“Prayer is the best weapon we possess. It is the key that opens the heart of God.”
–Saint Pio
Padre Pio was born in 1887. He was a son of a poor farmer in Pietrelcina, Italy. He grew up to become a Franciscan monk. *
As a young boy Pio had encountered an angel that he continued to communicate with and draw counsel from, as he grew older.
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| Padre Pio |
Despite Padre Pio fragile health he devoted his adult life to building homes for the sick, handicapped and elderly.
People who knew the Padre reported that he could speak and read languages he did not know. He told these witnesses his guardian angel translated these for him.
Other monks in his order heard singing in harmony. The Padre told them that these voices were angels escorting souls to heaven.
Padre Pio believed that people could send their angels to him to request help and that he could send his angel to them in order to help.
Father Alessio Parente was assigned to help the frail Padre to chapel each morning. Parente often slept through his alarm clock and was late. He began to hear a knock on his door and an insistent, “Alesso, Alesso, come down.”
When he later apologized to the Padre for his tardiness Pio told him that he needed to get a new clock for he could not continue to send his angel to wake him up every day.
An English friend of the Padres a man by the name of Cecil was involved in a bad car crash. Before the telegram arrived to inform the Padre of his injuries and request his prayers Cecil received a telegram at the hospital–it assured him that Padre Pio was praying for him.
Later when Cecil asked him how he knew about the accident so quickly the Padre replied. “Do you think angels go as slowly as planes?”
The mother of a seriously ill infant also sent a request for prayers to the Padre. At the moment she sent her request her child shivered as if someone had touched him. He then recovered quickly which baffled his doctors and he was sent home from the intensive-care unit.
When Padre Pio died in September of 1968 several American tourists in Italy saw angels in the night sky, they disappeared as the sun came up.
* Padre Pio was made a saint. For 50 years he was a Verified Stigmatist, which means he bore the 5 wounds of Christ.
