Devotion to Padre Pio: how the friar fought the devil every day

The devil exists and its active role does not belong to the past nor can it be imprisoned in the spaces of popular imagination. The devil, in fact, continues to lead to sin today.
For this reason, the attitude of the disciple of Christ towards Satan must be of vigilance and struggle and not of indifference.
Unfortunately, the mentality of our time has relegated the figure of the devil to mythology and folklore. Baudelaire rightly stated that SATAN'S MASTERPIECE, IN THE MODERN ERA, IS NOT TO BELIEVE IN ITS EXISTENCE. Consequently, it is not easy to imagine that Satan proved his existence when he was forced to come out into the open to face Padre Pio in "bitter fighting".
These battles, as reported in the correspondence of the revered friar with his spiritual directors, were real battles to the death.

One of the first contacts that Padre Pio had with the Prince of Evil dates back to 1906 when Padre Pio returned to the convent of Sant'Elia in Pianisi. One summer night he could not sleep because of the suffocating heat. From the next room came the sound of the step of a man going up and down. "Poor Anastasio cannot sleep like me" I think Padre Pio. "I want to call him at least a little talk." He went to the window and called his companion but his voice remained choked in his throat: a monstrous dog appeared on the windowsill of the nearby window. So said Padre Pio himself: “from the door with terror I saw a big dog enter, from whose mouth a lot of smoke came out. I fell over onto the bed and heard it say: "it's iss, it's isso" - while I was in that posture, I saw the animal take a leap on the window sill, from here jump on the roof in front, and then disappear ".

Satan's temptations aimed at overpowering the seraphic father manifested themselves in every way. Father Agostino confirmed to us that satan appeared in the most varied forms: “in the form of naked young women who danced lewdly; in the form of a crucifix; in the form of a young friend of the friars; in the form of the Spiritual Father, or the Provincial Father; that of Pope Pius X and the Guardian Angel; of San Francesco; of Mary Most Holy, but also in its horrible features, with an army of infernal spirits. Sometimes there was no apparition but the poor Father was beaten to blood, torn with deafening noises, filled with spit, etc. . He managed to free himself from these attacks by invoking the name of Jesus.

The struggles between Padre Pio and Satan were exacerbated with the release of the possessed. More than once - Father Tarcisio da Cervinara said - before leaving a body of a possessed man, the Evil One shouted: "Padre Pio you bother us more than San Michele". And also: "Padre Pio, do not tear our souls away and we will not molest you"