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Subject: [FOLKLORE FAMILY] Re: a heartwarmer: Padre Pio
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 14:59:29 EDT

PADRE PIO

Within a few days of returning from a religious conference where one
of the topics of conversation involved relics, a friend gave me my first
relic as a gesture of thanks for something I had done. A relic is a
physical object that had been associated with a saint -- it could be
anything, from a lock of hair to a piece of clothing or an object that the
saint used.
I did not know what to do with the relic and embarrassed myself by
promptly dropping it on the ground. Feeling as though I committed some
sort of sacrilege, I gently and reverently picked up the medal and stared
at the face of Padre Pio.
I had heard many stories of the miracles attributed to his prayers. I
wore the relic daily around my neck and started to form an attachment to
him.
Within a few months of receiving the relic, which I thought I would
never part with, I gave my medal to a former co-worker, Anita. Here is
why:
Anita and I had worked at St. Mary's Hospital together for several
years. She had moved on to another job a few years earlier and I was
surprised to see her back at the hospital this particular Saturday in
January.
She began telling us the devastating story of her 12 year old step
son. A few days earlier, as the boy was getting on the bus in the morning,
he somehow managed to swallow the top of a magic marker. Anita was
summoned to school that morning because Samuel wasn't feeling well. They
offered him food and drink to help move the cap down a little farther into
his digestive system in the hopes of bringing him some relief. He then
proceeded to finish his school day.
The next morning, Anita found her step son lying on the couch and he
said he was having difficulty breathing. She immediately brought him to
the hospital emergency room. The X-rays showed the large marker cap
clearly in her son's lung. The ER doctors tried to retrieve the cap with
several invasive procedures but were unsuccessful. At this point, Samuel
was starting to run a fever, infection was starting to take root and the
doctors opted for emergency surgery. One half of the infected lung
containing the cap was removed. Samuel was then placed in the pediatric
ICU.
Samuel was now in a coma, and to make matters worse, he had spiked a
very high fever and with the infection he acquired, he seemed progressively
worse.
Seeing the deep sorrow and desperation she was in, I took off my
necklace with the relic of Padre Pio and offered it to her. Knowing she
was not Catholic, I didn't know how she would respond. To my surprise she
was genuinely grateful.
She immediately pressed the relic to her heart and thanked me
profusely. I was thinking at that moment how, when faced with devastating
circumstances, people will grasp onto any hope offered.
She asked me what she should do with the relic. I told her that maybe
she should place the relic on Samuel's pillow and ask Padre Pio to pray to
God for her son. I then told her the little that I did know of Padre Pio
and some of the miraculous stories I had heard. She was so grateful and
quickly rushed upstairs to his room. I told her that I would pray in our
hospital chapel.
Opening my prayer book in search for an appropriate prayer, I found a
novena. In very small print at the bottom was a note that said, "This
prayer was often recited by Padre Pio." Perfect! I had never prayed this
prayer before and I asked Padre Pio if he could somehow help me pray it.
The next morning, Sunday, I ran into Anita and her husband, Samuel's
father, outside of the ER doors. When I asked how Samuel was doing, she
said, "You're not going to believe this. The very minute we put the relic
on his pillow and asked for Padre Pio's prayers his fever went away."
I responded, "Well, you know, maybe the antibiotics finally started to
work." Samuel's father responded with, "No, it was the prayer of Padre
Pio." I immediately went to the chapel and prayed, again asking Padre Pio
to help me pray the novena and gave a prayer of thanksgiving for hearing
our prayers.
A few days passed and I ran into Anita's sister, who also worked at
St. Mary's. She proceeded to tell me an incredible story.
She said that Samuel had finally come out of his coma and the first
thing he asked was, "Is the priest coming back?"
Anita asked the woman at the ICU desk who the priest was who had
visited her son. The woman at the desk said that no priest had come to
visit. Samuel then proceeded to tell Anita that a priest in a purple gown
had come to see him. He said the priest knelt at his bedside and said to
him, "I am praying for you so that you will get well."
Knowing the Abbot, the head of our local monastery in town, had a
fondness for Padre Pio, I asked Anita's sister if she thought it would be
acceptable if I asked the Abbot to visit Samuel. She thought it would be a
wonderful idea.
The Abbot and a friend visited Samuel in the hospital that very day.
After hearing Samuel's story of the priest in purple who came to visit him,
the Abbot brought out a picture of Padre Pio and asked if he looked
familiar.
Samuel said, "Yes, that is the priest who came to see me, though he
looked a little younger and not so gray."
Samuel was completely healed and left the hospital within a few days.
Samuel told his story to a group of people at a healing mass a few months
later.

-- This story is posted on the website of the
Padre Pio Foundation of America at
<A HREF="http://www.padrepio.com/">http://www.padrepio.com/</A>;




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*: * Richiele * *
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