Padre Pio and Our Lady

Padre Pio had a great love of and devotion to Our Lady, especially of Our Lady of Graces which the Friary of San Giovanni Rotondo is dedicated to.  He spent long hours in conversation with her and her Divine Son, Jesus. To him, Mary was the best way to approach Jesus and there is no better prayer than the Rosary to connect with her and the mysteries that comes from the life of Christ. You may have heard some of the stories of Padre Pio and his devotion to the Rosary which he called his ‘weapon’. 

Padre Pio always wore the Rosary around his arm at night. A few days before his death, as he was getting into bed, he said to the friars who was in his room, “Give me my weapon!” And the friar, surprised and curious, asked him: “Where is the weapon? We cannot see anything!” Padre Pio replied, “It is in my habit, which you have just hung up!” After having gone through the pockets of his religious habit, the friars said to him: “Padre, there is no weapon in your habit! . . . we can only find your rosary beads there!” Padre Pio immediately said, “And is this not a weapon? . . . the true weapon?!” Padre Pio instructed: “Recite the Rosary and recite it always and as much as you can.” To Padre Onorato Marcucci, grabbing the Rosary that he had just placed on the nightstand he said: “With this, one wins the battles.” He prayed many rosaries each day and people, including friars, were amazed at the number of rosaries he recited. In February 1954, at 9:00 p.m., speaking to Father Carmelo he said: “I still have 2 rosaries to pray today. I said only 34 so far. Then I will go to bed.”

Padre Pio is a saint for our time. He was photographed, he was recorded in film and in voice. I have lived with Capuchin friars who met him personally and recalled to me conversations they had with him. One Friar, Fr. Peter Dempsey, now gone home to God, told me that during WWII when the friars studying in Rome couldn’t travel home, they would be sent to San Giovanni Rotondo or some other Italian friaries. There Fr. Peter, who was a post graduate theology student, would sit beside Padre Pio and he said Padre told him speaking in Italian that he often prayed for the Irish Church and for the great missionary endeavour of the Irish who travelled to distant lands to spread the gospel. 

When we think of saints, naturally we remember the saints our parents introduced us to like Saint Anthony, Saint Therese the little flower, or Saint Francis of Assisi, St. Rita of Cascia etc. Let’s not forget the Saints of Ireland too, and Irish Diocese. Many of these lived centuries ago and perhaps its hard to identify with them today. But remember, Saint John Paul II reminds that we are all called to sanctity. It is the vocation of all of us to aspire to holiness. Pope Emeritus Benedict once said we are not made for comfort, we are made for greatness! Sanctity! But we can identify with saints who lived closer to our time and as we see how they lived, perhaps we can see ourselves that we can do it, we can imitate Christ in our time, in our families, and in our communities. Sanctity is the art of the possible. 

Padre Pio suffered most of his life. He endured misunderstanding for a time while the Holy See investigated the spiritual phenomena associated with his life, yet he remained obedient to the church and the Holy Father throughout. He also suffered because he was famous in a sense. Many people wanted to see him, and to go to confession to him. Often to the point of exhaustion would he have a word of challenge or of encouragement for someone or a prayer for an intention. Again, always with Mary’s rosary between his fingers. 

He bore the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of our Lord on his hands, feet, and on his side for 50 years. The friars and his doctors dressed them daily with a bandage and covered them with a fingerless mitten. The pain was bad enough, and horrific especially on Fridays. But the experience was excruciating and humiliating all the time because he was an object of curiosity. He said himself “I only want to be a poor friar who prays.” 

Padre Pio often suffered from bad health and once about 10 years before he died, he was very ill, and it coincided with the visit of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to some diocese in Italy. It wasn’t scheduled to visit San Giovanni at all, instead Our Lady was scheduled to stop in the large city of Foggia. While the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo is within the Foggia diocese, it is a good distance from Foggia.  Padre Pio was severely ill with pleurisy, unable to even celebrate Mass from May 5 let alone go to Foggia. The statue of Our Lady was to arrive at the beginning of August and Padre Pio remained bedridden. Somehow the scheduled got changed. The statue would not go to Foggia now but go to San Giovanni Rotondo instead. Joy filled the air as people gathered by the friary. With the help of a loudspeaker, Padre Pio was able to prepare them for their ‘mother’s’ arrival on August 6. That morning, Padre Pio struggled to get down to the church. He managed to get before the statue of our Lady — “but had to sit down because he was exhausted — and he gave her a gold rosary,” observed Bishop Carta. “The statue was lowered before his face, and he was able to kiss her. It was a most affectionate gesture.”

That same afternoon. Between two and three o’clock, Our Lady of Fatima was again in the helicopter ready to travel to the next stop. Taking off from the Casa for the Relief of the Suffering the helicopter circled three times around the monastery before flying away to its next stop. Afterwards, the pilot could never explain why that circling happened. Bishop Carta described how “From a window Padre Pio watched the helicopter fly away with eyes filled with tears. To our Lady in flight Padre Pio lamented with a confidence that was all his own: ‘My Lady, my mother, you came to Italy, and I got sick, now you are going away, and you leave me still ill.’” But as the helicopter was circling, he felt a shudder, a jolt, through his body. The bishop repeated what Padre Pio would say for the rest of his life: “In that very instant I felt a sort of shudder in my bones which cured me immediately.”

As I said, Padre Pio had a filial devotion to Our Blessed Lady. He was always communicating with her. The main reason is that she it is who brings us to her son Jesus. Mary always points to Jesus. This has always been Mary’s mission; she turns to us, and she says, as she said in few words at the wedding at Cana; “Do whatever he tells you.” 

Our Blessed Lady came here to Knock in 1879, eight years before Padre Pio was born, to bring hope to a suffering people. She came with St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist.  On the Altar was the Lamb, the Eucharistic Lord who gave himself totally for us. On that wet August evening, as she appeared to give hope, she also reminded us that her Divine Son, Jesus comes to us bearing the message of eternal life. That night, Mary appeared in silence. She never said a word but as Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who was here in 2018, and after that elevated Knock Shrine to an International Sanctuary of Special Eucharistic and Marian Devotion said; “…in her apparition at Knock, the virgin says nothing. Yet her silence is a language; indeed, it is the most expressive language we have. The message that comes from Knock is that of the great value of silence for our faith.” 

Padre Pio is with us today. He has been praying to the Blessed Virgin for us during the pandemic. He knows suffering and he helped to build the Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza. He reminds us today that he continues to pray for us to Our Lady of Knock for all our needs. But he asks us to listen to Mary because in silence she points to Jesus, her Divine Son. Because he alone has the message of eternal life. Amen. 

The Legion of Mary 1921 - 2021

My family have a history with the Legion of Mary. Both my parents were members of the Legion in the 1950’s and 60’s before they married. My mother’s sisters were Legionaries too as well as many of my father’s cousins. One of the cousins, Brendan Shortall was a Legion of Mary Envoy to East Africa and his picture hangs in the Legion of Mary Headquarters, De Montfort House on Morning Star Avenue in Dublin’s North Inner City.

As a boy, I joined the Legion of Mary in the Parish where we lived in 1980 and ’81. We were part of a Junior Praesidium attached to Benedicta House on the South Circular Road. We met on Tuesday evenings and part of the routine was all Legionaries would be allocated Legion work, an apostolate where we would do some works of charity or service to the church. The older members maybe would visit homes, or work supporting poorer people etc.  There were others who we heard would undertake a protracted trip on what was called PPC (Peregrenatio Pro Christo) where a group of Legion of Mary members would go to a parish for example in the U.K. and promote the Legion at the invitation of the parish priest. I remember we younger members stood at the ‘Book Barrow’ selling Catholic Truth Society literature. Others would be involved in distributing religious goods like Rosary Beads, Medals, and holy pictures.

There were on occasion, Legion events like reunions and social evenings where Legionaries would meet from other places. It would always begin with the Rosary and conclude with the Legion prayers. Prayer was and is the bedrock of all of the meetings and social occasions, big and small.

I believe this is what Frank Duff and the other members of the very early association had in their hearts when they met for the first time on this day in 1921. The first meeting of the ‘Association of Our Lady of Mercy’ took place 100 years ago in Myra House on St. Francis Street in Dublin’s south inner city. The first work proposed by the group was to make a visitation of the hospital for the poor known as the Dublin Union. There were around four thousand residents. The Nuns were supportive to the members in their making this visitation for charitable purposes.

Frank Duff had a devotion to St. Louis-Marie De Montfort (1673- 1716) who was a priest and preacher who in his time impressed Pope Clement XI. He was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII. He had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Rosary. On of his most notable works was his book on Our Lady called ‘True Devotion to Mary.’ The Legion of Mary handbook, well known to all Legionaries and used at each meeting is influenced by the writings of De Montfort.

From its humble beginnings, this Association of our Lady of Mercy developed to become the Legion of Mary and like a pebble being dropped into a pool, the ripples spread from Francis Street in Dublin to its base off North Brunswick Street, all around Ireland, and across the world. For me, the Legion emphasises the vocation of the laity by virtue of their baptism. From Day one, September 7^th, 1921, Frank Duff and the men and women of the fledgling Legion took the initiative to work for the spread of the gospel, under the banner of Mary, from their own lived lives, in their families, among their fellow worker and neighbours. Zealous Legionaries, lay women and men, journeyed to far-flung places to witness to the mission of the Legion working on the ground with others to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. The Legion is like an army – an army of gospel people, equipped with zeal for the message of Jesus Christ under the protection of Mary.

Legion of Mary members chosen as envoys like Tullamore native, Alphonsus Lambe went to South America. It is hoped that Alfie will be beatified one day. Well known envoy, Venerable Edel Quinn who hailed from Kanturk, Co. Cork, and went as Envoy to Nairobi. Edel died out there as a relatively young woman out there is someone else who the Legion hopes will be raised to the altars of the Church. Frank Duff’s cause for Beatification is also open. There are many heroic Legionaries, lay men and women across the world, who did great work where they were at, and who many would honour as models of zeal and charity.  For example, I have spoken to many people who remember Tom Doyle, a Legionary who worked with the homeless men of the Morning Star Hostel. Tom was a great example of kindness, charity, and patience with all who stayed in the hostel.

I learned about these men and women when I was in the Legion and these people are the ones the many members across the world look up to. Sanctity should be the art of the possible and when we look at the lives of lay women and men who from their own families and homes spend themselves to live the gospel of Jesus by their example, it is a labour of love. It is a mission that is worth highlighting in the 21^st century.

May the Legion of Mary continue to be missionaries of the gospel of Jesus Christ under the mantle of Mary in our country and our world for the next 100 years and beyond.

“Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?”