Padre Pio - a living miracle
For fifty years Padre Pio bore the stigmata. The Franciscan priest bore the same wounds as Christ on his hands, feet and side. Although the wounds were examined several times, no explanation was found for them. “Stigmata are not like ordinary wounds or injuries, they do not heal.” The only abnormal thing about his blood was the peculiar rose scent that came from his stigmata.
Padre Pio’s Miraculous Healing by Gemma Di Giorgi
Among all those who have been healed by Padre Pio’s intercession, there are some who stand out. Gemma Di Giorgio’s healing is one such. Gemma was born in 1939 in the village of Ribera in Sicily.
She was born without pupils and was therefore completely blind. The family was distressed but there was nothing to be done. They often took her to church and prayed for a healing. A relative who was a nun suggested that they contact Padre Pio. They decided that the nun should write him a letter. The nun then had a dream in which Padre Pio asked for Gemma.
Grandma then took 7-year-old Gemma to visit Padre Pio. Already on the way there, Gemma started to see something small and commented on the sea and the boat. They completed the demanding journey to San Giovanni Rotondo and Padre Pio greeted Gemma by name before she had time to introduce herself. He heard her confession and made the sign of the cross over her eyes.
When Gemma returned to Sicily, she saw her doctor who stated that she could now see.
Gemma could see even though she had no pupils. The doctor explained that Gemma’s eyes were unable to see. There was no medical explanation for it. Many doctors from all over Italy requested to examine Gemma’s eyes.
FACTS
Although not all doctors could agree on Gemma di Giorgi’s medical condition, these facts can definitely be established:
- Gemma di Giorgi was born with a severe congenital eye defect, absence of pupils.
- Before Gemma had contact with Padre Pio, her vision was either quite deficient or completely non-existent.
- Afterwards, although the physical structure of the eye remained unchanged, Gemma could see normally – although it was officially classified as legal blindness.
Source:
"Stigmata are not like ordinary wounds or injuries, they do not heal."
Padre Pio, the flying saint and the American pilots
Several pilots from the British and American Air Force, of different nationalities and religions, who during the Second World War were in the area around Bari on missions, became witnesses to something unusual. As they passed through the Gargano region near San Giovanni Rotondo, they saw a ‘monk’ in the sky forbidding them to drop bombs there.
Foggia and Apúlia were bombed on several occasions, but in the San Giovanni Rotondo area, where Padre Pio lived, a bomb never fell. A witness to this was the General of the Italian Air Force, Bernardo Rossini, who at the time was part of the Air Command along with the Allied Forces.
General Rossini told me that there was talk among the military of a ‘monk’ appearing in the sky and causing the planes to retreat. Many laughed and did not believe these stories, but because this was repeated so many times and always with different pilots, the general decided to intervene personally : he took command of a squadron of bombers to destroy a German ammunition depot located in the middle of San Giovanni Rotunda.
Everyone was very curious about the results of the operation. On their return, they went at once to find the general, who, astonished, said that as soon as he arrived at the place both he and his pilots saw the “monk figure” in the sky with raised hands; the bombs were released by themselves and fell in a forest; and the planes were turned around without the pilots doing anything.
Everyone wondered who this “ghost” was, which even the airplanes obeyed. After hearing that in San Giovanni Rotondo there was a monk with stigmata who was considered a saint, the general thought that he might be the “monk” seen in the sky and he decided to investigate this as soon as possible. When the war was over, this was the first thing he did. Together with some pilots, he went to the Capuchin monastery and then came to the sacristy where he saw several brothers, among whom he immediately recognized the one who had stopped his plane.
Padre Pio came forward and put his hand on the shoulder and said, ‘So it was you who wanted to kill us all?’ The general knelt before Padre Pio, who addressed him in the Benevento dialect. However, the general was sure that the ‘monk’ had spoken to him in English. The two became friends and the general, who was a Protestant, converted to Catholicism”.
