And today we are going to be investigating some very unusual facts about Padre Pio, that
were given to us by his doctor, by his personal physician, such as that he ate so little food
that he could not possibly have survived.
Impossible things, but that shows that Padre Pio was given to us by God himself, as kind
of a prophet for our times.
And please do stay tuned to find out more.
Hello, friends and welcome to our channel, Following Padre Pio, where we investigate
the incredible life of our great Saint Padre Pio.
He was a Capuchin friar, he was a mystic, he was a tremendous miracle worker.
Do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio's life, and also to see what his intercession
could do for you.
And we do ask everyone to be part of this apostolate, this Padre Pio apostolate.
You can help us by liking our video, share the video with your friends and colleagues,
and also do enroll your mass prayer intentions.
We have a mass every Friday dedicated to Padre Pio.
We can bring your intentions to this mass, just enroll your intentions and see the video
on the end screen how to do that.
Now, when Francesco Lotti was still a teenager, he met Padre Pio for the very first time.
And what had happened is that Francesco's father had recently passed away, and now his
mother was trying to seek the way to go in the future.
And so she made a pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo, to meet Padre Pio and to ask his
advice.
And now, when Padre Pio met Francesco, he said to him, "I will be your new father."
So what does he mean?
To guide him and help him spiritually?
Or also to guide him through his life?
Well, let's continue with the story to find out.
Now, on another occasion, another visit to San Giovanni Rotondo, to Padre Pio, and he
was in the monastery and Padre Pio looked out of the window towards the mountain.
And then he said to Francesco, "Someday, a very large hospital will be built right there
on the mountain.
And you will be one of the doctors who will work there."
Now, Francesco did not believe a word of what was being said, because he had already started
his career in the military.
But later on, he realized that actually the military wasn't for him, he wasn't happy there.
And so he changed his mind, and he took up study in medicine.
And indeed, he eventually became head physician of the department of pediatrics at Padre Pio's
hospital.
And for a time, Dr. Lotti was Padre Pio's personal doctor, his personal physician.
And so he had the opportunity to study and to observe Padre Pio, however, he didn't study
the stigmata medically, but he was able to observe some of the effects of the stigmata,
the pain and the suffering it caused to Padre Pio.
So sometimes, people would shake hands with Padre Pio, and he saw a painful expression
suddenly shoot across Padre Pio's face.
So it was obviously very tender and painful to have your hand shaken.
And also of course, he could see that Padre Pio could only walk very slowly, shuffle along,
because of the intense pain in his feet.
So the stigmata, the wounds in his hands and his feet, caused him pain.
But Padre Pio would never complain about this, he would never say a word because he saw the
pains, the sufferings, from the stigmata, as somehow the cross given to him by God himself.
And he did not want to offend God.
Living and working in San Giovanni Rotondo, as we said, Padre Pio's personal physician,
Dr. Francesco Lotti was able to observe and to study other things about Padre Pio very
carefully.
And he came to some conclusions, that some things he said about Padre Pio, they simply
defy science.
For instance, now I'm not a doctor, so I don't quite know what this means, Padre Pio's heart
beat and his pulse, they were not synchronized.
But it's quite interesting, as a doctor, he couldn't explain it.
And he said Padre Pio also had some very unusual eating habits.
And he came to this conclusion that Padre Pio's daily intake of food was just insufficient
even to sustain life.
So obviously, as a doctor, he must have done some sort of a calculation, a scientific calculation,
the number of calories of intake versus the energy spent, and the blood being lost through
the stigmata, through the wounds.
He added it all up.
Did it add?
And he came to that conclusion.
But Padre Pio had his own theory about all of this and he likened the body to soil.
And he said, "Some soil needs a lot of fertilizer to grow.
And other soil," he said, "was just so rich that it needed little or even no fertilizer."
That's Padre Pio's theory.
And he said Padre Pio's body was like the latter, nothing unusual about all of these
things, in Padre Pio's opinion.
And he remarked on one occasion that he was unable, he had been unable to eat any food
for several days now.
He had some sort of an intestinal problem, but at the end of three days of not eating
anything, they weighed him.
And they said that they discovered that he'd in fact gained six pounds, that's almost three
kilograms, in that time.
Padre Pio response, "Now, that is what I mean by fertile ground."
And so he's giving all glory to God, that's his reaction.
For the rest of us, it seems like a miracle.
Next time on this channel, we're going to have a look at the story of Mr. Valentino,
how he went from being an anti-Catholic antagonist of Padre Pio to being his patron.
Please do join us in that future video.
And once again, we encourage everyone, if you're not subscribe to our channel, subscribe
and click that reminder bell and do enroll your mass prayer intentions.