And the title of the talk is the devil exists and I met him.
And it is about Padre Pio and the early appearances of the diabolical within Padre Pio's life.
The demons used to arrive there to fight Padre Pio to try and make his life miserable.
We're going to be investigating this.
Hello friends and welcome to the channel, following Padre Pio on which through a series
of short stories, we investigate the life of our great Saint, Padre Pio.
He was A Capuchin friar, he was a mystic and he was a tremendous miracle worker.
Do stay tuned to find out more about Padre Pio and what his intercession could do for
you.
A quick reminder as well that we do have masses celebrated every Friday in which we bring
your intentions to Padre Pio in this mass.
You can see the video on the end screen how to enroll your intentions.
And please just watch that video and do enroll your intentions.
And we would appreciate it as well if you would help us in our Padre Pio apostolate
by liking the video and sharing the video with your friends and colleagues.
Now for today's story, we know that many theologians today maintain that the prince of this world
is just a fabrication.
It's something out of fashion now.
We don't really need to think about it, but for Padre Pio, this was something very different.
And in fact, he ended up having hand to hand combat fights, literally fights, with the
devil.
We are going to be having a look at some of these stories.
And now the year is 1912.
And so, Padre Pio, he was a young friar, he had just joined the monastery, but his health
was not great.
And so he was sent home to recover.
In fact, Padre Pio's health was so bad, it was like a continuous disaster.
There would be a series of vomiting and then high fevers, vertigo, perspiration, and Padre
Pio was just unable even to hold any food down.
And the doctors considered that Padre Pio's days were in fact numbered.
And so as Padre Pio grew weaker and weaker, he was now dispensed from the regular prayers,
praying the divine office and that, and he just could pray the rosary, which he learned
became him his weapon.
And so, in this state that Padre Pio was now reduced to, there was a continuous fight,
a continuous battle, developed against the adversary that is Satan.
And we will recall from the gospel in our Lord's life after he had fasted 40 days, was
it, and he is now in a weakened state, the devil appeared to him, tempting him and fighting
him, similar to Padre Pio.
For most of us, of course, the devil is really someone we fight in the depths of our souls
only, in our consciouses, where we have to resist temptations and where we practice virtue.
That's how it applies for most of us, but for Padre Pio, the battle was very real.
And in fact, as we said, the devil used to fight him physically.
And he tells us that the presence of our Lord would be an extraordinary medicine to Padre
Pio in these manifestations of evil.
Our Lord's presence would really help him get through these difficult times.
Now in his hometown, Pietrelcina where he had been sent back to, these fights with the
demon, they were in fact a daily occurrence, except for Wednesdays, for some reason.
The devil wouldn't appear on Wednesdays.
And the author Rino Keemalery tells us the story about these occurrences in Pietrelcina.
And I'm going to be reading for in this book, 'The Last Mass of Padre Pio.'
And the backdrop to this quietening dual was the small house in which the friar lived.
And Rino Keemalery says, in the two rooms he occupied in the village, often Jesus himself
in the mornings lifted him up from the ground and placed him, that his Padre Pio, back on
the bed, black and blue and bleeding as he was left from the fights with the devil and
the Pulcinari, that is the residents of Pietrelcina.
They never got used to the infernal racket coming from the house at night.
It was a horrific stir that was caused and a disturbance and people never got used to
it.
In another story called 'The Skeptical Bishop'.
Now later on Padre Pio's health had then improved somewhat.
And now he had moved from Pietrelcina back to the monastery, but the battles would continue.
And the contrary is these feller friars in the monastery, they kind of go ahead to get
used to this idea of terrifying noises coming from Padre Pio's cell at night.
And this would culminate in a deafening detonation and explosion and everything in the monastery
would shake at this.
It seemed what was happening is the devil would literally explode with rage.
And at this point, everyone would now run into Padre Pio's cell and there they would
find their confr re dripping with sweat, from head to foot, such had been the intensity
of the battle.
Well, one day a visiting Bishop arrived at the monastery, and he was from Ariano Irpino.
And he was now of course, somewhat skeptical of the devil as we'll see now.
When the time for the fight arrived and the friars, they started to grow uneasy.
The Bishop was there and they knew there were going to be these diabolical manifestations
coming from Padre Pio's cell.
This fight was going to happen soon.
They grew uneasy and the Bishop wanted to know, well, what is the problem, what is wrong?
The friars explained to him the reason, and the Bishop just ended up laughing at this.
And he said, do you still believe in these things from the middle ages?
But his skepticism soon disappeared when the noises started, including the final boom explosion,
as the devil exploded with rage.
And by this stage, the Bishop was now absolutely pale and he couldn't sleep that night.
He asked for God to be placed around his room, he was certainly not able to sleep.
And very early the next morning at the first light, the Bishop got up and fled from the
monastery with great haste.
Has he was somewhat traumatized, such had been this fear created by this battle.
I think that it's also safe to say that bishops are generally not prone to exaggeration.
They tend to be more sober minded people, so something had really frightened him.
Then next time, we're going to be having a look at other instances of the devil is real
and I met him.
It's about Padre Pio's life and we are going to see here some very physical fights that
took place between Padre Pio and the world of the demonic.
Do join us for that talk.
And if you are a new to our channel, then do subscribe to our channel and click that
reminder bell.
Help us with this apostolate by liking the video and sharing the video with your friends
and colleagues, please.
And a reminder, do enroll your mass pre-intentions for Friday's mass to Padre Pio.