The title of the talk today, "You will not die without my assistance," Padre Pio promised.
Hello, friends, and welcome to this channel.
Here, we have a series of short stories on the life of our great saint Padre Pio, who
was a Capuchin friar, mystic, a tremendous miracle worker.
Do stay tuned to find out more about his life and to see what his intercession could do
for you.
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In the story, so the year is 1921, and the Capuchin bishop whose name was Fernando Damiani,
he was vicar general of the Diocese of Salto and this was in Uruguay.
On the occasion of a private audience with Pope Benedict the XV, he heard these stories.
He heard references to Padre Pio.
The Pope considered the Capuchin one of those providential personalities that God sends
to help humanity from time to time and 16 years earlier, this is what happened with
a serious heart problem.
Feeling close to death, Damiani decided to return to Italy and hoping there to end his
days close to the holy confrere, and just arriving however he suffered a cardiac arrest.
So people ran to call Padre Pio who, inexplicably, continued with hearing confessions in the
church.
Padre Pio's delay had irritated the superior of the house and so he wanted to know, "Why
didn't you come right away?" and all the more so because this is a bishop.
But in answer, he appeared to be joking, "For what?
He wasn't going to die."
As a sign of this, Damiani expressed his desire to stay there permanently now at the service
of Padre Pio.
"No, no," Padre Pio reacted.
"Go back to your diocese because that is where you belong."
"At least promise to assist me, then, at the moment of my death."
Padre Pio hesitated at this, but ended up agreeing, confirming.
He said, "Agreed.
I promise to be there."
But just in case, the bishop asked him to guarantee, give him a guarantee in writing
so this is between high church officials.
"All right," replied the father on a small piece of paper.
He scribbled, "I promise, you will not die without my assistance," and signed it Father
Pio.
Arriving home, Damiani had the note framed and placed on the wall, together with a glove
of Padre Pio's that he had managed to obtain.
In 1941, Archbishop Alfredo Viola of Salto was now commemorating his priestly silver
anniversary and he was promoting a congress on religious vocations.
So all the bishops of Uruguay were there present and many of them from Argentina as well, together
with lots and lots of priests and faithful.
On the night of the 11th to the 12th, September, Don Fernando had an attack of angina, something
like in a cardiac arrest in his chest.
Alone in the room, he was about to call out when he remembered Padre Pio's promise and
behold, at the same time, a Don Antonio Maria Babari, the future cardinal of Montevideo
woke up with a start, hearing a loud knock on the bedroom door, followed by these words,
"Go quickly and watch Damiani because he is dying."
So Padre Pio had fulfilled his promise.
Please do join us next time.
We'll have another video on the life and times of Padre Pio.
These videos do come out three times a week so do join us for that video.
Dear friends of Following Padre Pio, wouldn't you like to be, as scripture says, "Those
who instruct many to justice shall be as the stars for eternity?"
Apparently, that's from the Book of Daniel.
So with that intention in mind, we offer you a special program and it's called the Protected
Child of Padre Pio program.
Through this, if you join this program, you will be helping our team at Following Padre
Pio to reach out to many people, hopefully, to inspire them so that they do not give up
hope, that they do not lose faith in God in these very trying times.
So if you and I can give them this hope, then our Lord Jesus Christ's death would not have
been in vain for them.
So that's our aim.
We also have regular masses celebrated for all of those who join the Protected Child
of Padre Pio program.
Of course, there are other benefits, too.
To find out more, just click the video on the end screen, or you can go to the link
in the video description below.