggle with mental illness. In 2008, in the middle of a personal crisis, my husband left home. I felt into a deep depression and was unable to find a way to get out of the gloom and sadness that had engulfed my life. I had to make a business trip to Vienna which I could in no way postpone. I did not want to make the trip and was in no shape to be alone in a foreign city. I found strength in prayer and the Eucharist.

When my Rosary broke, I went to a shop to buy a new one. A gentleman in the shop gave me a prayer card, with a third class relic of a saint that I had never heard of, St. Pio. The prayer card had the Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the prayer for the intercession of St. Pio. I prayed the Novena and the prayer for St. Pio’s intercession every day, and I slowly started feeling better. I went to my mother’s house for the holidays. One night, my mother and I were watching T.V. As she was changing the channels, I told her to stop on one particular channel. “That man looks like the saint on the prayer card I was given in Vienna,” I said to my mother. I went to get the prayer card to look at it closer. The television program was a movie about the life of Padre Pio. The next day, I went to a Catholic bookstore and bought a book on Padre Pio. I found out that his feast day is September 23, the day of my wedding anniversary.

My husband came back home and is now taking care of his illness. Today is our 15th wedding anniversary. I am very thankful to St. Pio because I know he made it possible for me to accept what I have to live with and for my husband to return home and take care of his illness. I tell people that St. Pio rescued me. He found me in Vienna, there is no doubt about it. He reached out through that gentleman who gave me the prayer card. He touched my life and my heart and brought me closer to Jesus. We know the road is not easy, but I have confidence that I have Padre Pio’s help to walk as Jesus would want me to walk. Every night I pray to St. Pio for all the people I know who are sick, including my husband.

– Name Withheld