Padre Pio and the Holy Rosary

There is no doubt that if Padre Pio lived with the stigmata, he also lived with the rosary crown. Both these mysterious and indissoluble elements are manifestations of his inner world. They concretize both his state of concocifix with Christ and his state of "one" with Mary.

Padre Pio did not preach, did not give lectures, did not teach in the chair, but when he arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo he was struck by a fact: you could see men and women, who could be professors, doctors, teachers, impresarios, workers, all without human respect, with the crown in hand, not only in the church, but often also on the street, in the square, day and night, waiting for the morning mass. Everyone knew that the rosary was Padre Pio's prayer. Only for this could we call him the great apostle of the rosary. He made San Giovanni Rotondo "the citadel of the rosary".

Padre Pio recited the rosary incessantly. It was a living and continued rosary. It was usual, every morning, after the thanksgiving of the mass, to confess, starting with the women.

One morning, one of the first to appear at the confessional was Miss Lucia Pennelli from San Giovannni Rotondo. She heard Padre Pio ask her: "How many rosaries did you say this morning?" He replied that he had recited two whole ones: and Padre Pio: "I have already recited seven". It was about seven in the morning and he had already celebrated mass and confessed a group of men. From this we can deduce how many he said every day until midnight!

Elena Bandini, writing to Pius XII in 1956, testifies that Padre Pio recited 40 whole rosaries a day. Padre Pio recited the rosary everywhere: in the cell, in the corridors, in the sacristy, going up and down the stairs, day and night. Asked how many rosaries he said between day and night, he replied himself: "Sometimes 40 and sometimes 50". Asked how he did it, he asked, "How can you not recite them?"

There is an episode on the theme of rosaries that is worth mentioning: Father Michelangelo da Cavallara, an Emilian of origin, a prominent figure, a preacher of fame, a man of deep culture, was however also a "temper". After the war, until 1960, he was a preacher in the month of May (dedicated to Mary), June (dedicated to the sacred heart) and July (dedicated to the precious blood of Christ) in the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo. He therefore lived with the friars.

From the first year he was impressed by Padre Pio, but he did not lack the courage to discuss with him. One of the first surprises was the crown of the rosary that he saw and saw in the hands of Padre Pio, so one evening he approached it with this question: "Father, tell me the truth, today, how many rosaries did you say?".

Padre Pio looks at him. He waits a little, then says to him: "Listen, I can't tell you the lie: thirty, thirty-two, thirty-three, and maybe a few more."

Michelangelo was shocked and wondered how space could be found in his day, between mass, confessions, common life, for so many rosaries. He then sought clarification from the Father's spiritual director, who was in the convent.

He met him in his cell and explained well, referring to Padre Pio's question and answer, underlining the detail of the answer: "I can't tell you the lie ...".

In response, the spiritual father, Father Agostino from San Marco in Lamis, burst into loud laughter and added: "If you knew it was whole rosaries!"

At this point, Father Michelangelo raised his arms to answer in his own way ... but Father Agostino added: "You want to know ... but explain to me first who is a mystic and then I will answer you as Padre Pio does to say, in one day, many rosaries . "

A mystic has a life that goes beyond the laws of space and time, which explains the bilocation, the levitations and other charisms, of which Padre Pio was rich. At this point it becomes clear that Christ's request, for those who follow him, to "pray always", for Padre Pio had become "always rosaries", that is, Mary always in her life.

We know that living for him was a Marian contemplative prayer and if contemplation means living - as Saint John Chrysostom teaches - we must conclude that Padre Pio's rosary was transparency of his Marian identification, of his being "one" with Christ and the Trinity. The language of his rosaries proclaims externally, that is, the Marian life lived by Padre Pio.

The mystery about the number of daily rosaries of Padre Pio remains to be clarified. He offers an explanation himself.

The testimonies on the number of crowns recited by Padre Pio are manifold, especially among his close friends, to whom the Father reserved his confidences. Miss Cleonice Morcaldi tells that Padre Pio, one day, joking with his spiritual son, Dr. Delfino di Potenza, a dear friend of ours, came out in this joke: «What about you doctors: can a man do more than one action at the same time? ». He replied: "But, two, I think so, Father." "Well, I'll get there in three," was the Father's counter-response.

Even more clearly, on another occasion, Father Tarcisio da Cervinara, one of Padre Pio's most intimate Capuchins, says that the Father confided to him in front of many puzzles: «I can do three things together: pray, confess and go around the world".

In the same sense he expressed himself one day, chatting in the cell with Father Michelangelo. He said to him, "Look, they wrote that Napoleon did four things together, what do you say? You believe it? I'll get there up to three, but four ... »

Therefore Padre Pio confides that at the same time he prays, confesses and is in bilocation. Therefore, when he confessed, he was also concentrated in his rosaries and was also transported in bilocation, around the world. What to say? We are on mystical and divine dimensions.

Even more surprising then is that Padre Pio, the stigmatized, the concocifix, felt constantly bound to Mary in such an intense continuity of prayer.

Let's not forget, however, that even Christ, while climbing Calvary, found support in his humanity by the presence of his Mother.

The explanation comes to us from above. The Father writes that, in one of his dialogues with Christ, one day he heard himself say: "How many times - Jesus said to me a moment ago - you would have abandoned me, my son, if I had not crucified you" (Epistolario I, p. 339). Therefore Padre Pio, precisely from the very Mother of Christ, needed to draw support, strength, comfort to consume himself in the mission that was entrusted to him.

Precisely for this reason, in Padre Pio everything, absolutely everything, rests on the Madonna: his priesthood, the world pilgrimage of the crowds to San Giovanni Rotondo, the House for the Relief of Suffering, his worldwide apostolate. The root was her: Maria.

Not only has this priest's Marian life flourished by offering us singular priestly wonders, but he presents it to us as a model, with his life, with all his work.

To those who look at him, Padre Pio left his image with his gaze constantly fixed on Mary and the rosary always in his hands: the weapon of his victories, of his triumphs over satan, the secret of graces for himself and for how many to him were addressed from all over the world. Padre Pio was apostle of Mary and apostle of the rosary by example!

Love for Mary, we believe, will be one of the first fruits of her glorification before the Church, and will point to Marianity as the root of Christian life and as a leaven that ferments the union of the soul with Christ.