Padre Pio and his Friends from San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy: Alberto D’Apolito of San Giovanni Rotondo was a young boy in elementary school when he met Padre Pio for the first time. He and several of his friends had decided to go to the monastery of Our Lady of Grace in order to make their confession to Padre Pio. The year was 1917. At that time, Padre Pio was known as the “holy monk” by the local people of the town. It proved to be very accurate description of the celebrated priest. When Alberto and his friends entered the church, they saw Padre Pio sitting up in the choir loft. He seemed to be in a deep state of prayer. Padre Pio heard the loud voices of Alberto and his companions and got up and looked down from the balcony to see what the commotion was all about. He then spoke to Alberto and his friends and asked them to state their business. When they said they had come to make their confession, Padre Pio immediately went downstairs. Padre Pio was friendly to the boys and was happy to hear their confessions.During Alberto’s confession, Padre Pio asked him, “Do you often tell lies?” “Yes, I do,” Alberto replied. Padre Pio then became very serious and spoke to Alberto brusquely. Alberto’s pride was hurt by Padre Pio’s stern manner. Alberto made a supreme effort to hold back his tears and he managed to do so. Padre Pio explained to Alberto that lies, even very small ones, were a great offense to God. Alberto never forgot his words. Perhaps if Padre Pio had been more gentle in his approach, Alberto may never have grasped the important meaning of what he was trying to convey. Padre Pio asked Alberto if he had ever been an altar server at Mass. Alberto told him that he had not. “You must promise me that you will learn how to serve at Mass,” Padre Pio said. “I want you to go to Mass often and to always love Jesus,” Padre Pio added. Then, Padre Pio placed his hand on Alberto’s head and gave him absolution and a blessing. Shortly after Alberto had made his confession to Padre Pio, he took it upon himself to take instructions in how to serve at the Mass. Young Alberto had been impressed by Padre Pio’s encouraging words regarding attending daily Mass. After he received the proper training in altar serving, Alberto got up very early every day and served at the morning Mass at his parish before going to school. In 1919, Alberto’s uncle, Father Clemente Centra, who taught at the Capuchin seminary in Montefusco, visited San Giovanni Rotondo. One day, he took Alberto to Our Lady of Grace monastery with him to see Padre Pio. When Father Clemente and Padre Pio saw each other, they embraced with affection. They had both been in the Capuchin novitiate together in preparation for the priesthood. Father Clemente explained to Padre Pio that Alberto was his nephew. “Would you like to be a Capuchin friar like your uncle?” Padre Pio asked Alberto. “No, I would not,” Alberto replied. “Why is that?” Padre Pio asked. “It is because I want to be a Salesian priest,” Alberto said. “And why would you prefer to be a Salesian priest?” Padre Pio asked. Alberto explained that he wanted to be a Salesian priest because he wanted to live and study in Rome. Padre Pio told Alberto that some of the students from the Seraphic Boarding School were in the monastery garden playing games. He suggested that Alberto go over and join them. Alberto went to the garden and watched the students at their recreation. Shortly after that, he returned to his uncle who was still talking to Padre Pio. When it was time to say goodbye, Padre Pio gave Alberto a blessing and said to him, “Someday you will become a Capuchin friar just like your uncle. I await you in our school here at the monastery of Our Lady of Grace.” Alberto was too young to seriously contemplate Padre Pio’s words or to truly understand the implications of a vocation to the priesthood. However, when Alberto completed his elementary school studies, he did not enter the Salesian school but rather, he enrolled in the Seraphic Boarding School in San Giovanni Rotondo. At that time, Padre Pio was the spiritual director of the school. He also taught several of the classes. Later, he would become the principal of the school. The small Seraphic Boarding School was the equivalent of middle school/ high school and the students who attended were preparing to enter the Capuchin novitiate when they reached age fifteen. The boys were housed at the monastery of Our Lady of Grace. The students had a well-rounded education which included academics, religious studies, spiritual formation and recreation. One of the favorite games of the boys was playing with a pinata. Blindfolded and with a stick in their hand, they would try to break a pinata filled with candy. Padre Pio derived great enjoyment from watching the boys at their recreation and had great affection for them. Padre Pio cared about all of boys needs, both great and small, and did not want them to lack for anything. He confided to a fellow Capuchin that he was worried because one of the students possessed only one pair of shoes. The boy was the young son of a widowed mother. Padre Pio wanted the students at the Seraphic Boarding School to lead good Christian lives and to give a good example to others. He also wanted them to succeed in their academic studies. When the boys misbehaved or when they wavered in their vocation to religious life, Padre Pio suffered. He was prepared to make any sacrifice in order to help them. Padre Pio’s love for the boys and his desire for the spiritual success of the school was expressed in a letter to Father Benedetto. He wrote: I have a keen desire to offer myself as a victim to the Lord for the perfecting of this school, which is very dear to me and for which I do not spare myself any pains. It is true that I have good reason to thank the Heavenly Father for the change for the better in most of the students, but I am not yet satisfied . . . Jesus will give me the strength to bear this fresh sacrifice. One day, Padre Pio appeared to be very sad. He was taking a walk with the boys when he suddenly began to cry. “One of you pierced my heart today,” Padre Pio said. The boys did not know what to make of his words. Padre Pio then explained, “This morning one of you made a sacrilegious Communion at Mass. I know this to be a fact. I also feel bad because I was the one who distributed Holy Communion.” At that moment, one of the boys in the group spoke up and admitted that he was the one at fault. With tears in his eyes, he apologized to Padre Pio and said that he was sincerely sorry for what he had done. Padre Pio asked all the other boys to leave momentarily and he then heard the confession of the young man. Father Federico of Macchia Valforte attended the Seraphic Boarding School in his youth. He left a beautiful written testimony of his impressions of Padre Pio. He wrote: Padre Pio was always praying, night and day. His main teaching place for us was the choir, where he spent long hours of the day on his knees as a faithful worshiper of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In our midst he prayed and responded, always holding his Rosary in his right hand. In the refectory, after he had hurriedly and listlessly taken a few mouthfuls, he continued to pray. He used to say “I wish the day had forty-eight hours in which to pray.” In fact, he never left the choir until midnight. When he went to bed, we felt him to be always keeping watch. His whole day was a continuous dialogue with God. On one occasion, during recreation time, nine of the boys who were enrolled in the Seraphic Boarding School asked Padre Pio for permission to climb the mountain that was directly behind the monastery. The superior of the monastery was away at the time and had left Padre Pio in charge. Padre Pio gave the boys permission to climb the mountain on condition that they come straight back to the monastery in the afternoon. Padre Pio grew worried when the boys were late in returning. They had been gone for more than two hours and already the sun was beginning to go down. Padre Pio wished that the monastery had a telephone so that he could notify the authorities, but at that time, in 1919, the monastery did not possess one. A terrible anxiety gripped Padre Pio’s heart and he began to cry. He did not know what to do. He spent the night in front of the Blessed Sacrament, tearfully pleading with Jesus to protect the boys and return them safely to the monastery. The next day, there was still no sign of the boys. Alberto’s uncle, Antonio Centra, was at Our Lady of Grace monastery that morning. When he greeted Padre Pio, he noticed that his eyes were red from crying. Padre Pio then sent one of the Capuchins to the police station to notify the Chief of Police. The Chief of Police sent a telegram to all of the other police headquarters in the surrounding areas. Finally, a telegram arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo saying that the boys had been found. After climbing the mountain, instead of returning to the monastery like they were supposed to do, they had decided to walk to the monastery of Vico del Gargano. They spent the night outdoors on the steps of a church in the town of Carpino. They reached the monastery of Vico del Gargano late the next afternoon. The event had been so traumatic for Padre Pio that he wrote a letter to Father Benedetto, expressing his deepest feelings. “Only God knows how much I cried and how much I suffered. If I did not go crazy and my heart did not break, it was because of Divine grace.” As it turned out, none of the nine young aspirants to the Capuchin order ever completed their studies. Each of them, at one time or another, made the decision to leave the seminary. There were two other young men who did not go mountain climbing with the group that day because they were both ill. They were the only two in the class who would eventually be ordained to the priesthood. From: Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book II by Diane Allen
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:54:23 +0000
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