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Chapter Six

Illness and Ecstasies

“Your Living Outside the Friary Is Serving No Useful Purpose”

Padre Benedetto, still minister provincial, wrote to the minister general of the Capuchin order, Padre Pacifico of Seggiano, telling him about the young friar’s holiness and asking about the advisability of sending him once more to live in a religious community.

Describing Padre Pio as “a young priest of angelic character,” the provincial mentioned his oblation as a victim of divine love as well as his mysterious illnesses, linking the two together:

He had also asked to participate in the pains of the Savior, and has been granted this in an ineffable way. Migraine headaches, resistant to any remedy, and an illness inexplicable to any doctor, however renowned in the healing art, have come to torment him along with great spiritual suffering. It was suspected that he had been stricken with tuberculosis, and doctors ordered him to breathe the air of his native town, especially when uncontrollable vomiting prevented him from holding even a spoonful of broth for days and days.”¹

He also told Padre Pacifico about the stigmata, which he judged to be “the seal of his special calling.”

Padre Benedetto asked for advice. Several times in recent years, he said, Padre Pio had been sent to various friaries, only to suffer relapses which forced his superiors to send him home. “Well aware that until now this has been the will of God,” Padre Benedetto wrote, “I want to summon him at this time to return to the cloister in any way possible. I am concerned, however [if anything should go amiss], it would be my fault. What do you say about this?”²

Padre Pacifico must have encouraged Padre Benedetto to reassign the “angelic” young priest to a friary, because in the fall of 1911 the minister provincial began to urge Padre Pio to return to community life. He did not command him to do so, however. Rather, he tried to persuade him to consent.

But Padre Pio was extremely reluctant. “You know that I want to return to the friary,” he wrote Padre Benedetto. “The greatest sacrifice that I have made to the Lord is precisely my inability to live in community.” He added, though, that he could not bring himself to believe that God wanted to kill him, as he would surely die of vomiting and inanition were he to return to the cloister. Moreover, at Pietrelcina he was able to celebrate Mass, whereas, if past experience was any guide to the future, he would be physically unable to do so in a convent. “If I must suffer alone,” Padre Pio wrote, “that is well, but to be a cause of pain and anxiety without any result other than my death, to that I do not know how to respond.” Despite his misgivings, Padre Pio indicated that he was willing to obey the command of his superiors. “It seems to me that I have the right and duty of not depriving myself of life at the age of twenty-four! It seems to me that God does not want this to happen. Consider that I am more dead than alive, and then do as you believe best, for I am disposed to make any sacrifice if it is a case of obedience.”³

Under his vow of obedience, Padre Pio, as a good religious, was prepared to obey the command of his superior, even if it should result in his death; but Padre Benedetto worried that God would hold him responsible if Padre Pio died, so he was unwilling to order him under obedience to report to a friary. He tried again to convince the sickly priest that such course of action would be best, writing on September 29:

I tell you that your staying with your family troubles me very much, since I would not only want to see you at one of our friaries, but also at my side, so that I could watch over you, for you know that I love you like a son. I therefore believe that your living outside the friary is serving no useful purpose…. If your illness is the express will of God and not a natural phenomenon, it is better for you to return to the shadow of community life. Native air cannot cure a man visited by the Most High…. Either at home or in community, your health will always be what God wills.”⁴

Padre Pio’s reply to Padre Benedetto has not been preserved, but whatever he said, it caused Padre Benedetto to explode in anger. On October 4, the minister provincial wrote: “When one writes as superior and spiritual director, you ought to listen to what he tells you with reverence and inward submission and not argue with him with a kind of resentment! As your superior and director, I declare to you that your illness has no need of doctors, since it is a special dispensation from God, and for this reason I am not of a mind to arrange an examination by another specialist.” He went on to recount the enormous expenditures made for Padre Pio of Benevento in his last illness and for other friars who had recently suffered serious health problems:

You see, then, how unfounded your accusation is and how wrong you are in obstinately believing in your own way. But you do not want to submit humbly to my judgments, and you are acting wickedly! I hope that this will be the last time that you refuse to submit to my instruction. Otherwise, I will not write to you anymore. Moreover, you really hurt me by saying that I do not love you [and] that I want to kill you.⁵

In response to the minister provincial’s letter, Padre Pio wrote in abject contrition:

With reddened eyes and trembling hand I write you this letter to beg your forgiveness on bended knee … I repent of this matter as one who loves God is able to repent of his sins. Please pardon me, Father. I know I do not deserve pardon, but your goodness towards me gives me hope. Do not be upset. Didn’t you know that I am full of pride? Let us pray together to the Lord that he strike me down before I fall again into such excesses.⁶

The Friary at Venafro

After receiving Padre Pio’s submissive reply, Padre Benedetto acceded to his request for another medical examination. He was sent to Naples, where the specialists concluded that Padre Pio was hopelessly ill (with what disease is unclear) and maintained that it would make no difference whether he spent his last days at home or in a convent. Padre Benedetto decided, therefore, that if Padre Pio was destined soon to die, he might as well depart the world from a friary. He ordered Padre Pio to report to the convent of San Nicandro in Venafro, a town about fifty miles north of Pietrelcina, famous for its pure air, which Padre Benedetto hoped might prolong the young priest’s days. While awaiting his appointment with “Sister Death,” Padre Pio would take a course on sacred eloquence.

It was at Venafro that the supernatural aspect of Padre Pio’s life became apparent to many of his confreres.

Built in 1573, the friary at Venafro was named after the Roman martyr San Nicandro and was adjacent to the tomb and thirteenth-century basilica erected in his honor. The Capuchin community consisted of thirteen men: nine priests and four brothers. The father guardian, or local superior, was thirty-three-year-old Padre Evangelista of San Marco in Lamis. Padre Agostino was vicar as well as lector of sacred eloquence. Among the community were Padre Anastasio of Roio, who had been with him during his January 1905 bilocation with the Rizzani family, as well as Padre Guglielmo of San Giovanni Rotondo (who later wrote an account of the early years of Padre Pio’s ministry), and the learned, ascetical sixty-eight-year-old Padre Francesco Maria of Gambatesa.

Padre Pio arrived on October 28, and for the first few days everything proceeded smoothly. Each member of the religious family had a job to perform, and Padre Pio, besides his studies, was assigned the task of instructing local children in Christian doctrine and teaching them hymns. By mid-November, however, he was sick again, unable to hold anything in his stomach. Soon he was able to leave his bed only to celebrate Mass, having to give up his studies and teaching.

Mysterious Noises

Padre Evangelista decided to take Padre Pio to Naples once more for medical consultation. As usual, the doctors were unable to diagnose his illness, and the two friars left the clinic knowing no more than before.

That evening the priests took a room in a hotel. During the night, Padre Evangelista was awakened by loud noises that rendered him petrified with terror. When the noises ceased, Padre Pio asked whether he had heard them, and then told him not to worry. He gave no explanation for the noises, although he seemed to be familiar with them. Although Padre Evangelista continued nervous and troubled, Padre Pio awoke bright and cheerful.

The digestive ailment persisted. Before the friars left Naples to return to Venafro, Padre Pio suggested that they stop for dinner at a restaurant. “Do you want to throw up in front of all those people?” Padre Evangelista asked. “Do you want to make a spectacle of yourself?” Padre Pio was feeling well and assured him that nothing would happen. He downed two courses — then had to run to the window and vomit into the flower beds outside.

At Venafro, the vomiting persisted. The only nourishment that Pio was able to retain was the sacred Host, which was brought to him in his room. He became too weak even to celebrate Mass.

Up to this point, Padre Pio had been regarded by his confreres simply as a good religious suffering from an undiagnosable and probably fatal illness. The stigmata had disappeared, and no one at Venafro — not even Padre Agostino — was aware that the marks had ever existed. The only people privy to this secret — Pannullo, Benedetto, Cardone, Scocca, and the doctor who thought the wounds were the result of tuberculosis — kept it well.

Between Heaven and Hell

One day Padre Agostino, advised that Padre Pio was doing very poorly, entered his room to find the young man raving about a huge black cat he said was about to pounce on him. Padre Agostino was convinced that Padre Pio was hallucinating and about to die, so he withdrew to the choir to pray for him. During his prayers, his mind wandered, and, thinking that he would be asked to preach at Padre Pio’s funeral, he began to plan what he would say.

When he returned to Padre Pio’s room, he was amazed to find his friend lucid and cheerful. “You went to the choir to pray,” he said, “and that was fine, but you also thought about my funeral eulogy. … There’s time, Lector, there’s plenty of time!”⁷ Needless to say, Padre Agostino was astounded.

On another occasion, Padre Pio asked Padre Agostino to remember him in prayer when he was saying Mass, and Padre Agostino agreed. He remembered his promise while going downstairs to the church, but forgot all about Padre Pio while he was celebrating Mass. When Padre Pio asked him if he had remembered to pray for him, Padre Agostino, embarrassed, lied and said, “Surely, I remembered.” Padre Agostino was dumbfounded at Padre Pio’s reply: “Well, at least Jesus accepted the intention that you made while you were going down the stairs.”⁸

Padre Agostino was not the only other resident at the friary who observed extraordinary things. One day Padre Guglielmo and the sixty-seven-year-old doorkeeper, Fra Cherubino of Morcone, were keeping Padre Pio company. The vestments used by the priests were regularly laundered in town. Fra Cherubino looked at his watch and excused himself, because he had to go to the door to meet the lady who was bringing the vestments at any moment. “You don’t have to go to the door now,” Padre Pio told the doorkeeper. “Save your energy. Wait here. She’s going to be one hour late.” Fra Cherubino remained. One hour later, Padre Pio told him to go to the door. Fra Cherubino did so, and found the laundry lady, who had just arrived and hadn’t even had time to knock.⁹

Padre Agostino spent a great deal of time in Padre Pio’s room and became convinced that he was neither delirious nor insane. Sometimes, rather crassly, he brought his students to observe him, because he and Padre Evangelista were in agreement that some of Padre Pio’s experiences were true cases of ecstasy, and they wanted the students to have the opportunity to observe such phenomena firsthand.

Padre Agostino observed that Padre Pio went into ecstasy two or three times a day. He transcribed everything that Padre Pio said while in ecstasy on seven occasions, although many others he did not record. These celestial encounters, in which Padre Pio seemed to converse with Jesus, Mary, and his guardian angel, were preceded or followed usually by diabolical vexations. The heavenly colloquies, Padre Agostino observed, usually lasted between thirty and forty-five minutes, while the demonic encounters usually lasted less than fifteen minutes.

Padre Agostino observed ten “diabolical apparitions.” In one of them, Padre Pio was terrified by a black cat that no one else could see. In another, he had a vision of a naked woman who “danced lasciviously” in his room. Another time, the devil invisibly spat in his face. On yet another occasion, Padre Pio complained of hideous noises which nobody else could hear.

One day Padres Evangelista and Agostino were horrified to discover Padre Pio writhing as if he were being repeatedly struck. Alarmed, they fell to their knees and began to pray and sprinkle him and the room with holy water. After a quarter of an hour, Padre Pio came to himself and said that he had been flogged by horrible men who looked like executioners. Other times he said demons appeared in the form of various friends, colleagues, and superiors, even in the forms of Pius X (the current pope) and Jesus, Mary, Saint Francis, and his guardian angel. He recognized the diabolical ruse through a certain feeling of disgust and by insisting that his visitors praise Jesus. When they refused to do so, he knew that they were from the devil.

Padre Pio made his confessions to Padre Agostino, but one morning Padre Agostino did not have the time and told the sick priest to go ahead and partake of the Eucharist, and he would hear his confession that evening. When he appeared in Padre Pio’s room that evening as he had promised, Padre Agostino was puzzled when the ailing friar gazed at him with an expression of fear and distrust.

“Are you my lector?” Padre Pio asked.

“Of course I am! Why do you ask such a peculiar question?” replied Padre Agostino.

Looking intently into his eyes, Padre Pio demanded, “Say: ‘Praise Jesus!’”

“Praise Jesus a thousand times!” Padre Agostino replied. “Now, tell me what happened.”

Padre Pio then related how, shortly after Padre Agostino had left him in the morning, there was a knock on his door, and there was Padre Agostino back again — or what appeared to be Padre Agostino. The lector said that he was now ready to hear Pio’s confession. Padre Pio, however, felt an unaccountable disgust. Moreover, although “Agostino” looked as he always did, he had a wound on his forehead that hadn’t been there a few minutes before. When Padre Pio asked what had happened, “Agostino” replied, “Oh, I fell while I was going downstairs. Now, son, I’m here to hear your confession.”

“Say, ‘Praise Jesus,’” Padre Pio demanded.

“No!” shouted the demon who had taken Padre Agostino’s form — and vanished into thin air.¹⁰

When he went into ecstasy, Padre Pio spoke, quite coherently, to various unseen visitors. Agostino wrote down what Padre Pio said, seeing and hearing nothing of those to whom the young priest was speaking. From Padre Pio’s words, however, it is possible to capture the general sense of the dialogue.

The first ecstasy that Padre Agostino transcribed took place on November 28, 1911, between 9:45 and 11:00 a.m. When it began, Padre Pio seemed to be talking with the Virgin Mary. Then he began to pray for various souls, addressing Jesus as he would a friend:

O Jesus, I commend that soul to you … You must convert her! You can do it! … Convert her, save her! … Don’t only convert her, for then it might be possible for her to lose your grace, but sanctify her. Yes, sanctify her…. Oh, didn’t you shed your blood for her, too? … O Jesus, convert that man…. You can do it. Yes, you can! … I offer all myself for him.

The desire to offer himself as a victim for the conversion of sinners was a theme that ran powerfully throughout the ecstasies that Padre Agostino recorded.

After pleading with the Lord to “stay a little longer,” Padre Pio reproached him for leaving him at the mercy of the devil the previous morning: “Ah, how he frightened me! … Jesus, don’t let him come anymore! … I’d rather forfeit the sweetness of your presence than have that fiend come back again!” Then Pio exclaimed in rapture:

O Jesus, another thing — I love you … very much. I want to be all yours. … Don’t you see that I am burning for you? … You ask love from me — love, love, love. See, I love you…. Come into my being every morning [through the Eucharist]. Let us tarry together, let us tarry alone — I alone with you, you alone with me. … O Jesus, give me your love! … When you come into my heart, if you see anything that is not worthy of your love, destroy it! … I love you! … I will hold you tightly, so tightly! … I will never let you go! … You are free, it is true, but I … I will hold you close, so very close … I will almost take your freedom away!¹¹

The ecstasy ended with Padre Pio urging his angel to “praise Jesus for me…. My lips are unworthy and foul, but yours are pure.” The angel seems to have said something, to which Padre Pio responded: “Are you an angel of the darkness? … You are an angel without sin! … Then praise Jesus for me…. Dear Guardian Angel, drive that fiend away.” And then he whispered: “O Jesus … Sacred Host … Beauty … Love … Jesus.” After a few moments, he became once more aware of his physical surroundings.

The next day Padre Pio expressed concern to Jesus that he had been observed. He didn’t mind Padre Agostino watching, but he was particularly concerned that the physician, Nicola Lombardi — a layman — had observed and overheard the ecstasy: “To friars, that’s one thing … but to a layman! … I know that he’s a good man, but he’s still a layman!”

Padre Pio began once again to pray for conversion: “O Jesus, you can’t refuse me! Remember that you shed your blood for everybody … and what does it matter if he is a hardened sinner?” He prayed for the confreres who ministered to him in his sickness: “Jesus, I commend these friars to you. They get up at night. You know that…. After all, who am I? … Help them … I am not good enough even to celebrate Mass, but they exercise their ministry.”¹²

Pio’s conversations with his guardian angel were a good deal less reverent:

Angel of God, my angel — aren’t you my guardian? God gave you to me…. Are you a creature or are you a creator? … You’re a creator? No! Then you’re a creature and you have a law and you have to obey…. You must stay close to me whether you want to or not…. You’re laughing! … What is there to laugh about? … Tell me one thing — you have to tell me. Who was it? Who was here yesterday morning? … You’re laughing! … You have to tell me! … Who was it? … Either the lector or the guardian — tell me! Come on now, answer me! … You’re laughing! An angel laughing! … I won’t let you go until you tell me! … If you won’t tell me, I will ask Jesus … and then you will listen! … Well, my boy, tell me who it was! … You’re not answering! … All right, just stand there — just like a block of wood! … I want to know … I asked you just one thing, and after such a long time, here we still are. Jesus, you tell me!¹³

Jesus apparently made the angel tell Padre Pio that only Padre Agostino had been watching the ecstasy of the previous day.

Toward the end of the ecstasy, Padre Pio spoke of a mysterious thirst that he experienced prior to receiving Holy Communion. (It is common for mystics to feel a real hunger and thirst for the living God.) The ecstasy closed with the enraptured priest kissing the Savior’s bleeding wounds.

The next day Padre Pio expressed a desire to help Jesus bear his cross. Jesus told him that he really did not need man’s works, but Padre Pio begged for the grace to participate in his redemptive suffering. From Padre Pio’s responses, it would seem that Jesus conceded him this privilege.

Padre Pio remained depressed over the fact that he was able to exercise his priestly duty of celebrating Mass only in his hometown. “Why there and not here?” he asked his celestial visitors. “Am I a priest only at Pietrelcina?” He was distressed about Padre Benedetto’s refusal to permit him to hear confessions. From Padre Pio’s responses, it appears that Jesus, too, was unhappy about this and actually accused the minister provincial of having a “hard head.” Even so, Padre Pio prayed that the punishment deserved by Padre Benedetto might fall upon himself. Furthermore, Padre Pio accused himself of being worthy of damnation. “You want to glorify yourself in me?” Pio asked in amazement. “Who am I? … I am a priest, true, but a useless one. I don’t even say Mass anymore, or hear confessions.”¹⁴ The ecstasy ended with Padre Pio praying for Padres Benedetto, Agostino, Pannullo, and for all priests, good and evil.

The next day, Friday, December 1, Padre Pio apparently saw Jesus crucified, bleeding, and suffering. “Jesus, I love you,” he exclaimed, “but don’t appear like this to me anymore…. You tear my heart to pieces…. It’s true, then, that you bore the cross all the time of your life … and therefore it’s wrong when wicked men say that your suffering was only a matter of a night and a day…. Your suffering was continuous.”¹⁵

Once again Padre Pio offered himself as a victim and prayed for the stigmata to return: “If you give me the strength, permit that those nails … permit it, yes, in my hands … if it be your will … but invisibly, because people despise your gifts.”¹⁶

Although Padre Pio suffered distress and anguish, there were moments of sublime rapture as well. “Tell me,” he asked Jesus, “if on earth it can be so lovely, what will heaven be like? … There we will die of love! … Jesus, all the things of this world are but as a shadow.”¹⁷

Touched when told how fervently Padre Evangelista and the rest of the community were praying for him, Padre Pio told Jesus: “Try to console him. Maybe he doesn’t even pray for himself…. Give him the grace [he is seeking]…. You can do anything!”¹⁸

On Sunday, December 3, as he talked with Jesus, Padre Pio was troubled about the sins of unworthy priests. Again, he offered himself as a victim, specifically on their behalf:

My Jesus, why are you so bloody this morning? … They did wicked things to you today? … Alas, even on Sunday you must suffer the offenses of ungrateful men! … How many abominations took place within your sanctuary! … My Jesus, pardon! Lower that sword! … If it must fall, may it find its place on my head alone…. Yes, I want to be the victim! … Here is the usual excuse: “You are too weak.” … Yes, I’m weak … but, my Jesus, you are able to strengthen me…. Then punish me and not others…. Even send me to hell, provided that I can still love you and everyone is saved. Yes, everyone!¹⁹

It was in this ecstasy that the Lord apparently explained to Padre Pio that he would have to return to Pietrelcina. In previous ecstasies, he had expressed his alarm at his inability to remain in any friary. He had been terrified on learning that the minister general was thinking of dismissing him from the Capuchin order because of his poor health, and that it might be necessary for him to journey to Rome to plead his cause. “O my Jesus,” Padre Pio lamented, “you want to send me to that land of exile! … Aren’t I a priest here? … What do I have to do?” Jesus evidently told him that his return to Pietrelcina was part of his plan to glorify himself in the friar. “You want to glorify yourself in me?” Pio exclaimed. “And who am I? … If only people could know my sins! … Daddy is proud of me and goes around boasting about me…. Oh, if he only knew, if he only knew.”²⁰

Saint Francis of Assisi also appeared to him. “Seraphic Father,” Padre Pio complained, “are you expelling me from your order? … Aren’t I your son anymore?” Padre Pio seemed to be assured by Saint Francis that he would not be expelled from the Capuchin order and that it was God’s will for him to remain in Pietrelcina for a time.

A Cataleptic Trance?

Two of Padre Pio’s ecstasies were observed by Dr. Nicola Lombardi. On November 28, 1911, Lombardi found Pio lying in bed and apparently staring at the ceiling. The Capuchin was talking to the Lord. Lombardi lit a candle and held it in front of Pio’s eyes. “He’s in a cataleptic trance,” Lombardi explained to Padre Agostino. “When he comes to himself, you’ll see that he remembers nothing of what happened.” Lombardi was wrong. Without being told of the doctor’s visit, Padre Pio complained bitterly the next day about being observed by a layman.

Lombardi was called back on December 3. Padre Pio was again talking to unseen visitors. “Take my heart and fill it with your love,” he murmured. Lombardi measured the heartbeat with his stethoscope and took the pulse under the wrist, marveling that the two were not synchronous: the pulse in the wrist was strong and rapid, but the actual heartbeat was significantly stronger and faster. Lombardi called the priest’s name in an attempt to bring him out of the trance. “Ah, what called me?” Padre Pio said. “My angel, let me stay with Jesus.” And he remained in the ecstatic trance.

“Let me show you something, Doctor,” Padre Evangelista said a few moments later. Instructing the doctor to remain in the room, the father guardian went outside. Within moments, Padre Pio awoke, alert and cheerful. Padre Evangelista, returning to the room, explained to the physician that, while standing in the corridor, he had called to Padre Pio in obedience, but in such a low voice that his command could be heard by no one in Padre Pio’s room. Even so, Padre Pio awoke. Evidently, he was unaware through his physical senses of anything going on in the room, much less in the hallway, but his guardian angel let him know when anything of importance was happening. When Evangelista called him through “holy obedience,” even though Padre Pio might be talking to the Lord, the Lord directed him to break off his conversation and obey the command of his earthly superior.

During late November and early December, Padre Agostino brought Holy Communion to Padre Pio several times while he was in ecstasy, but the ailing friar apparently was unaware of it because several times he asked Jesus, “Did I receive Communion this morning?” Padre Agostino could deduce from Padre Pio’s surprised response that Jesus had told him that he had indeed partaken of the sacred host. Padre Pio, apparently echoing Jesus’ words to him, repeated, “Pio, see Jesus! I command you to partake, in the Name of Jesus, whom I hold in my hands.” Padre Agostino recognized these as the exact words he used when he gave Padre Pio Communion. Padre Pio also repeated the French phrase “petit enfant” (little child), which he had also used. It did not seem as if Padre Pio was repeating words he remembered hearing; it seemed as if someone — evidently Jesus — was telling him something that he had not known until that moment.²¹

As mentioned earlier, Padre Agostino did not record all of Padre Pio’s ecstasies, especially those that concerned Padre Pio’s personal life. He did note that Padre Pio prayed several times that Padre Agostino might be freed from the assaults of the devil, and it seems that Padre Pio went into more detail than Padre Agostino cared to record. Later Padre Agostino recounted:

One day he prayed in ecstasy for a soul whom I knew as well as myself. The soul was troubled for more than a year by terrible temptations, which were known only to God and to his confessor. Of these, Padre Pio was able to know absolutely nothing. And then one day he prayed for this soul, that the Lord might free him from those terrifying temptations. He was in ecstasy and only through divine revelation could he know the interior of that soul. Jesus answered Padre Pio that he would help that soul, but that the soul would have to be tried and tested. From that day on this soul felt strengthened, and thank God, the temptations … were not so violent as before.²²

In his ecstasies, Padre Pio seemed to be told to pray for certain individuals. Padre Agostino could not identify three of them. When asked, Padre Pio told him that he had never met these people or heard of them. Padre Pio would later write to Padre Benedetto: “At times I feel moved, when I am praying, to intercede for those for whom I never intended to pray, and, what is more wonderful, at times for those whom I have never known, nor seen, nor heard, nor had recommended to me by others. And, sooner or later, the Lord always grants these prayers.”²³

Dr. Lombardi at first diagnosed Padre Pio as suffering from catalepsy, a condition sometimes associated with schizophrenia in which the body becomes rigid and frozen and often impervious to external stimuli. After observing him more extensively, Lombardi ruled out catalepsy and expressed the opinion that the trances had no natural explanation. Noting that in these episodes Padre Pio’s face assumed an unearthly beauty and that everything he said was totally coherent, Lombardi expressed his conviction that the young Capuchin was experiencing “true ecstasy” — a purely religious experience.²⁴

As for Padre Pio’s physical condition, Lombardi noted abnormal sounds in his respiration, but thought this had more to do with the larynx than the lungs. He found that his patient did not suffer from evening sweats or fever, characteristic of tuberculosis. Even though he vomited almost everything he ate, he showed no signs of emaciation or malnutrition. He found it significant that these symptoms occurred in every friary to which he had been sent, but much less when he was at home in Pietrelcina. Lombardi wrote, “From these facts I excluded a specific affection of the lungs, and I judged that this was a case of a nervous disturbance.”²⁵

Mystics and visionaries very often suffer from ill health and undiagnosable illnesses. Some have posited that this is because of the great duress the body is put under in such experiences.

Back to “Breathe His Native Air”

However Padre Pio’s superiors were inclined to interpret his illness, it was both real and distressing. Padre Evangelista — concerned because Padre Pio had been unable to retain any food for weeks — wrote to Padre Benedetto, begging him to permit the young priest to return once more to Pietrelcina. When he received no answer, he risked offending Padre Benedetto by going over his head and writing directly to the minister general, Padre Pacifico. Padre Evangelista told the minister general that he had written several letters to the provincial without receiving a reply, declaring on December 3, 1911:

Along with all my friars here and even all the friars of the province, I am able sincerely to attest to the fact that Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, sick now for three years, is unable to retain any food in his stomach except in his native town. For nearly two years he breathed the air of his hometown, and there he never suffered from vomiting, while, each time he has gone to a friary, even for a single day, he has been seized with agonizing pains and, especially, by vomiting. He has been here a month and a half and I can sincerely attest that he has never held his food for a quarter of an hour. For sixteen or seventeen days he has been bedfast and has not been able to retain even a spoonful of water…. Scarcely had he arrived in this friary than he began to vomit, and this has persisted to the present time. As soon as he sets foot on his native soil, however, his stomach recovers. Could this be the will of God that his poor priest must always remain at home?

In order not to give the minister general the impression that Padre Pio was malingering because he did not enjoy life in the friary, and so as not to put him in danger of being dismissed by the order, Padre Evangelista added: “Everyone can attest to the fact that he is the best kind of priest. Therefore he has not the slightest wish to stay at home, nor do we, his brethren, wish to deprive ourselves of his treasured presence.”²⁶

Padre Pacifico thereupon instructed Padre Benedetto to send Padre Pio home. Benedetto was furious and wrote to Padre Agostino, fuming: “I don’t know what to make of this concern to run to Rome for a provision that is supposed to be left to my wisdom. I’m troubled because it’s a sign of a lack of respect and reverence toward one’s immediate superiors.”²⁷

Padre Benedetto nevertheless granted his consent for Padre Pio to return to Pietrelcina and authorized Padre Agostino to accompany him. On the morning of December 7, 1911, the two priests set out for Pietrelcina. The next day Padre Pio was able to celebrate Mass in his hometown — “as if he had suffered nothing.”²⁸