Dr. Graziano Pretto

Dr. Michael Arslan was the head physician of the Ear, Nose and Throat Department at the University of Padua medical clinic. In 1965, he traveled to San Giovanni Rotondo and met Padre Pio. Padre Pio asked Dr. Arslan to send one of his doctors to San Giovanni Rotondo because he wanted to open an Ear, Nose, and Throat Department at his hospital, the Home for the Relief of Suffering. Dr. Arslan promised Padre Pio that he would do so. 

The promise that Dr. Arslan made to Padre Pio generated a kind of panic among the doctors who worked under him in Padua. None of them wanted to move to San Giovanni Rotondo, the small and isolated mountain village that the doctors referred to as “the desert.”

 Dr. Arslan asked one of his assistants, Dr. Graziano Pretto to travel to San Giovanni Rotondo and set up the Ear, Nose and Throat Department that Padre Pio wanted. He promised Dr. Pretto that he would only have to stay for six months and then could return to his work at the clinic in Padua. Dr. Pretto had just recently received his license to practice medicine. He was the newest doctor on the staff in Padua and because of that, he did not feel that he could refuse the request. He reluctantly agreed to go. 

Dr. Pretto had traveled to San Giovanni Rotondo on one previous occasion. Not a man of faith, he made the trip solely out of curiosity. He had read many remarkable stories about Padre Pio in the newspaper and wanted to see the famous priest. 

In San Giovanni Rotondo, Dr. Pretto noticed the fanatical display of devotion to Padre Pio demonstrated by many of the visitors. The excessive adulation bothered Dr. Pretto. However, there were two things that impressed him very much on that initial trip. One was the very strong and beautiful scent of flowers that enveloped him when he walked into the monastery church of Our Lady of Grace and the other was the intensity of Padre Pio’s gaze. The moment that Padre Pio looked into his eyes, Dr. Pretto had the strangest feeling that he knew everything about him – past, present and future. 

In July 1966, Dr. Pretto left the hospital in Padua for San Giovanni Rotondo to establish the new Ear, Nose and Throat Department. Shortly after arriving, Dr. Pretto was told that Padre Pio wanted him to come to the monastery and visit him in his cell. He was having a lot of trouble with his ears and asked that the doctor give him an examination. Dr. Pretto did so and diagnosed his condition as otitis media. 

Padre Pio had an infection in his middle ear which resulted in a blockage. Because of the blockage, he was losing his hearing. That caused problems in the confessional, for in order to be heard, the penitent had to speak very loud. In doing so, others nearby were easily able to hear the entire confession, much to the penitent’s embarrassment. 

For some reason, there had been little rapport between Dr. Pretto and Padre Pio during their first meeting and the initial medical examination. Dr. Pretto was not sure why. Later, he learned that Padre Pio had the gift of reading hearts. Padre Pio knew without being told that Dr. Pretto was not a man of religious faith and that he had basically been forced to accept the job in San Giovanni Rotondo. As Dr. Pretto said, “Padre Pio knew that I did not want to come to San Giovanni Rotondo and work for him. He knew those things and much more about me.” With the passage of time, the two would become very close friends. 

Dr. Pretto began to visit Padre Pio every day at 2 p.m. at his cell in the monastery in order to give him insufflation therapy for his middle ear infection. He would greet Padre Pio by saying, “How are you feeling this afternoon, Father?” Padre Pio always made the same reply, “I feel as God wishes me to feel.” Dr. Pretto would then insert a small iron tube into Padre Pio’s nostrils and then gradually move it up to the ear canal. Next, he activated a compressor and blew in air to break up the blockage. 

Padre Pio was very grateful to Dr. Pretto and felt the good effects of the treatment. Every day after receiving the treatment for his ears, Padre Pio would say to the doctor, “May God give you back a hundredfold, a thousandfold of blessings for the help you are giving me.” 

One evening, Dr. Pretto was driving to Foggia, a distance of about twenty-six miles, when it suddenly started raining, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Soon the rain was coming down in torrents. Dr. Pretto was barely able to see the road and at times he was unable to see the road at all. He feared the worst as the storm intensified and he tried not to panic. 

Fortunately, he made it back to San Giovanni Rotondo safely. The next afternoon at 2 p.m. as he walked to Padre Pio’s cell to give him therapy for his ears, he was very surprised when Padre Pio said to him, “Why on earth were you driving last night in the middle of that storm?” The doctor was speechless. He had told no one about his trip to Foggia. He began to understand that Padre Pio was protecting him and as time passed, he had many more proofs of it. 

Dr. Pretto saw numerous patients each week at the Home for the Relief of Suffering and his surgery schedule was always booked. One time, he was performing a salivary gland operation. During the surgery, he inadvertently cut a branch of the patient’s seventh cranial nerve, the nerve which controls facial movement. At once Dr. Pretto realized that there would be unfortunate consequences for the patient consisting of partial paralysis of the face. However, the patient did not suffer a single ill-effect. It was completely unexplainable.

 On another occasion, Dr. Pretto was performing his first laryngectomy operation and was very nervous. After the surgery, he went into the waiting room to speak to the patient’s wife. He told her that the surgery went well but even after surgery there could be potential complications. He went on to enumerate each one of them to her. The woman smiled at him and said, “Do not worry, doctor. I know that everything will be ok because while here in the waiting room, I perceived the beautiful perfume of Padre Pio.” As it happened, there were no ill-effects or complications resulting from the surgery. 

Dr. Pretto gradually began to perceive Padre Pio’s watchful care and his protection accompanying him in everything he did. Dr. Pretto had come to San Giovanni Rotondo as a young doctor with almost no experience and had been given the big responsibility of setting up a brand-new Ear, Nose, and Throat Department at the hospital. His priority in setting up the new department was to make it exactly as Padre Pio wanted it to be. His nerves were often shaken and there were times when he felt very much alone. He came to realize that Padre Pio was always there with him, guiding him in his work, especially in the operating room. 

After a time, Dr. Pretto made a trip back to Padua for a visit. While there, he did his best to convince Dr. Arslan to allow him to move back to Padua and resume his work at the medical clinic. While in Padua, a strange incident occurred. Dr. Pretto received a telegram from San Giovanni Rotondo which said, “Padre Pio needs you. Please come back.”

Dr. Pretto feared that Padre Pio was in a serious health crisis. He got in his car and drove all night, arriving in San Giovanni Rotondo the next morning. He immediately went to the director of the hospital and asked what had happened to Padre Pio. “Nothing has happened to him,” the director replied. “But what about the telegram?” Dr. Pretto asked. “What telegram?” the director replied. Dr. Pretto learned that no one in either the hospital or the monastery had sent him a telegram. 

Dr. Pretto worked at the Home for the Relief of Suffering in San Giovanni Rotondo for 37 years. The Ear, Nose, and Throat Department that he established there was considered a department of the highest standards of excellence. Many medical students who were studying to become physicians, were trained under Dr. Pretto at the Home for the Relief of Suffering. He was also a lecturer at the Catholic University in Rome. When Dr. Pretto reflected on his life he said, “Padre Pio knew everything about me. He knew that I would never leave San Giovanni Rotondo. He has guided me every moment of my life.” 

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It is in time that I am able to do good to my neighbor, that I am able to love and help him. It is only along the path of my passing days that I am able to meet the suffering soul and to give a word of comfort and hope. Time is valuable because it offers me the possibility to do good. Certainly, upright Christian sentiment, knowledge, love and praise of God will continue in eternity but they will be proportional to our knowledge, love and praise in time. . .Time is valuable because it offers me the possibility to prepare myself for eternity.
-Father Gerardo di Flumeri

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Padre Pio Devotions Publications:
1. Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book 1
(opens in new tab) 2. Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book II(opens in new tab)
3. Daily Reflection: 365 Reflections from the Saints and Other Holy Men and Women of God(opens in new tab)
4. They Walked with God Book 1: St. Bernadette Soubirous, St. John Vianney, St. Damien of Molokai, St. André Bessette, Bl. Solanus Casey(opens in new tab)
5. They Walked with God Book 2: St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. John Bosco(opens in new tab)