Exclusive: A visiting Capuchin Franciscan was a witness to an astonishing saint
By Bridget Spinks
Three pieces of dried blood from St Pio of Pietrelcina’s 50-year stigmata and one of the mittens the saint used to cover his stigmata arrived in Perth on 4 August in the care of a priest who was among the few people to be close on a daily basis to one of the greatest mystics of the Church.
Fr Ermelindo, who was ordained a Capuchin friar in 1958, brought the relics to Perth, the first stop of his tour around Australia and New Zealand from 6 August – 5 September.
The relics have already travelled to various schools and churches in Perth including Aquinas College and Divine Mercy Secondary School Yangebup as well as Geraldton Cathedral and St Mary’s Cathedral Perth.
These relics are the same as those that toured the US in 2009 and the Philippines and Singapore in 2008.
Fr Ermelindo had first hand experience with the mystic but said he prefers to speak of the holiness of Padre Pio rather than the numerous and extraordinary spiritual and physical miracles of the saint, saying that these came from God through Padre Pio’s intercession.
“The centre of Padre Pio’s spiritual life was God, the crucifix, Our Lady and St Francis of Assisi, our founder and father,” Fr Ermelindo said.
The superior appointed Fr Ermelindo to stay at San Giovanni Rotondo as Padre Pio’s English secretary from 1965 until his death on 23 September 1968.
His task was to introduce Padre Pio to the many English-speaking visitors from abroad and to answer the many letters that Padre Pio received in English.
“Padre Pio was a man of prayer and suffering,” Fr Ermelindo said.
“He suffered all the time during his life. He used to repeat all the time, ‘Who is Padre Pio? He is a poor Capuchin Friar, praying and suffering.’ He would say that every day. ‘I am a sinner myself,’ he also said.”
Fr Ermelindo said that Padre Pio had a great love for the Rosary and would pray it countless times throughout the day.
“I saw him praying all the time especially in front of Jesus in the tabernacle. And saying the Rosary to Our Lady. The crown of the Rosary was his weapon against the devils and the prayer to obtain all the grace from Our Lady for him and for those who asked him to pray for them,” Fr Ermelindo said.
Fr Ermelindo said that Padre Pio encouraged people to pray the Rosary every day – “Padre Pio said, ‘I would like to have a voice so strong to tell everyone, especially sinners love and love Our Lady and pray the Rosary every day’.”
Padre Pio was ordained to the priesthood a century ago this month on 10 August 1910.
“On that occasion, Padre Pio renewed his promise to God to offer himself as victim on the altar for the salvation of humanity as Jesus Christ did on Calvary,” Fr Ermelindo told The Record.
During his priesthood, Padre Pio would begin Mass very early in the morning, at 4am, and the church would be “overcrowded”, Fr Ermelindo said.
“During the Mass, Padre Pio considered the altar as Calvary and he meditated on the passion and death of Jesus Christ,” said Fr Ermelindo. Eight years after ordination, on 20 September 1918, Padre Pio received the Stigmata that he would wear for 50 years on his hands, feet and chest while he was praying in front of a Crucifix.
“He became a real image of the crucified Christ,” Fr Ermelindo said.
The wounds weren’t bleeding all the time, but they were bleeding. “We know they were bleeding because we have signs. For example, on some linen that he used to dry the blood and the crusts,” Fr Ermelindo said.
Fr Ermelindo described his confrere’s heart as “a furnace, burning with love for God and humanity”.
With offerings that he received from people the world over, Padre Pio built a hospital for the sick and the suffering. The hospital, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, (Home for Relief of the Suffering) was inaugurated on 5 May 1956.
“He was a man of charity towards the poor, the sinners and the sick,” he said.
In his final years, Fr Ermelindo said that Padre Pio continued to work spiritually by hearing confessions, saying the Holy Mass and meeting the people, even though he was “old, sick and a little tired”.
He met a lot of people of all kinds and in all conditions during his life – the poor and the sick, the powerful and the weak, politicians and singers, Fr Ermelindo said.
Beniamino Gigli, a world-class opera singer and famous tenor, visited the future saint often.
Fr Ermelindo described him as “one of the best singers of that time” and “a good friend of Padre Pio”.
“Padre Pio asked him to sing the song ‘Mama’ because Padre Pio was very fond of his mama,” Fr Ermelindo said.
Padre Pio loved music, musicians and singers and Fr Ermelindo said that he saw many singers came to visit Padre Pio.
Padre Pio also met the future Pope John Paul II when he “was a simple priest in Rome” who went to San Giovanni Rotondo to ask Padre Pio to hear his confession. From that point on, Fr Ermelindo said, he became a “very close” friend of Padre Pio.
Fr Karol Wojtyla wasn’t the only one who asked Padre Pio to hear his confession.
Many people came to San Giovanni Rotondo to ask Padre Pio to hear their confession and as a result, Padre Pio spent many hours in the confessional box.
“During the confession, Padre Pio was a father and a judge. He converted a lot of sinners to return to God and to the Church,” Fr Ermelindo said.
Padre Pio was not only a confessor but a director of many souls, and wrote many letters giving them spiritual counsel, Fr Ermelindo said.
Fr Ermelindo told The Record that in general Padre Pio told them how to love and serve God and to love and respect each other; to read spiritual books and especially to attend the Holy Mass and say the Rosary and to take up the daily cross and follow Jesus Christ and to pray to Our Lady.
“In general, to do God’s will,” Fr Ermelindo said.
Padre Pio Relics and Fr Ermelindo tour dates:
Saint Padre Pio’s first and second-class relics will be touring Australian and New Zealand 6 August to 5 September. Fr Ermelindo will be preaching the homilies and giving the blessing.
PERTH: 6 – 15 August (Contact Des Scully – scully8@optusnet.com.au)
13 August: 11.30-2.30pm at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Square, Perth
13 August: 6.30pm at Our Lady of the Mission Church, Whitford
14 August: (Italian speaking day) at Infant Jesus Church, Morley 8.30am- Padre Pio DVD; 10am- Adoration; 11am- Mass followed by BYO lunch in Parish Hall
14 August: 6.30pm Mass at St John & Paul Church, Willetton
15 August: 10.30am Matt at St John & Paul Church, Willetton
ADELAIDE: 16-18 August (Contact David & Sue O’Dwyer – 08 8384 4581
17 August: 6pm Adoration and 7pm Mass at Newton Parish.
18 August: 6pm Adoration and 7pm Mass at Morphett Vale Parish
All evenings will include Holy Mass followed by: Talks from Fr Ermelindo then veneration of St Padre Pio’s Relics.
MELBOURNE: 19-21 August (Contact Angela & Frank Iacono – 03 9315 9300)
19 August: 6.30pm Rosary, 7pm Mass at National Shrine of St Anthony’s, 182 Power Street, Hawthorn. (Contact Fr Bernard 03 9819 3775)
20 August: 6.30pm Adoration, 7.30pm Mass and Homily and blessing with first class relic at St Francis of Assisi Church, 290 Childs Rd Mill Park.
21 August: 10.30am Rosary, 11am Mass and Homily and blessing with first class relic at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Cathedral Place, East Melbourne
SYDNEY: 22-24 August (Contact Michael Sandrussi – 0404 794 134)
22 August: 2pm-4pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
22 August: 7.30pm at Good Shepherd Parish, 136 Hyatts Rd Plumpton.
23 August: 6pm talk in Italian at St Fiacre’s Church Leichardt, 96 Catherine St Leichardt 6pm.
New Zealand
Auckland: 25-26th August (Dennis Augustine)
Wellington: 27-28th August (Ted Jordan)
Christchurch: 29-30th August (TBC)
BRISBANE: 3-4 September (Fr. John Spiteri- 0401 937 780)
3 September: 2-4pm with Adoration, Rosary, Benediction, Mass and light refreshments at Our Lady of Graces, 100 Mayfield Rd, Carina.
4 September: TBA.