And the title of the story today, I entrust this creature to you as a pressure stone.
And these are words of Our Lady that are addressed to Padre Pio about a particular child who
was born when she was born.
It's an incredible story.
Do join us for this story.
Hello, friends and welcome to our channel Following Padre Pio in which we investigate
through a series of very short stories, the life of our great Saint Padre Pio.
He was Capuchin Friar, he was a mystic, he was an incredible miracle worker.
So do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio and also to see what his intercession
could do for you.
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Now in this story, this particular miracle was used in the canonization process of Padre
Pio.
And it consists of a number of different incidents that corresponded to what happened to reality
in such an incredible way.
And it is 1905, January the 18th and Giovanni Battista Rizzani, he lay in his bed dying.
And his wife, Leonilde was attending to him and quite naturally, she was pretty upset
at his imminent death.
But she was also heavily pregnant and expecting a child to be born at any moment.
And at one point, the dogs started barking in quite an unusual way.
And so she got up, she left the bedside of her dying husband and she went to calm the
dogs down.
But right at this point, the labor pains began and only the steward was present to help.
So the birth was quite precarious.
However, in the end, all went well.
And the mother that is Leonilde, she now gathered her strength and she took the child in her
arms, gathering all of her strength, she made the way up the stairs to her husband's room.
Her husband was dying and within a few moments, he passed away.
But something strange had happened during this whole birth and Leonilde recalls and
she remembers this, that during the labor she had seen in front of her and along the
corridors of the mansion, she had seen a Capuchin Friar and somehow his appearance had been
very reassuring to her.
And so perhaps this is why the birth had gone well.
Yet she was unsure, was it a hallucination she had seen or a real apparition?
And this baby that was born, she grew up later on became Marchioness Giovanna.
And many years later, she discovered the story.
It came to light that Padre Pio had written about this very same night of her birth and
amazingly the same set of circumstances as at her birth.
So we have to remember, 1905 Padre Pio would've been a friar, he had just been in the monastery
two years, still a friar, not a priest.
And so he wrote to his Spiritual Director at the time and it was kept in his diary,
Padre Pio's diary.
And the sheet was now taken out of the diary years later by Padre Agostino and it was given
to Marchioness Giovanna.
The sheet, as we said, was dated 1905, which was the year of her birth and this is how,
in fact, she became aware of the whole story about Padre Pio's presence there.
And handwriting experts have confirmed that it was in fact Padre Pio's writing and that
it was from 1905.
In this letter, on the sheet from Padre Pio, which was addressed at that time to his Spiritual
Director, Padre Agostino of San Marco in Lamis.
Friar Pio wrote the following, and here we read from the book and this is, The Last Mass
of Padre Pio.
Padre Pio says, this is in the letter, Days ago a peculiar episode happened to me while
I was in the choir together with Padre Anastasio, it was about 11:00 PM, 11 in the evening,
on the 18th day of the last month.
So that's the exact same day she was born.
And that once I found myself very far away in a high class home, he said, where the father
was dying while a baby girl was being born.
And most Mary, most holy then appeared to me and told me, "I entrust you this baby,
this creature to you.
She is a precious stone untreated, that's uncut.
Work on her, polish her and make her as shiny as possible because I want her someday to
adorn me."
These are the words of Our Lady to Padre Pio.
She said, "Do not doubt, she will come to you but first you will meet her at St. Peter's."
And so, we see this story called responds exactly with the time and the circumstances
of the birth of Giovanna and also the death of her father, Giovanni Battista.
And not long after this, Lady Leonilde, she was now a widow and so she moved back to Rome
where her parents were.
So it was going to be a lot easier, they could all help each other and help with the child.
But in 1922, Giovanna started to have doubts about her faith.
She wasn't quite sure what to do so she went to speak to a priest.
She went to St. Peter's, to the Vatican, exactly as Our Lady had said, and she saw through
all of the confessionals there for a priest to speak to.
But they were all empty.
So she looked around St. Peter's and then she sighted somewhere in the aisles over there,
a little friar.
And she ran after the friar and then they struck up a conversation and they talked for
quite a long while.
And she said, after this her doubts were eased somewhat but not entirely eased.
So one year later Giovanna now heard of this Capuchin Friar, a priest who lived way up
there in the mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo.
And so she decided she was going to take a drive there, make a pilgrimage to this particular
monastery.
And so she made this pilgrimage to Padre Pio and this is the meeting.
In the small monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, we found many people, there were also several
important personalities there.
And the corridor leading from the sacristy to the cloister part of the monastery was
packed.
I was able to find room in the front.
And then Padre Pio passing by stopped, she said, right in front of me and he looked at
me straight in the eyes and said, smiling, "Giovanna."
He's never met her before and he knows her name.
"Giovanna, I know you.
You were born on the same day that your father died."
So the morning after she said, I went to confession with him.
As soon as I drew near, Padre Pio after giving me his blessing told me, "My daughter, finally
you have come.
I have been waiting for you for many years."
And then he added, "Last year on a summer afternoon, you went with a friend to the Basilica
of St. Peter's, looking for a priest who could enlighten you regarding the doubts on your
faith.
And there you met Capuchin and you spoke at length with him.
I was the Capuchin."
Padre Pio said.
And after a brief pause Padre Pio continued, "When you were about to be born, the blessed
Mother took me to the mansion, she made me witness the death of your father and then
she told me to take care of you and The Virgin entrusted you to me and I have to take care
of soul."
Imagine receiving this story like this out the blue, from a priest about her birth and
everything corresponded.
And so from that moment on Giovanna became Padre Pio's Spiritual Daughter.
And thereafter Giovanna regularly went to see Padre Pio, to speak to him, to seek guidance
and counseling in her life.
And finally, at Padre Pio's death, she was the only woman present.
She was the only woman who was allowed to be present at his death.
And then 10 years later, Giovanna herself, known as Giovanna Boschi now, she joined the
friar in heaven.
And then as a story turned out, the girl Giovanna, when she grew up, she became the mother of
Giovanna Francesca, who later became the founder of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Incarnate
Word.
Next time on this channel, do join us for another fascinating story on the life of Padre
Pio.
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