In Bari (Italy) during the Second
World War there was the headquarters of the American Air Forces
General Command. Many Officers were said to have been saved by Padre
Pio during the war. Even the General Commander had been a
witness to one
amazing episode. The American
Commanding Officer wanted to lead a squadron of bombardiers to
destroy a depot of German war material that had been located in St.
Giovanni Rotondo. The General said, “When
the airplanes were near the target, his men and himself, saw in the
sky, a monk with the uplifted hands. The bombs had dropped away by
themselves and fell into
the woods. The airplanes had reversed course without being
maneuvered by the pilots or by the other Officers. All wondered who
that monk
was which the airplanes had obeyed. Someone told the General, “At
San Giovanni Rotondo was a monk who
worked
miracles”, and he decided that, as soon as the
country had been freed, he would have go to seek if he was the same
monk they had seen in the sky. After the war, the General went to
the Capuchin monastery
with some pilots. Just entering the sacristy, the General found
himself in front of various monks, among
whom
he immediately recognized the monk that had
stopped his airplanes: he was Padre Pio. Padre Pio walked toward him
and as he approached him, he said: “Are
you the one who wanted
to kill all of us?” Relieved by the
look and by the words of the
Padre,
the General knelt in front of him. As usual Padre Pio spoken to him
in dialect, but the General was convinced that the monk had spoken
in English. This was another father Pio’s gifts. The two became
friends and the General, who was Protestant, became Catholic.
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