And the title of today's talk is You Go There to Die.
And it is about a young priest who's been sent away for his health, because he has a lung
infection. What was Padre Pio's reaction? Did he tell him, "Mask up," and "Are you
vaxxed?" and exclude him by all means possible? Let's have a look at how Padre Pio reacted.
Hello, friends. On this channel, we bring you a series of short stories on the life of our
incredible saint, Padre Pio. A Capuchin friar, mystic, and miracle worker, a tremendous miracle
worker, do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio, and what his intercession can do for you.
And I'd like to quickly say, "Please do take part in this apostolate of ours," our Padre Pio
apostolate. You can do so by liking our video, and share the video with your friends and colleagues.
Now in today's story, we have a look at the life of a Padre Elias de Martino. And when he
was still studying, he was still a seminarian and he was studying theology in Cambopasso, he became
seriously ill with tuberculosis. And so during the holidays, his superiors had now decided
they were going to send him off to San Giovanni Rotondo for "a change of air." But in reality,
they were pushing him aside in order to limit the dangers of him infecting the other students
and his colleagues in the seminary. So as we know, tuberculosis is a nasty disease.
It is an opportunistic killer, and Padre Pio had a strong devotion to Saint Therese of
the Infant Jesus, who had in fact died of tuberculosis a few years earlier.
Now it was the third year of this particular seminarian's illness, July 1940, and before they
obliged him now to go to San Giovanni Rotondo, they did disclose to the priest that he was
being sent there. His disease was so severe, that he would likely soon die.
And then when he was at San Giovanni Rotondo, at the monastery, the young man, he did what he
could to help out. So he helped where he could, he participated in the communal activities of
the fraternity, eating in the refectory with them, and participating in the choir too.
And he enjoyed the presence of Padre Pio, because whenever he saw Padre Pio, he was always
cordial and smiling. And Padre Elias, he confessed this about Padre Pio, these are his words.
"Padre Pio, more than any of the other priests,
gave me a lot of his concern and of his time. He was sensitive to the needs of his co-brothers."
And he was the one, in fact, who made sure the doctors were called on time.
But instead of being reassured by Padre Pio's help, and by his care, he in fact became very
worried. So obviously because of the fear of death, and was there any hope in this situation?
And he said, one day when he was very, very sad, he was very down and he decided he was going to
go and confess to Padre Pio. And he was hoping just that he could receive some words of comfort
and encouragement from Padre Pio. And he said to him, "Father,
everyone tells me that I am in fact deceived, and that I am going to die."
"Who is going to die?", asked the saint. "Me, Padre, because I have tuberculosis."
And then he said, "Padre Pio looked at me, and he gave a comforting smile" and said,
"Ah, so you are going to die? No, you're not. You still have much to live for, my son."
So Father Elias, after a short time, he got better with time and he was able to resume his
theological studies. And then on the 12th of June 1941, he was ordained a priest and Father Elias
ended his days many, many years later. In fact, it was 2003 and he ended these days in the infirmary
of the friars of San Giovanni Rotondo. And at this point he was 87 years old. And so obviously the
doctors had got it slightly wrong and Padre Pio had seen exactly how it was going to turn out.
Yet, in Padre Pio's case, he himself, Padre Pio, had suffered from terrible ill health during
his life. And perhaps, or probably he himself, was susceptible to TB, tuberculosis, as well.
But he wasn't afraid to be a good example of Christ's charity to the sick brother.
He practiced heroic sanctity. And to me it looks as if this Father Elias,
providence had a special plan for him that he'd be able to be in the monastery of Saint Padre Pio.
Next time on this channel, we are going to see how Padre Pio recommends a brother from
beyond. A brother came back from purgatory, who frequents the monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo,
and there happens to terrify some of souls. Let's see next time what Padre Pio does about this.
Just a reminder that we do have a Mass celebrated every week on Fridays, and
this Mass is dedicated to Padre Pio and you can enroll your Mass pre-intentions, for this Mass.
Just go to the video on this end screen to see how to do that.
And we encourage you, do like our videos and share them with your friends and colleagues,
and continue watching some of the other videos you'll see on the end screen.