The talk today is called The Perfume Poster.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this channel on Padre Pio.
And here through a series of short stories, we investigate the life of our great Saint
Padre Pio, who was a Capuchin friar.
He was a mystic.
He was a tremendous miracle worker.
And do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio's life and to see what his intercession
could do for you.
Also do join us in our postulate, and it'll be tremendous if you'll help us by liking
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Just a reminder, a quick reminder that every Friday we have a mass dedicated to Padre Pio.
We bring your intentions to Padre Pio in this mass, to enroll your intentions.
Just see the video on the end screen.
Continuing with the story.
Francesco Messina was a famous, he was an internationally acclaimed sculptor who'd been
brought up far from a practicing Catholic.
And Messina, as a result, was a pragmatist by nature.
He had no time for stories of miracles or things like that.
He was too busy for that.
Too busy making a successful career.
And in the spring of 1945, Francesco was organizing now an art exhibition of his works, and this
was in the city of Genoa.
And for this, he had placed up advertising.
He had placed up posters all around the city.
Well, one day, as chance saw, providence would have it, Francesco Messina and his wife, they
now went out to dinner with some friends.
And these particular friends had a strong devotion to Padre Pio.
So naturally during dinner, they got talking about Padre Pio.
They talked at length about him, about the Capuchin about Gargano, and they showed the
sculptor as well, a thick biography of the priest, of Padre Pio.
And Messina picked up this biography and he paged through it.
And he came across a particular photo of Padre Pio with penetrating eyes.
This made such an impression on him.
It really struck him.
Those penetrating eyes.
They made this deep, profound lasting impact on Messina.
Well, when dinner was over, Messina and his wife, they now went back to their hotel.
But Messina just found he could not sleep.
He was unable to sleep.
Those penetrating eyes of Padre Pio, they had this effect on Messina.
And perhaps it's because he's an artist so the visual sense is pivotal to him, and his
mind was now mulling over all of this.
So Messina hadn't slept, and around 5:00 in the morning the phone rang.
Messina at this stage was desperate for sleep.
The phone was ringing.
He was not impressed.
Who could this be?
Who was phoning him so early in the morning?
What was so important about this?
So he was now in a foul mood when he answered the phone.
And then his irritation grew when he realized it was a childhood friend calling him with
some strange story.
Telling him he had smelled the fragrance, the perfume of Padre Pio coming from a poster
advertising his exhibition in Piazza del Ferrari.
So that fragrance is known as the fragrance of sanctity, a charismatic gift I guess we
can say of only certain saints.
And then his friend continued.
"How can this be a coincidence?"
Surely the fragrance was calling Messina to go to Padre Pio immediately.
Well, Messina was about to tell Salto Marinda exactly what he thought of this whole scheme,
this whole idea, and it was only with great difficulty that he managed to control himself.
So instead he told his friend, well, he had to go to Milan and he excused himself.
He had important work to do there.
He couldn't continue with this whole line of discussion.
He did in fact have some work in Milan.
Went through to Milan.
But even when he was in Milan, he was not able to get this thought of Padre Pio out
of his mind.
It would not leave him alone.
It seemed to almost haunt him or become some sort of an obsession.
But perhaps he was also indicating there was something spiritually not right in the situation.
So finally, Messina did succumb.
He decided he'd better go and visit this man, Padre Pio.
Not long after that, he contacted his friend, Salto Marinda, and it was not long before
they had both departed to Saint Giovanni Rotondo.
When they arrived at the monastery however, it was really very late in the day.
Padre Pio had now gone to his cell.
He'd retired for the evening.
Yet Salto Marinda, he was a friend of Padre Pio's, he was over enthusiastic.
He insisted they go straight ahead to the monastery and Padre Pio, he was not impressed
with all of this.
He came down to meet them, and then he turned to Francesco Messina and said, "And what do
you want?"
Messina replied that he had been for a long time, he'd wanted to meet Padre Pio.
And now he was here he'd like to place himself in the priest hands.
And very abruptly, Padre Pio responded, "Well, you're certainly in good hands."
Padre Pio told him, "Now, go to the church and prepare for the sacrament of confession,
and you'll come back a little later on."
Messina was caught of guard.
He was not ready for this.
He was not ready to have his soul examined.
He was certainly not feeling spiritually or psychologically in the mood for this at all.
He's about to tell the priest, but Padre Pio had already left.
A little later on, Padre Pio came back down to the church, and then Messina made sure
he lost no time telling the priest that he was not at all ready to have his confession
heard.
Padre Pio stopped him right there.
"Listen, don't say anything.
Just answer my questions."
Padre Pio then began a detailed review of Messina's entire life, right from childhood
to the current moment, listing every single one of Messina's sins.
He said it was like he was reading a book.
Messina paled when he saw all of this.
"It's impossible.
How can he know these things?"
And so finally, he was now faced with all of this evidence and he succumbed.
He said it was like some sort of a spiritual projector of his life was being run.
Pitilessly unfolding his entire life before him and now he was having to face his own
soul in such a torturous way.
And the next day, he attended Padre Pio's mass.
He went to holy communion.
And all of these experiences, they had such a profound and a radical effect on Messina's
life.
They changed it forever.
And he became one of Padre Pio's most faithful spiritual sons after this.
In fact, he coined this phrase, "I was born on April 11th, 1949," which was in fact, the
first day that he met Padre Pio.
And until the priest's death, Messina would visit Padre Pio frequently.
Of course, he practiced his profession as an artist and a sculptor as well.
And then finally, after the death of Padre Pio, Francesco Messina, he sculpted that monumental
way of the cross that we spoke about just behind the church on the hill behind the church,
Santa Maria Dela Grazia in Saint Giovanni Rotondo, which was Padre Pio's church.
And next time on this channel, we're going to have a story about a man who converted,
but not really, because he still kept one foot in the occult.
So what was Padre Pio going to do about this?
And here we're going to see what does God and what does Padre Pio think?
Does he approve?
Does he will a multiplicity of contradictory belief systems.
So please do join us for that talk.
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and click that reminder bell as well.