Latest / Claymore: Become Who You Are / #749 Padre Pio's American Daughter: The Story of Mary Pyle

Transcript

#749 Padre Pio's American Daughter: The Story of Mary Pyle · Claymore: Become Who You Are

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Claymore Become Who You Are podcast, production of the John Paul II Renewal Center.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jack Riggard, your host.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I have a special devotion to Padre Peel, which listeners know about.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you read the handbook that I wrote this year for young men in spiritual warfare, there's a couple stories about Padre Peel in there.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: GIs that became priests, uh, John Paul II uh knew Padre Peel.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: The one person I always wanted to know more about was Mary Pyle.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Mary Pyle, uh, her name always came up as I was uh praying to Padre Peel, writing about him, talking about him, telling his stories, and I never really knew her enough.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: And yet I was just telling Susan, uh, who I'll introduce in a second, that on my calendar, on my phone, every year, Mary Pyle's name would come up, and I said, I have to get to know her.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very, very excited that that we're gonna get to know more about Mary, this devoted friend and really servant to Padre Peel, and all these people that would come and visit him.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's very, very exciting.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Susan DiPartoli is with us today.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: She's the author of a number of books, award-winning books on Padre Peel.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna hold up her latest one.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's Padre Pio's American Daughter.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is the story of Mary Pyle.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Very, very exciting to have you, Susan.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you also are secretary of the board of directors of the Padre Pio Foundation, and you also own Little Flower Pilgrimage.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you could tell us a little bit about that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: But this latest book, uh Susan, I'm on retreat up in the Rocky Mountains, so it's not my normal studio.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but uh reading your book the last couple of days, just taking my time, meditating on the beauty of these stories.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I we I I hope we get a chance to talk about these American GIs, uh, like my father, uh, that came back with this devotion uh to Padre Peel.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: My my dad, I was telling you before we came on, is almost 100 years old.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's uh he's still alive today, and and his face just lights up when he tells about this devotion to Padre Peel.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll just mention real quick, I have a check that he had given me with a note, a letter from Padre Peel's uh people.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was a$5 check.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: He never wanted anybody to know it was only$5, but after sometime after the war, he didn't have much money.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: But he sent it in uh to help Padre Peel build his hospital.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Anyways, he wrote it to Padre Peel.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: It was co-signed Padre Peel and uh and then a handwritten note from uh one of his secretaries.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I don't think it was Mary Pyle.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have it with me today because, like I said, I'm on retreat.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: So very exciting to be with you, Susan.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for writing this.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a beautiful thing.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get into any of those stories about the soldiers, I want us to to back up a little bit because Mary Pyle's journey came from New York High Society, and then she ended up on the side of Padre Pio in a very in San Joe Giovanni Rotundo, which is is not a luxury uh place, is it, uh, Susan?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being on the show today.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for inviting me.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to be here.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Mary Pyeld's story is an amazing story.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I first mm most people don't even know who she is.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: You happen to be one who does, but she started out in New York City, one of my neighbors, New York City, that's where I am, and uh she lived very close to St.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's Cathedral.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: She was came from a very devout Presbyterian family, high society.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of her uncles was married to a Rockefeller.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: They had lunch with Calvin Coolidge.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these were normal names in their household.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um, this is what she came from.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: In 1912, they built a house in Morristown, New Jersey with 35 bedrooms.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Whoa.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Her grandfather built the McAlpin Hotel, which is diagonal to what is Macy's today, with 1,600 rooms, the largest hotel in the world.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so when in to by today's standard, she would be a billionaire.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: But Mary, from a very young child, always felt she was missing something.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they always had nannies.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so she had a nanny who would take her to church until her mother found out.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: But she said in later years, when I walked in that church, I knew Jesus was there.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit was working in her from when she was a little girl.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So this Susan was a Catholic church, then she was brought into, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so so they were Presbyterians.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, how beautiful, how beautiful.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh she it never left her heart.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: She knew this is where she needed to be, and as she grew older, she wanted to be Catholic, but her family would not permit it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: At one point, just before World War I, Mary meets a young man and she falls in love, and her family is so against it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So her mother decides she's sending her to Europe to study.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Mary spoke five languages.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Her whole family was tutored at home for months for each language, and she sends her to study under Maria Montessori.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing story in itself.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so she goes there with the city.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: This is the woman who founded the Montessori schools, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is correct.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it was Mary Pyle's family who funded the original foundation, her and other very wealthy families, of course.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the president of the Montessori Foundation was none other than Alexander Graham Bell, who was also a family friend.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: So she goes there and she studies under her.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And a year later, Maria Montessori comes to America, and uh she's just introducing Montessori schools, and she sees that Mary's an asset.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: She speaks five languages, and she asks her to come back to Europe with her as her assistant to as a translator, and she does, and she goes with her and she works with her for ten years.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: During this time, she hears about this monk who's living on a mountain in San Giovanni.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: But let me just back up a minute.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: When she's 28 years old, 1916, she decides she's becoming a Catholic.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she does.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And her her family dishe disinherits her.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she didn't care about the money, but she felt the loss of her mother very deeply.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: So so this put a division between her relationship with her her mom, right, Susan?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and and also cut her off from her would be her inheritance, huh?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a big this is a lot of money, and like you said, the personal relationship with her mom really hurt.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So she hears about Padre Pio and about the stigmata, and she's very curious, and she says, This is not the time to meet him, because it would be out of curiosity, and she waits.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And a friend of hers one day in 1923 says to her, I want to meet Padre Pio, I want you to come with me.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, Well, I don't know.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: She said, No, no, no, you have to come.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the two of them go, and on October 4th, 1923, the feast day of Saint Francis, she meets Padre Pio, she kneels before him, and he says to her, Stay here.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, Well, I can't.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have obligations.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't say anything, and she leaves.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And she goes back to the case.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So he saw something in her right away, Susan, didn't he?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: He saw Yes, he saw something.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was Divine Providence.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: He he was, he knew it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: He knew she belonged there.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so she goes back and she goes to England with Maria Montessori, but she's restless.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: After she's met him, she needs to be there.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: She knows this is a saint living on a mountain.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I need to be near him.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So she asks Maria Montessori to come back with her, and she does.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the second time she kneels before him and he says, This time you remain.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And she does.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: She accepts.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And she's going back to Rome to gather her things.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: She gets to the bus stop, the bus pulls in.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maria Montessori gets on the bus and she's not moving.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And she's telling, Hurry up, get on the bus, you're gonna move lose the bus.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I can't move.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: She felt like her feet were nailed to the ground.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: The bus pulls away.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: She never again saw Maria Montessori or spoke to her.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And a few minutes went by and she was finally able to move.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she looked around and she said, What have I done?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Where am I?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she's like, you know, she knew it was what she wanted, but it was like a desert at that time.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And she just pulls herself together, finds a place to live, and she goes to Padre Pio and she said, Well, I'm here.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is it you want of me?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I want you to build a strong house.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing request.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: She just did it.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a very poor.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you could describe Sanjivane uh Rotondo.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, i this is a very poor, austere area, right?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: At that time it was extremely poor.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the peasants, they were so holy.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: They would go to Padre Pio's Mass at five o'clock in the morning, and from there they would go to the fields to work.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: There was never a day that someone didn't come to Mary's door that needed money, needed food, just needed guidance, needed help uh with the education of their children and so on.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And she was always there for them.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: But they were really, really very, very poor people.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: They had nothing, absolutely nothing but their crops.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if the crops failed, that was it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But uh Mary was always there to help them.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: So Padre Peel asked her to build a house, and now she doesn't have an inheritance now, right?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't have this money coming in from her mom.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: But one of her brothers, I right?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: One of her brothers, yes.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He spoke up with his his sister and brothers and he said, we need to help her.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now let me tell you something.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Having lost her inheritance, as I said, she didn't really care.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But she did have money in her own right.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: She has to.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: She's very wealthy.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she doesn't have to go to her mother to say, I need an allowance money.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: She just automatically had money.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So she did have some money, but she took all the money she had and she built the house.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And anything, and then her brothers and sisters gave her a little bit of something every a little bit to us probably would have been a lot, but she called it a little bit.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: But she took every single penny and put it into the house, to the food that she fed to the people who came to visit her, to the people in the village.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: She kept nothing.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: She gave everything away.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: She I always say she left everything to find everything.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And she did, she left it all until the day that she uh has Mama Giuseppe, who is Padre Pio's mother, comes to stay with her during the Christmas ho the Christmas holidays, and she becomes ill while she's at Mary's house.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: She gets pneumonia, and in fact she dies.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But while she's there in this one month's time and she's sick, and Padre Pio comes to visit her there, and Mary suddenly realizes that this house is a gift from God for Padre Pia.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a house where he could be with his family.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: At the time when they needed him the most, you know, they're entering eternity.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's by his mother's side and Mary's by his side, taking care of his mother.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: He by locates to New York.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: By this time, her and her mother, he's they've patched everything up.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: She hasn't given her inheritance back, but she patched it up.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he bilates to New York to tell her mother that his mother is dying.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Mary is taking care of her.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Every time every page you turn is another amazing story about her.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: She gave everything.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Her house was a house of beatitudes, a house of charity.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: The names in the register of the book of that house are amazing.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you know movie stars, Loretta Young, Raymond Navarro, Popes, Carol Votiwa came there.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, every dignitary you could think of, heads of states, kings, queens, everybody went to Mary's house because they were told, go to Mary's house.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when you came to the town and you mentioned her, and they'd say La Medicana, they call her La Medicana the American.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so people knew to say that, and the peasants knew her and would take the people to her house.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not like today, you know.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so these people all came to her door, and she spoke five languages, so you'd sit at dinner with her, and you'd have all these dignitaries, these movie stars, the future pope, and so on.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: But right next to them were the peasants who just needed a meal.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: The pilgrims who came searching Padre Pio.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: They all said they weren't separated.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: They all sat at the same table.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Mary would hold a conversation with all of them in four different languages at the same time.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes she'd stop and say, What language was I speaking?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, isn't it?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's so cute, you know.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to tell you, thirty years ago, when I walked into her house for the first time, you could feel the holiness.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: You really could feel it.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: You could feel her presence.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I remember walking up the steps thinking, how many times did Padre Pio walk up these steps to see his mother?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: His father also died in his house.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: After his mother died, uh his father came to live with Mary.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And she lived there he lived there for over 20 years, and she took care of him until the day he died.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: What a blessing, again, like you said, to to Padre Pio, you know, to be able to go very nearby uh and just walk to Mary's house and see his dad.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Mary realized, wow, this house is for these pilgrims and people coming here to see him, but also for Padre Pio's family.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's really a beautiful thing the way God's providence set this whole story up, isn't it, Susan?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Padre Pio had a sister who was a nun, and he also would meet her there.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize that.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, so that was something.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so she had a long table, I'm imagining, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: In in this house.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And the house was fairly large, right?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So because other people were.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so nice to be back in there.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because the house after she died, the house was closed for 25 years.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then didn't they reopened the house?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Capuchins reopened the house in 1995.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So she died in 68, right?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: She died uh in April, and he died in uh September.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: And she died this.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And she died first.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, and then he dies the same year.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the way God wove this together is amazing.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, so Susan, after uh after Mary dies, then they they just close up the house, huh?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: There was nobody else probably to run it there or to keep it going.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they decided to close it.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think they they didn't know what to do with it.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the day that it reopened, so now this day, this is 1995.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: They had thought for a long time it was 97, but it's not 1995.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I actually found the picture.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um I'm at the Victoria Hotel, which is still there across the street from um from the house, and I'm having lunch, and this man walks in.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is 30 years ago, and he comes over to me and he said, Are you alone?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Would you mind if I sat with you?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, not at all.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he comes and he sits down.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was a photographer, he was from Germany.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: His name was Schmidt.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he he says to me, you know, you're an American, and we chat.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I guess you're here for the opening of Mary's house.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking to myself, oh, they have a house dedicated to a lady here.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he's talking about.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I look at him and he said, You know, Mary Pyle.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Who's Mary Pyle?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Shame on you.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're an American, you don't know who she is.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, I don't.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he points right across the street, he said, That's Mary's house, and he tells me about it.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I go outside and I I see all these people where I say, Oh, that's why all those people are there.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I get online and I'm gonna show you something that I haven't showed many people.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is me signing the book the day the house opened.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's beautiful.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just found that.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna hold up another picture that I hope you can see that there's Mary's house from your book.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you can see it's it's the the two people standing there, so you can see that it's a pretty uh good size home.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you can see how austere the surroundings are though, too, can't you?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and now I mean it's like she has a little front yard now, and everything else is hotels.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: So much changed.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, a lot.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: An awful lot.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you can go there now.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh is it anybody staying there or is it is it just open for tourists or pilgrims to come in?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and for well, for a while they did have it open.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why they decided to close it again, I don't know.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I do know they use it for a a retreat house for some visiting priests, usually captains, not other priests.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the So if somebody's visiting there, Susan, you can't just go inside Mary's home then right now.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not open to the public.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's too bad in a way.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is too bad.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm hoping that through all of this they may open it up again.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I would be very happy because it's such a beautiful place.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very holy place.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't it be wonderful if it's open and we can you can learn her history there and and you know, learn maybe like have a sp you know somebody there uh once or twice a week or more that to tell these stories.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you, you could be there telling the stories.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is my dream.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, being uh on the board of directors at the Padre Pio Foundation of America, we would love that.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I had okay, I had worked on the original cause for her, and then it was stopped.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a man by the name of Arturo Jimenez, who just died last year, who knew Mary Pyle.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he had a painting done of her.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: He had actually two paintings.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: One he gave to a nun in Philadelphia, and the other painting he gave to me.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And just recently, when I did the launch of this book at the Padre Pio Foundation, I donated the painting to the foundation, and uh it's now hanging there because I felt that's something everybody should say.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't just be mine.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they've always known who Mary Pyle is because of me, because from the very beginning, the very first pilgrimage I did with them was the beatification of Padre Pio, and that's how I met Ray Ewen.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I'd like to say a word or two about Ray Ewen, if you don't mind, especially since he was a soldier.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he was stationed in Amundola for a while, and then he was also, I think, in uh Sherinola.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just before the uh beatification, I got a phone call from him.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: He told me that he knew Padre Pio.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: He served mass with him for seven times while he was in the service, and he wanted to come on the pilgrimage with his grandson.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said, absolutely.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so he comes and he's a fascinating man with such a heart for Padre Pio, such a good, good man.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And his love is gave me the love that I have for Padre Pio, I have to honestly say it.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So he comes and we go, we go, and you'll appreciate this, we go to uh San Giovanni now after the beatification, and we had to stay at a hotel in Foja because there was hundreds of thousands.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of people.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's no place to stay.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And everything is divine providence.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are no coincidences.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: We get to the hotel, and there's a group of men there who were having a reunion.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were at Cherinola.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: They were in the Air Force as he was.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he sees them and he goes over and he talks to them and he tells them about Padre Pio.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Many of them already knew him, knew Padre Piel.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was like such a special gift to him, you know.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he partied with them all night.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't see him the whole night.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But he was so, so happy, so happy.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Tell the story, if you don't mind it.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: American Air Force was supposed to bomb San Giovanni Rotondo because they there was a schoolhouse there they thought was being used, right, by the enemy.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, this was the German invasion, of course, and and the Americans were coming in to uh to free them.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: And uh in anyways, what what happened there, Susan, you know, when they went to bomb that?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So uh they came from uh Foggia, and they w they were told there well, there were a few different ones, but this particular group, they they went in to bomb the school because they heard that there was a munitions depot there that the enemy had.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: So they're only Which was false, by the way, which was not true.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: That was not true.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so they they're in their planes, they're going the whole all of these planes are going to bomb.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, in front of them appears this monk in the sky out of nowhere, and they can't move, they can't go forward.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: The planes turn themselves around.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: They did nothing, actually turned themselves around, and the bombs drop from the planes into the woods.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so they went back to the base and they had their commanding officer with them.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh which uh this is to me the funniest part of the story.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: They get back to the base and he's saying he doesn't know what happened.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so some of the men said, Well, we heard there's this monk and so on.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if it were me, I would get in my Jeep and immediately go to San Giovanni and see what's going on there.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said, After the war, I'll check it out.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes after the, you know, they invaded and they took over and the Germans were gone.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: He goes and he um uh he goes in and he walks into the sacristy and he sees Padre Pio and he he went, Oh my god, that was the monk.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: He recognized his face, huh?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: He recognized his face and he kneels down before him and he says to him, You were the one who tried to kill us.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Padre Pio tells him as a shaking, you know.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: He he he becomes, he does become a Catholic in the end.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: He converted after meeting Padre Peel, and it it's unbelievable.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and Padre Peel had said that that bombs were not gonna drop in San Giovanni Rotondo.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: He knew that, and there was a number of stories where they saw those three things, and you write about this in the book.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: They saw the face of the monk, they saw this woman with child, and they saw this young man holding the sword.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, just so you know, I'm gonna hold this up, and this is why it's so important with the story.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, this is a book that I I wrote, and I'm not trying to push this book right now, but you can see St.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Michael is holding up a big sword.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's our logo, the Claymore sword, that is, and so that's St.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Michael.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the cover of this book.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: So so this is why I want you to tell the story.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna bomb that town, uh, and they see these three images.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: They see this monk's face, they see a mother with the child, and they see this young man with with the sword.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: So so you get and and and you could tell that story if you don't mind.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: So these uh these young um uh pilots, they go to San Giovanni because they hear about Padre Pio and they go there, and they're telling Mary Pyle, they notice La Americana, they see her, they see Mary, and they're telling her the story of how uh they see in the sky during this raid.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it might have been a part of the same one.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really distinguish one from another.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they but they give basically the same story except that they say they saw the monk and they saw a lady holding a child, and they saw a young man holding a sword that was dripping with blood.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they tell this to Mary, so she automatically knows what's going on here.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So she takes them to meet Padre Pio and they go, That's him.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's they all going, that's him, that's the monk.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so she takes them into Santa Maria della Grazie.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: The new church was not built yet, of course.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is during the war.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when they go inside, they see our lady, our lady of Montcalm, holding the child.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they go, that's the lady that was in the sky.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So she takes them to St.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Michael's cave.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when they go in, uh when they get there, they see the uh Saint Michael at the top of the church holding the sword.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: They said, That's him.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's the young man, you know.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: It you know, it it it's just the stories are just so amazing.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And every one of them, every one of them said the same thing.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: That that's who was there, and that's who stopped the planes.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just tell you when when my dad came back from the war, uh Susan, he would fly into Atchison, Kansas with a number of his friends from Chicago there.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: They had a little plane that they had bought after the war, my dad and and four other guys.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so they would fly in, and and because they we we had friends of ours that were monks there at the Abbey, at St.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Benedictine Abbey.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: So one day they he flies in and they allowed them to hunt there.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: They had a big grounds and they allowed these soldiers back from the war to hunt there.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so my dad had this devotion to Padre Peel.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: He mentioned it to Brother Steve, who's my my godfather's uh brother, and he was there, and so uh brother Steve said to my dad, he goes, Jack, if you want to know more about Padre Peel, go go uh talk to the new priest that's here.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: He knows something about Padre Peel, and so my dad's all excited, you know, and he tells him where to go.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so my dad goes down this hallway, knocks at the door, and he said to uh the priest, there she said, I was just talking to um brother Steve.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was in the war, I was a sergeant in World War II.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: I heard you were a sergeant in World War II, and uh he said uh I he told me you might know something about Padre Pio, and he said his face just changed.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, Oh, I know something about Padre Pio.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Come on in, soldier.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he told him that story, and just very quickly, he was uh in outside of San Giovanni Rotundo.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: They they were there stationed there, they ended up being stationed there for a while, and the this some of the squad said, Hey, Sarge, he was a sergeant then, Sergeant Columbo says, Sarge, why don't you come with us to you know we're gonna go see this priest who has the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, who also can by-locate, we heard, but also will know if you gave a good confession or not.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Sarge, we're getting bombed all the time over here.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we can die.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you're you were Catholic, so let's go to confession.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm not Catholic anymore.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I was Catholic when I was a young guy.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, I I don't go to Mass, I hadn't gone to the sacraments.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: He said that one of them said, Ah, I think you're scared to go to confession to Padre Peel, right?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, I'm not scared of nothing, right?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, they get in this line, and uh the line's too long, Susan.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they they they start to turn around.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: They realize that they'll never make it to confession before they have to be back.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so they turn around.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: And right when they turned around, somebody at the top said, a woman came out and said, Padre Peel wants the American GIs to come to the front.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: The pilgrims can wait.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so they went to the front.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and because he was the sergeant, they put him right in the front, and and when the next person went came out, he went in, gave him his confession, and uh told him everything he had ever, you know, could remember.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: He thought he was going to blow him out of the confessional, he said, you know, but he didn't know Padre Peel very well.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: But anyways, he was quiet.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: Padre Peel was quiet for a minute.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then he said, now he doesn't speak English, but but Sergeant Columban heard this in English, you know, and he said, he said, when you were a young boy, you wanted to be a Catholic priest.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: He said, You persevere, you will become a Catholic priest.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then he told him who to see at the Benedictine Monastery when he got back, Susan.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: And uh uh Sergeant Columban said, I walked out of the confessional, tears coming down my eyes.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I had never told anybody that story, and that's the first time that that anybody had brought it up since my dad and mom were the only ones that knew that story.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it was amazing.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: So he did.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: He he became, and I have a picture of of Sergeant Columban when he was in that service, and also when he became a priest, uh, and and and when my dad used to go out and fly there.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so so these are beautiful stories, and and just I'll throw this back at your hands.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I for the young men, especially that listen to this channel, I want them to realize that I was 11 years old when Padre Pio died.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a saint in my time, that's right, you know, very close to us that had the stigmata of Christ, you know.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: What amazing.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And Mary Pyle that you wrote about was an incredible friend of his that had such an intimate woven story with his, right?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: So as we start to wind down here, tell give us a couple more ideas.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: And in John Paul II, you know, was a young priest.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: He met uh Padre Pio.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: He met Padre Pio, yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he was he at Mary Pyle's house.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: He met Mary's house.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Mary Pyle really there is no story written about Padre Pio that Mary Pyle isn't mentioned in.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Even the New York Times wrote that, believe it or not, because they knew about Padre Pio, and that's what caused a big problem.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: But Mary Pyle, while Padre Pio was incarcerated for those years, walked to St.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Michael's Cave that we were talking about, like 15 miles.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: She walked there, prayed for him, and walked back in the same day.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine this?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Can't imagine.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: And she just everyone who those young soldiers who came in there, she told them everything there was to know about Padre Pio.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the most important thing was that he would read hearts.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she always said to them, I don't understand.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: You speak English, Padre Pio speaks Italian.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that you understood him and he understood you?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: And most of them said it didn't make a difference.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: I knew what he wanted, and he knew what I wanted.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so that's the that's the gift of tongues, I guess.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: But um many, many young men who went there became priests.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: He told them about their futures.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: How they were two of them became two uh of this original group became Capuchins, but yet many young became priests.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them asked, should I become a priest?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, there's marriage for you.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: He would tell them what was gonna happen in their future.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Mary was very much like Padre Pio.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: She I say that Jesus uh Padre Pio mirrors Jesus because he had the stigmata and he carried the cross.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: But Mary mirrors Padre Pio because she had his humility and she had his obedience, and that's what made her so holy.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why she was so loved by Padre Pio.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: I say at the end of the book, when Mary dies and he's at the window, I have no doubt that, you know, of course he was happy, he knew she was going to eternity, but uh to to God, but I could imagine what he was feeling in his heart seeing this woman who stayed by his side for 45 years, going she's buried with the Capuchins, by the way.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's important to know.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, with and with his mother and father.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: But she loved Padre Pierce.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: She did all his correspondence uh with the English people, English-speaking people, also French and German.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Dorothy Gaudios, who wrote the book Mary's House many years ago, um said that uh she also helped Mary Pyle.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: She took a year off, she was a teacher from school, and she stayed there for a year and she did some of the correspondence and some of the interpreter, you know, because they always needed an interpreter with all these pilgrims that came, and so she also did that.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she was a good friend of Mary Pyle.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: But Mary Pyle's house truly was a house of beatitudes and a house of charity, and anyone who came to her door was never refused anything, whether it be a meal or money or whatever.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when she died, people owed her money and whatever, and she asked that anything that was outstanding, any debt was outstanding to be erased, to be out, gone.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody owes her nothing.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: She's going to heaven and she's even with everybody.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's how she felt.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: How beautiful.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: This book is worth getting.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's gonna it's such a precious, beautiful book.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you need to know Mary Pyle.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I she really touched my heart uh the the way you wrote this, and I'm so uh grateful to you.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: Where where can we get the book, Susan?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Sophia Press, of course.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can get it on Amazon, Bonds and all any place books are sold.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'll put the links in in the show notes.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have it there.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: And also tell us on the way out here uh a little bit about do you do you do you bring people on pilgrimages?
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I see that you you own a company.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh well, you know, this is how I learned even more about all these people and about Padre P and so on.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um to me it's a ministry.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a it's not a business.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean I make money from it, but it's a ministry because this is my way of bringing people to God.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is God has uh something in mind for each of us.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now he wants me to write.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: But back 37 years ago, he wanted people, he wanted to meet some of these people at these holy places, beautiful cathedrals, places our lady uh appeared at, the holy land, Rome.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: 80% of my business is Rome anyway.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: If I wanted to go, I've been there to to uh Padre Pill's uh uh site, and many, many pilgrimage uh go there.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's the first or second most attended uh pilgrimage, I think.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now if I wanted to go there, can I go through you?
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have every year for the Padre Pio Foundation of America, we have a pilgrimage for the feast day.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: So this is I was there.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was there on the feast day.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it something?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if anybody wants to go see some of these sites that Susan's talking about or go see Padre Pio, let let's let's let's let somebody that really has a heart for this lead you there.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, Susan, thank you so much.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: Really appreciate it.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if anybody wants to reach out to you, we'll we'll have the everything in the show notes.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, God bless you.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for your work.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for inviting me.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, our pleasure.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, everyone, thank you so much.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: Bye bye.