When Padre Pio spoke to a soul about Purgatory, the friar's story

One evening, while Padre Pio rested in his room, on the ground floor of the convent, a man wrapped in a black cloak appeared to him.

Padre Pio got up surprised and asked the man what he was looking for. The Unknown replied that he was a soul in Purgatory: "I'm Pietro di Mauro. I died in a fire on September 18, 1908, in this convent, in my bed in my sleep, in this very room. I come from Purgatory. The Lord allowed me to come here and ask for a Holy Mass tomorrow morning. Thanks to this Holy Mass I will be able to enter heaven ».

Padre Pio promised to celebrate Holy Mass for him the next day: "I wanted to accompany him to the convent door. I made sure to speak to the deceased. As I walked out in front of the church, the man, who had been with me until then, suddenly disappeared. I must admit that I was afraid when I returned to the convent ”.

"To the Father Guardian, who did not let my excitement escape, I asked permission to celebrate a Holy Mass for that soul after telling him everything that had happened. A few days later the guardian went to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo where he wanted to check if such an event had occurred. In the register of the dead of 1908, he found for the month of September that Pietro di Mauro died exactly on September 18, 1908 in a fire ”.

One day some friars saw Padre Pio abruptly get up from the table and it seemed that he was talking to someone. But there was no one around the saint. The friars thought that Padre Pio was beginning to lose his mind, so they asked him who he was talking to. "Oh, don't worry, I have told some souls who are going from Purgatory to Paradise. They stopped here to thank me for having remembered them at mass this morning ”.