Padre Pio's Extraordinary Relationship with Angels

 In today’s tale, I want to revisit the extraordinary life of the Catholic Saint, Padre Pio. There are so many incredible supernatural encounters surrounding this humble friar’s life that I couldn’t easily incorporate them into just one video, but decided to make a series.

I have already shared with you several occasions when the padre was visited by the spirits of dead believers who found themselves caught in purgatory and sought his prayers. We have also touched on the incredible circumstances of stigmata which Padre Pio bore on his hands for much of his life.

Today I wanted to focus on his extraordinary relationship with the angels.

In the Gospel of St Matthew there is a passage during which Christ, speaking of young children says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father. (Mt.18:10)”

That is just one example of the idea that we each have an angel assigned to us for our guidance and protection from birth to death and beyond. The Padre certainly believed this to be the case and now we will explore some incredible circumstances in his life that made the reality of angels a certainty. Not just for Padre Pio but for many who witnessed these events.

It is widely believed that Padre Pio could not only see his own guardian angel but also those of others. To many people watching this, especially if you are unfamiliar with the beliefs of the Church, I would humbly ask that you suspend your disbelief as we go through a few situations that gave credibility to these claims, for many times it was through a guardian angel that the Padre was alerted to individuals in need, and he was able to come to their aide, either through prayer or in person.

In the book, Send Me Your Guardian Angel by Friar Alessio Parente there is the account of a person whom Padre Pio had accepted as his spiritual child so to speak. The man’s name was Cecil Humphrey-Smith, a gentleman from England. One day in Italy Cecil was involved in a car accident which left him seriously injured. A friend of Cecil’s hurried to the post office, as this was in the days when telegrams dominated the world of “quick communication” across great distances. The concerned friend approached the desk with the intended telegram in his hand, but as he handed over the message the clerk also had a message, a telegram which had been received and intended for Cecil, assuring him that the Padre was already praying for his recovery!

The months went by and when Cecil was in good enough shape to travel again, he quickly made for San Giovanni Rotondo. Upon reuniting with Padre Pio Cecil asked him how it was that he knew about the accident so quickly. In his own cheeky way Padre Pio simply said, “Do you think the Angels go as slowly as the planes?”

Friar Alessio, who knew Padre Pio personally, recalled how one day he went to him to give him some letters, however the Padre ignored him! The bewildered friar attempted to get Padre Pio’s attention until he turned to him and said, “Don’t you see these angels around me? They’ve come to bring me messages from my spiritual children. It’s urgent that I send them a response!”

Another remarkable example of how the Padre communicated with angels was the occasion when two teenage girls who lived near the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, on hearing of his apparent affiliation with the angelic realm, they decided to put its validity to the test. The two teens spent a whole night making requests of their own guardian angels, sending them to Padre Pio with requests like, “Pray for my uncle Federico” or “Cure my Cousin” and the like.

The next day after Mass the two girls went to the friary to ask for the Padre’s blessing, however they found themselves in the presence of a rather unhappy friar. Pio said to them, “You kept me awake all night! First, you send me your guardian angel to cure your uncle Federico,” and turning to the other girl, he said, “and you sent me yours asking that your cousin be cured. And you kept it up all night long… I didn’t get any sleep!”

On the topic of sleepless nights, in 1918, as Padre Pio lay sick in his bed, he tried calling to his superior, another friar by the name of Padre Paulino, who did not hear his call on account of being such a heavy sleeper. Paulino had told Pio earlier, “If you want to wake me up, you’d better send your guardian angel!” And so that’s exactly what Padre Pio did. Paulino was roughly awakened. However, Paulino, tired as he was, went back to sleep. The next day Paulino told Pio that next time he should make sure his angel actually gets him out of bed. Sure enough, at 1:30 in the morning, Padre Paulino was shaken from his sleep so vigorously that he got up at once and went to Pio’s aide, finding him in serious need of assistance.

A rather astounding consequence of Padre Pio’s relationship with the angels is his claim regarding his angel aiding him with foreign languages. It is said that Padre Pio would receive letters in foreign languages, and he would ask his angel to translate them for him. Keep in mind that this is well before the days of Google Translate! Another Padre, Agostino, one day decided to test the linguistic ability of Padre Pios angel, writing letters in French or Greek or other languages which he knew were foreign to Pio’s own understanding. When Padre Pio received the letter that was written in Greek, the priest who was accompanying him that day, Don Panullo, swore under oath that Pio could read and understand its contents exactly, despite his ignorance of the Greek language.

On a separate occasion an American girl is said to have come to confession with Padre Pio before her first Holy Communion, and though he had never studied English he was able to not only understand her confession but also to respond to her in English. Again, when a Swiss priest visited Pio and asked him in Latin to pray for a woman the Padre, instead of responding in Latin, answered the Swiss Priest in perfect German, another language Padre Pio could not speak naturally.

The final example we will visit in this video relates to another of the Padre’s spiritual children, a man called Piergiorgio Biavatti, a car dealer from Florence. One day as he drove to visit Padre Pio in Southern Italy, he became sleepy, despite having stopped for coffee. He recalled the following:

“I remember only one thing, I started the engine, put my hands on the wheel, and after that, I have no recollection whatsoever. I don’t remember any second of the three-hour drive. Not only that but when I reached the square in front of the friary, someone shook me on the shoulder and said, “Come on now, take over.”

When Piergiorgio relayed the event to Padre Pio, the friar simply said, “You are right. You were sleeping all the way and my guardian angel was driving for you.”

Now the truth is, I could continue with more stories like the ones I have shared above. But I wanted to keep my videos relatively short, mainly because they take me so long to make! But if you’re interested in hearing more about Padre Pio’s extraordinary relationship with God’s Holy Angels then please let me know and I will revisit this topic in a future video!

In the meantime, what about you? Have you ever experienced the help of these incredible beings, these messengers of God? If so, I would love to hear about it so I can make more videos like this one! Please share your story with me at tellyourtalehere@gmail.com, and until next time, remember that you have a guardian angel too!

Note: My two main sources for this article were https://owlcation.com/humanities/Padre-Pio-and-the-Guardian-Angels and https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/padre-pio-and-the-guardian-angels-13856 as well as this video by the YouTube channel, “Following Padre Pio” - https://youtu.be/ifUgku3zfyk

Please follow these links if you would like to learn more about the life and faith of this extraordinary man.