San Pio seen by the painter Leonardo Viola

I was there on September 23, 1968 in the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie to pay my last respects to the body of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina.

The body of the Saint was placed in the coffin, protected by a crystal glass, dressed in a habit, his hands covered by brown gloves surrounded by the beads of the Holy Rosary, never abandoned in life even during the night hours, without his shoes for the display to the faithful who wanted to say goodbye before a corner of the land of San Giovanni Rotondo could welcome him.

Saint Pio loved the town where I was born, San Giovanni Rotondo. Its modest, fervent and generous people. The Saint had expressed several times the desire to rest in the Gargano land, he said: "bury me in a corner of this land". Saint Pio, just thirty years old and already a priest since 1910, arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo in July 1916.

Two years later he received the sacred stigmata in his hands, feet, side and right shoulder, while he was praying before the Crucifix installed on the balustrade of the choir of the convent.

For 50 years, Saint Pio will walk the earthly path, supported by prayer, with this heavy burden, equal to that experienced by Jesus Christ, as a testimony and for the salvation of Man.

About three months before his death the stigmata disappeared from his hands without leaving any trace or scars. An event that believers still read today with the pure eyes of faith, counting it among the most visible miracles.

There are many biographies written about Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. Mine could be the thousandth, but I do not want to tell what illustrious writers have already said about the life and holiness of the Father. I will limit myself to telling a piece of my memories, my personal knowledge and that of my family with the Holy Father.

It was 1959, the hospital of the “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” wanted by San Pio, had been completed for about three years and I was about to receive my First Communion. My father, who had worked in the structure as a bricklayer, was allowed to have me receive Communion directly from the hands of Padre Pio. Great jubilation and excitement on my part, on the part of my father Vincenzo, my mother Lucia and my brother Francesco.

As usual, Saint Pio celebrated Holy Mass at five in the morning and we had to be ready for that time and awake long before. So we woke up at 3 in the morning to walk the two kilometers to reach the Capuchin convent. I remember my “dressing” by my mother, but I have no memory of the journey or the effort: I only have imprinted, indelibly in my memory, the moment of receiving the Eucharist from the hands of Saint Pio.

Five years later, my family’s path crossed once again with that of the Holy Father. In fact, my father Vincenzo had a special assignment: to accompany Padre Pio’s brother, Michele, on his travels and to his beloved places in Pietrelcina.

This opportunity allowed me to spend, with a few other faithful, some afternoons with the Holy Father. It was customary, after Vespers, before his retreat to cell number 5, for the Father to spend time with some of the faithful with whom he would converse about daily life, and sometimes joke.

At the end of the “recreation”, at the time of greetings, the adults present kissed the gloved hands with a bow, and the young people were allowed a hug by the Father. Those memories accompany me throughout my journey and are now translated, as far as possible, into the depiction of his face in painting, which allows me to savor even now that invisible and mysterious atmosphere of infinite quiet and sweet serenity.