Читать книгу Padre Pio - C. Bernard Ruffin - Страница 18

Chapter Ten

San Giovanni Rotondo

Refused Permission to Die

Shortly after Padre Pio arrived in Foggia, Padre Agostino took him to the Cerase home, to meet in person for the first time the lady with whom he had been corresponding for two years. Agostino wrote: “The meeting of Padre Pio and Donna Raffaelina was that of two souls who had known each other before the Lord for a long time…. The way they looked at each other — it was angelic — more eloquent than words can tell.”¹

For the next couple of months, Padre Pio paid regular visits to the sick woman as her physical condition continued to deteriorate. On March 17, Padre Pio wrote to Padre Agostino, who was at the friary at San Marco la Catola, “For several days now Raffaelina has been on the cross of the Beloved. She is suffering with unconquerable resignation. It breaks my heart to see her in such a state.”² The same day he wrote to Padre Benedetto, “She is already in the antechamber of the King. Before long she will be led in to the nuptial banquet.”³

Giovina, eavesdropping, heard the friar say to her sister, “My dear daughter, let’s tell Jesus to take me in your place.”

“No, Father,” answered Raffaelina, “I want to go first to Jesus myself. Then I will tell him to send me to take you.”⁴

On March 25, Padre Pio wrote Padre Agostino: “At 4:00 this morning we gained another intercessor at the throne of the Most High. Raffaelina has finished the course; she has celebrated the nuptials with her Divine Spouse. She fell asleep, happy soul, with a smile of disdain for this world.”⁵ Agostino praised the “lovely soul,” the “veritable treasure of goodness and piety,” who had “immolated herself” in exchange for the permanent return of Padre Pio to the cloister.

Padre Pio now passionately yearned for death. He begged Padre Agostino to give him permission to die. Shortly afterward, he had a vision of Raffaelina in her heavenly glory, who conveyed to him a message that he was not eager to hear. To Padre Agostino, who had refused him permission to die, Padre Pio lamented, “The whole lot of you are cruel! Padre Benedetto, the provincial, says no, you say no. And now that other spirit … comes to tell me that she can’t do anything because Jesus doesn’t want it! If I had known that, I would never have given her permission to go to heaven before me! All of you are cruel!”⁶

More Extraordinary Phenomena

For about six months, Padre Pio remained at St. Anna’s, during which time he was constantly ill and spent much of his time in bed. His confreres found it unusual that, even though he was able to retain hardly any of the food he ate, he showed no signs of starvation. What concerned them most, however, were the horrific noises that issued from his room early every evening.

Padre Paolino di Tommaso of Casacalenda (1886–1964), who was assigned to the friary of Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo, twenty-five miles away, found the friars there worried about the terrifying noises that came from Pio’s room. He passed through Foggia in May on his way to a medical examination for military service (which, to his relief, he failed).

Padre Paolino was skeptical, until the dinner hour came and the community sat down to eat. Padre Pio, who seldom, if ever, partook of the evening meal, remained upstairs in his room. During the course of the meal, everyone heard a terrific crash, just as if, as Padre Paolino put it, a huge drum of oil or gasoline had been dropped and crashed to the floor. Immediately Padre Paolino ran upstairs to find Padre Pio pale and drenched in sweat, as if he had gone swimming in his nightshirt. The same thing happened for several successive nights.

Word of this reached Padre Benedetto, who hurried to the friary. The minister provincial conferred with Padre Pio and asked Padre Paolino to be present as a witness. Padre Benedetto ordered Padre Pio to have the noises stopped.

Padre Pio humbly responded, “Your Paternity knows very well that I am not to blame and that I have nothing at all to do with what is happening…. It is God’s will that is permitting this!”

“Well, you tell the Lord,” commanded Padre Benedetto, “that I, as superior, for the greater good of this community, want to be pleased … in having these noises stop!”⁷

The noises stopped. Padre Pio told Padre Paolino that the noises were of demonic origin and were associated with temptations so frightening that they made him break out in a cold sweat. He did not describe the nature of the temptations, and Padre Paolino did not ask. Padre Pio later affirmed that the temptations continued — but silently. Word of the ghastly noises, however, spread among the Capuchin community and the lay people of the area. Soon several local women, convinced that this was evidence of Padre Pio’s divine predilection, were seeking out the “holy monk” for spiritual direction.

One of these “spiritual daughters” was Annitta Rodote. One day, when Padre Paolino was in Foggia, Annitta told him, “Father, yesterday something happened that never happened before in my life!” She went on to recount that one afternoon, around two, she was in her kitchen when she heard “a clear and intelligible voice” calling her by her nickname: “Annina! Annina!” At first, she thought she was dreaming, but as the voice continued to call her, she realized that she was wide awake. After calling “Annina!” twice more, the voice directed her, “Kneel down and pray for me, for I am at present very much tormented by the devil.” Rodote was terrified and confused. Then the voice spoke again: “Quickly, quickly, Annina! Don’t doubt, because this is Padre Pio who is asking you to pray! Kneel and let’s pray the litanies of the Madonna together.” When Rodote fell to her knees, Padre Pio’s disembodied voice began the Kyrie Eleison (“Lord, have mercy”), the beginning of the responsive prayer. They continued to the end, when the voice said, “Thank you. I am calm now.”

Padre Paolino wondered if this experience was a diabolical trick, but he dismissed the possibility because it would have meant that hell was invoking people’s prayers against itself. He told Annitta: “If you receive any other signs of this nature, tell the voice that you always pray for Padre Pio, but that you do not like this method of requesting prayer because you do not want to encounter illusions. You can also say that this was the counsel of your confessor.”

The next day Rodote told Padre Paolino that the same thing had happened again. When she had spoken of the danger of “illusion,” the voice had said: “But this is no illusion! I have need of souls to join with me in prayer, especially now, when I am tempted by the devil and feel the need acutely. So don’t deny me the charity of praying with me!”

Padre Paolino told Rodote that if Padre Pio should call her in the same manner the next day, to say to him, “Tell me where you are.” So, the next day Padre Paolino carefully monitored Padre Pio’s movements, especially around 2:00 p.m., the time that Annitta had been hearing the voice. When she reported a recurrence of the phenomenon, Paolino asked, “Did Padre Pio tell you where he was?” The place Annitta indicated was the very spot where Padre Paolino had observed Padre Pio at that very hour. Satisfied, Paolino left Rodote in full liberty to pray with Padre Pio every time he called her invisibly. He never questioned Padre Pio about the phenomenon, however.⁸

“Finding a Most Edifying Religious Community”

The summer of 1916 was very hot, and Padre Pio, who always suffered greatly from the heat, was so uncomfortable at night that he couldn’t sleep. Padre Paolino invited his friend to come and spend a few days at the friary of Our Lady of Grace outside of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he was the superior. Situated in the mountains, it tended to be significantly cooler than Foggia. A similar suggestion was made by Rachelina Russo, who ran a clothing store in that town. She had befriended the friars when they reestablished their friary in San Giovanni a few years before, giving them financial and material assistance. She had been going to the “holy monk” in Foggia for counsel. “You must come to San Giovanni Rotondo,” she told Padre Pio. “There the air is fresh.”

Padre Pio was reluctant to make the visit without the consent of Padre Benedetto. Padre Paolino pointed out that for a visit of just a few days he needed only the consent of his local superior, Padre Nazareno of Arpaise, father guardian of St. Anna. Russo appealed to him, pleading, “Let him come, let that boy come to San Giovanni. The air is good there.”

“Will you pay for the journey?” asked Padre Nazareno. “We don’t have money for the bus fare.”⁹

Russo paid the fare, and on July 28, 1916, Padre Paolino returned to his friary at San Giovanni Rotondo with Padre Pio.

Padre Pio returned after about a week and wrote to Padre Benedetto, asking for permission to spend a more extended period of time there. Though touchy about the breach of protocol in which Padre Pio had showed “willingness to please an ordinary priest, but not your superior,” the minister provincial conceded, “I am nonetheless happy that you went to San Giovanni Rotondo and hope that this has brought an improvement in your health.” In fact, he granted permission for Padre Pio to live there permanently, if he so desired.¹⁰

After Padre Pio begged Padre Benedetto’s pardon, accepted his forgiveness, and secured his permission to transfer to Our Lady of Grace, he arrived at his new home on September 4, 1916. A week later he wrote to Padre Benedetto, saying that he gave “fervent thanks to the Most High for making me worthy of finding a most edifying religious community.”¹¹ The same day Padre Paolino wrote Padre Agostino: “You can imagine the benefit we experience in the presence of Padre Pio! He is likewise pleased with us, with the air, the living arrangements, the quiet, the solitude, and everything else, and, except for the interior pains with which it pleases the Lord to test him, he might be said to be truly happy. What is most important is that we are happy with him.”¹²

Some had a different explanation for the reason for Padre Pio’s transfer to San Giovanni Rotondo. Raffaello Carlo Rossi (1876–1948), who a few years later would be sent as an inquisitor by the Holy Office to investigate Padre Pio, wrote:

At that time [1916], the superior of the Capuchins at San Giovanni Rotondo was a Father Paolino, a rather intrusive religious. During [the time when the office of archpriest of San Giovanni was vacant], he had started hearing confessions in the town’s churches, without asking for the appropriate faculties, as if he were in his own church, so much so that the new archpriest … once in office, was forced to have recourse to the ordinary [the archbishop of Manfredonia]. Obviously, the superior was looking for “people.” His church, far from town, was isolated; it needed to be enlivened. He started talking about a holy monk living in Foggia [rumors about the extraordinary things happening around Padre Pio already existed]; in turn, some devout women lobbied, it seems, to have Padre Pio definitely transferred to San Giovanni Rotondo, the wish was granted, and Padre Pio settled in the town where he is now.¹³

The source of this interpretation, however, appears to have been the new archpriest of San Giovanni Rotondo, Don Giuseppe Prencipe, who, as we shall see, was no friend of Padre Pio or the Capuchins.

San Giovanni Rotondo

San Giovanni Rotondo (Saint John-in-the-Round), a town with approximately ten thousand inhabitants in 1916, derives its name from an ancient circular temple dedicated in Roman times to the god Janus, but, with the coming of Christianity, consecrated to Saint John the Baptist. A “commune” in the province of Foggia and the region of Apulia, San Giovanni lies about 1,800 feet above sea level in the Gargano Mountains, on the spur of the Italian “boot,” within sight, on clear days, of the Adriatic Sea. A native has written: “To the north, the mountains, verdant with trees, bushes, and aromatic herbs, form a marvelous background for the town, which rests on a gentle shell. The horizon is bounded by the nearby mountains to the east and west; to the south, by the almost uniform prominence of the lower hills.”¹⁴

In 1916, the town, which was circular in shape, like the old temple, was a “conglomerate of old houses, one on top of another,” on either side of narrow, curving lanes. Most of the land near the town was in the hands of a few wealthy landowners, and most of the inhabitants eked out an existence working for them, either on the mountains as shepherds or in the plain as farm laborers, with both men and women toiling in the fields. There were only a few poorly stocked stores in town. To buy staples, people had to go to the cities of Foggia and San Severo, both more than twenty miles away. Although there were a few primitive motorized buses, people still traveled mostly by stagecoach. Most people subsisted on a diet of cereal, vegetables, and potatoes. Spaghetti was a feast-day meal, and meat was a luxury, eaten only on Sundays.¹⁵ Lives were weakened and shortened by malaria, vitamin-deficiency anemia, and tuberculosis. A visitor around that time described streets that were narrow alleys, “almost unbelievably filthy and muddy, flanked by a row of poor, squat, miserable huts out of which burst gangs of runny-nosed children and pigs, wallowing and snorting in the mud; houses with primitive furnishings, men and women who stare at you with sorrowful, unsmiling, suspicious faces, and nowhere a flower.”¹⁶

Most of the houses had one room on the upper story, where the inhabitants lived and slept, which was accessed by means of wooden stairs. The lower level was occupied by chickens and donkeys.¹⁷ A scholarly visitor, while noting the cheerful appearance of the friary in the midst of a green garden, found the townspeople “monumental and savage,” showing signs of malaria and trachoma (a contagious eye disease that often leads to blindness). The streets were full of women “with red stockings and noisy little clogs, sheathed in long severe shawls” and “huge, somber men,” dressed in black cloaks and leather collars, congregating in little groups.¹⁸ Most of them seemed old, as many of the younger men had left for northern Italy or the Americas in search of work.

The Convent of Our Lady of Grace

The Convent of Our Lady of Grace was about a mile and a half from town, on a branch of a five-mile, zigzagging mule track that passed for a road, which ran to the town of San Marco in Lamis. The track was full of stones and potholes, covered with mud in winter and infested with snakes in summer. Our Lady of Grace (La Madonna delle Grazie) was one of the oldest and poorest friaries in the province of Sant’Angelo. The terrain between the town and the friary was desolate, rocky, and all but devoid of verdure, with the exception of an occasional olive, pine, or cypress tree, and was dominated by a mountainside “squalid, parched, fissured, with green patches of oak groves and the rest bare rock.”¹⁹ At the time of Padre Pio’s arrival, according to a resident of the town, the path to the friary was

bordered by hedges and a few trees along the way. In front of the convent and church the path widened, creating a small square, where two elm trees stood, facing one another, on the left and on the right-hand side of the façade. When it rained, the water descended from the side of the … mountain like a waterfall that widened the rural churchyard. The friars changed what could have been a source of damage into a benefit: they made a hole at the bottom of the boundary wall to let the water flow through a duct into a tank built in the vegetable garden. Around the friary there were small plots of land dug out of the rocks and preserved by dry stone walls, a few poor houses and a few barns.²⁰