Commissioned by
the town's benefactors, on 4 October 1604 the
cross was planted and the monastery's first stone
laid. Work was completed in 1631. Padre Pio first
came here on 25 January 1904 to complete his secondary
education. After San Giovanni Rotondo, it is the
place where Padre Pio stayed the longest: 4 years.
In this monastery, young Brother Pio was assaulted
by the demon: "One summer night in 1905,
young Brother Pio heard noises coming from the
neighbouring cell.
When
he smelt a strong smell of sulphur, he called out
through the window to a study mate. Receiving no
answer, he turned round and saw a big black dog
come in through the door with smoke coming out of
his mouth. Seized with terror, Father Pio fell on
his bed and heard the animal say: "it is he,
it is he". Then the beast jumped out of the
window in one bound. Another supernatural event
took place in January 1905. Brother Pio used to
refer to it as an 'unusual fact', during which he
found himself in two different placed at one time.
He was in the chancel, when he suddenly found himself
far away in a mansion in which a man had died just
as his child baby was being born. The Madonna told
Brother Pio that she would entrust this child to
his care. "Let's ask this divine child to clothe
us in humility because only with this virtue may
we imbue this mystery with divine tenderness ".
(Epist. N p. 972).
Padre Pio's Spirituality
Spiritual
school
"Let
us always trust in God, and may our lively faith and the comfort of Christian
hope assist us in this. We must pray continually, moreover, that peace may soon
smile on the nations. We should turn our thoughts to heaven, our true homeland,
of which our earthly country is but a dim image, and make every effort with the
divine assistance to preserve at all times, amidst happy or sad events, the cheerful
calm that becomes the true followers of the fair Nazarene" (Epist. I,
p. 596)
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