Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"Give me my weapon": the Rosary in the hands of Padre Pio

San Giovanni Rotondo, Apulia (Italy) (1916-1968)

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968), the humble stigmatized cappuccino of San Giovanni Rotondo, left the Church the testimony of a life almost continuously set in the Rosary. Those who knew him remember that he always had it in his hand or within reach, even in bed when he was sick, and that he prayed a lot of rosaries every day. When he was missing, he simply said: «Dame mi arma».

In the memory of his spiritual children, the Rosary was «su arma» contra el mal y las tentaciones, «arma poderosísima» que pedía no cansarse nunca de rezar. Y cuando le rogaron que les dejara una spiritual heritageHis answer was a disheartening simplicity: «El Rosario».

It is appropriate to distinguish the firm from the pious. It's Historically solid the essence of his biography: dates, places, his cappuccino membership, his fame as a confessor, the stigmas, the role of San Giovanni Rotondo and his canonization by John Paul II on June 16, 2002. It's well testified, aunque a través de recopilaciones de recuerdos de contemporáneos y no de actas notariales, que rezaba el rosario sin cesar, que lo llamaba «arma» y que lo señaló como su herencia. En cambio, pertenecen al terreno de la very credible pious tradition - not the critical edition - the exact number of daily rosaries (high figures are quoted) and the small dialogues reproduced by memory; in these literary details it is appropriate to be careful, and where there is no safe documentary basis, no consta.

El vínculo con el Rosary es aquí absolutamente central: para el Padre Pío fue oración casi continua de la jornada, arma espiritual y herencia para sus hijos. La devoción del pueblo hacia él se ha concretado mil veces en grupos que rezan el rosario en su santuario y en la difusión mundial del rosario «del Padre Pío» como camino de conversión, penitencia y confianza en la Virgen.