PADRE Pio told many stories over his lifetime.
In fact he was renowned for his recall and his sharp and sometimes cutting wit. One of his own favourite stories was about a local Italian farmer who had never been on a train before, but wanted to visit his daughter in a nearby town.
The story is based around the early 1940s, this is important as there was no electricity to supply lighting on the Italian rail network around this time. The local stationmaster advised the farmer to purchase a return train ticket as it was the most economical way to proceed.
The farmer had never heard of such a thing and put up an argument saying that he was going to visit his daughter and that he could purchase another ticket back at the station where his daughter lived.
After much persuasion the farmer relented, he purchased the return ticket and boarded the said train, just as it was about to take off. He sat down at his table and started a conversation with the passenger opposite who happened to be a priest.
As the story goes, the farmer wasn’t very interested in religious matters so the priest began to discuss about sin and suggested that the farmer still had plenty of time to change his ways and to recant for any wrongdoings that he may have done in his lifetime.
The farmer was having none of it, throwing his eyes up to heaven, saying that he didn’t want to be listening to such rubbish.
Suddenly the train entered a long tunnel and was thrown into a state of pitch darkness, to which the farmer showed slight alarm, especially as there were no lights on board. The priest pounced on his opportunity to get his message across to the farmer about the terrors of hell.
He reminded the farmer again, that if he didn’t recant his sins that the fear he was facing now in the darkness was nothing compared to the terror and torture that he faced in the damnation of hell and that those fears would last with him for eternity and that there was no way back.
“That doesn’t bother me one bit says the farmer to the priest, sure I’m alright, didn’t I purchase a return ticket.”
Padre Pio would laugh out loud as he regaled this story.
He was also quite cynical of the medical profession, once saying that “Never forget the old proverb: a mouse has a better chance with two cats than a sick person has with two doctors.”
Because of his ability to heal and cure the sick and troubled, many people donated money to the Padre Pio foundation. As part of his legacy Padre Pio left a hospital.
At the official opening of the hospital in 1966, Padre Pio was challenged by doctors suggesting that he was being a bit hypocritical leaving a hospital as part of his legacy, considering that he had such a poor view of the medical profession.
His answer was typical Padre Pio who was quite cutting in his reply, saying; “The Hospital I left is for the sick, not for the doctors.”
It is today a medical facility of over 1,000 inpatient beds, a prominent structure of highest renown both in Italy and internationally, one which works in the fields of medical assistance, scientific research and training with the aim of promoting and protecting the integrity of the person according to the principles of Christian Charity and Catholic Morals.
Next week I am going to write about – What Is Prayer?
the catholic church wanted padre pio dead actually
he was too powerful and doing his own stunts with carbolic acid
the church were worried he’s be found out.
he had no ability to cure the sick.