Medjugorje: the model who had the vision of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

Da Paolo Tessione - April 27, 2020

“I woke up because my dog was barking. And next to my bed was this older man with a beard, looking at me, shaking his head. I thought it was a kind of hallucination because of alcohol or drugs - no, that's not possible, I thought. Then I turned on the light and this man was still standing next to my bed, shaking his head and my dog was still barking at him.

Before her conversion to Medjugorje, the Polish model Ania Golędzinowska lived a life of celebrity, substance abuse and hostility towards the Catholic Church. One night a mysterious stranger came to admonish her. Only in Medjugorje did he recognize him as Saint Pius. Eight years ago the Polish model Ania Golędzinowska woke up in the middle of the night in her Italian home to find a mysterious man standing next to her bed, shaking her head with disappointment. It was only years later that he moved to Medjugorje in 2011 and received a book on St. Padre Pio that Golędzinowska recognized the face of man.
When she experienced the mysterious encounter, Golędzinowska led a life that was anything but virtuous, even if a successful model, an actress in Italian sitcoms and a TV presenter, admits to fighting against substance abuse, the lack of trust in God is even developing strong resentment towards the Catholic Church. San Pio, she believes, came to warn her to change her ways. The ex model remembers the day she finally identified him: “For years, I didn't know who he was. I also reported this incident in my book, but I did not include the man's name ”Ania Golędzinowska said brother Marcin Radomski in an [interview] gave earlier this year in Łomża, Poland. This is the first time that this part of its story has been told in English.

"It was only five months ago in Medjugorje that someone gave me a book on the life of Padre Pio, and for the first time, after eight years, I was able to give the name of the person who came to warn me eight years ago, to warn me that if I continue to lead my life in this way I would not go far. Golędzinowska was very open about how far she went from the Church in those years, to the point of developing a hatred for all Catholic things.

“I was far from the church. If I had the chance, I would shoot all the priests and nuns. Whenever I saw a church, I crossed the other side of the road. I have abused drugs. I drank." Then one night a warning came. Even her dog, Golędzinowska recalls, sensed the presence of a stranger in the room, suggesting that this was not a hallucination.

“Some day, some night I woke up because my dog was barking. And next to my bed was this older man with a beard, looking at me shaking his head. I thought it was a kind of hallucination because of alcohol or drugs - no, that's not possible, I thought. Then I turned on the light and this man was still standing next to my bed, shaking his head and my dog was still barking at him. "

Although Golędzinowska believes that St. Pius came to her with an important message, he did not need words to convey it. "She didn't say anything, but she looked at me like she meant, 'Ania, what are you doing?'" Ania Golędzinowska made a lot of news last year when [Catholic Herald] published a popular interview with her. The interview focused on his conversion which changed life in Medjugorje and its consequences. He made the decision to leave behind the life of glamor and fame in Italian high society for a simple peasant life of prayer and service in Medjugorje, where he has lived since 2011 with Pure Hearts, a Marian community of priests and nuns.

For the Polish model, this led to the conclusion of an important relationship with her boyfriend Paolo Enrico Beretta, nephew of the then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Lately, Golędzinowska has spent a lot of time touring Poland, as a Polish edition of his autobiography has recently been published, translated by a priest.

His book, Ocalona z Piekła: Wyznania diłej Modelki translates to "Rescued from Hell: Confessions of a ex Model." A section of the book describes Golędzinowska's meeting with the visitor who appeared to her in the middle of the night years ago to give her a useful warning. Now readers can know that Ania Golędzinowska has identified the mysterious visitor as St. Pio of Pietrelcina.