It was around this time that Orazio returned home on a visit, and he was horrified at what his wife told him about their son. Hurrying to Morcone, he demanded and received an explanation from Padre Tommaso. He was mollified somewhat but still disturbed by what he thought was unduly harsh treatment of his son and others.
“An Example to All”
As a novice, Fra Pio attracted the favorable attention of his confreres and superiors because of his submissiveness and spiritual fervor. Even Padre Tommaso described him as “an exemplary novice … an example to all.”19 Fra Pio astounded Padre Tommaso by begging permission to be excused from recreation and even from meals in order to pray. So abstemious was Fra Pio that Padre Tommaso often had to command him to eat more. And when he was not praying, Fra Pio seemed to be reading the Bible, often on his knees.
Yet, despite his penances, Fra Pio was always cheerful, and people loved to be with him. When he was permitted to talk enough to display it, he revealed a vivid sense of humor. He loved to tell jokes. Nor was he averse to playing pranks.
One midnight, after the bell had awakened the community for Matins, Fra Pio was returning from the lavatory with a towel draped over his arm when he caught sight of another novice who was a nervous fellow, seemingly frightened of anything. Between them was a large, unlighted room. On a table in the room rested a pair of tall candlesticks that jingled whenever anyone walked by. Between the candlesticks was a hideous, terrifying skull, such as friaries and monasteries kept in those days to remind their residents of the transitory nature of life. Knowing the other novice was deathly afraid of the skull, Fra Pio hid behind the table in the dark, without the other boy noticing. When the boy passed, Fra Pio waved the towel in a ghostly manner and groaned a “mysterious lament.” The nervous novice took off down the corridor, screaming, while Fra Pio, afraid that they would be discovered by Padre Tommaso, ran after him, trying to calm him down. The terror-struck lad became hysterical when he heard footsteps behind him. When Fra Pio called his name, the fearful novice, absolutely beside himself, stumbled and fell, and his pursuer, unable to stop, fell right on top of him. “Quiet! Don’t be afraid! It’s just me,” Fra Pio said. The victim was so terrorized, “he didn’t even know where he was,” the prankster recounted years later.20
In the next few years, whenever, for reasons of health that will be described later, Fra Pio was forced to return home, everyone in the friary where he lived was downcast. Even Padre Tommaso missed him. One friar recalled that his absence left “a great void in our friary and in our hearts, and we lived in hope that these absences would not be long.”21
At the end of the yearlong novitiate, the community held a Chapter to decide which novices should be invited to make their temporary vows and which should be dismissed. For nearly two weeks before the ceremony, Fra Pio’s anxiety was obvious to everyone, as he spent his time in prayer and tears.22 Finally, on January 22, 1904, Fra Pio went to the altar and knelt before minister provincial Padre Pio of Benevento. He folded his hands between those of the older man and declared, “I, Fra Pio of Pietrelcina, vow and promise to the Omnipotent God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Francis, and to all the saints, and to you, Father, to observe for three years the Rule of the Friars Minor, confirmed by Pope Honorius, living in obedience, without property, and in chastity.”
Pio of Benevento answered, “And I, on the part of God, if you observe these things, promise you eternal life.”23
Three days later, the boy whom his superiors described as one of “impeccable deportment” and notable for “the attraction he exerts on everyone with whom he has contact” left Morcone with the minister provincial and another young friar and journeyed twenty miles north to the town of Sant’Elia a Pianisi, to the friary of St. Francis of Assisi. Here Fra Pio was to commence six years of intensive study for the priesthood and prepare for his profession of solemn vows.
At that time and place, an aspirant to the priesthood in the Capuchin order was not required to earn a college degree (although a few did). He simply took required courses that were offered at the particular friary where the father lector qualified to teach that course happened to be residing. Therefore, during his course of study, a candidate for the priesthood could expect to be transferred to several friaries within the province, to be instructed in logic, philosophy, Sacred Scripture, dogmatic and moral theology, pastoral theology, Church history, patrology, canon law, and the Rule. After ordination, a priest was expected to study “sacred eloquence” for a year. If he wanted permission to preach (and not all priests had this), he had to take further course work and then submit to an examination for a preaching license. Students were generally not issued books, which the province could not afford, but were allowed to share the text from which the teacher lectured. The students were expected to take notes in preparation for an oral exam and a written paper.24
In 1905, Fra Pio was sent to the friary at San Marco la Catola, a little town built around a ruined castle, some ten miles southeast of Sant’Elia, to study philosophy. In 1906, he was back at Sant’Elia for further studies in logic and philosophy. It was there, the following year, that he pronounced his solemn, or permanent vows, ratifying the promise of three years previous to live the rest of his life in poverty, chastity, and obedience in accordance with the Rule of the Friars Minor. After that, he was sent to Serracapriola, about twenty miles northeast of Sant’Elia, to study Church history and patrology under Padre Agostino of San Marco in Lamis, and fundamental theology and biblical hermeneutics with Padre Bonaventura of San Giovanni Rotondo. The following year he traveled some seventy miles to Montefusco, near the west coast of Italy, to study Sacred Scripture, Church history, and patrology under Padre Agostino and dogmatic theology under Padre Bernadino of San Giovanni Rotondo. The latter later described him as an “ordinary student,” though he was impressed by the young man’s conduct: “Amidst the lively, noisy students, he was quiet and calm, even during recreation. He was always humble, meek, and obedient.”25 In 1909, Pio went to Gesualdo to study canon law with Padre Bonaventura.26
“Let Me Know Who in the House Has Satisfied the Easter Duty”
It is not clear how often Fra Pio saw his parents, but it probably was not often. He wrote them letters like the following undated one, which seems formal, distant, formulaic, and preachy:
Meanwhile I wish you a very long life, adorned with every prosperity, and full of blessings, celestial and terrestrial. This and nothing else is my prayer that I lift up to Jesus these days, and I will be happy if it is pleasing to the Lord, that you carry out, with all his blessings, these requests of mine.
Therefore I hope that you will not be among those Christians spending all Easter in purely sensual pleasure, because this is completely contrary to the spirit and law of Jesus Christ; but instead, I exhort you to walk always more on the road of God, remembering that sooner or later we must present ourselves at the tribunal of God.
To this end, therefore, I exhort you not to neglect your Easter duty, the only means of our health. Therefore let me know who in the house has satisfied the Easter duty.27
Early in 1908, Pio received a letter from his father, who was back in Pietrelcina for the wedding of Pio’s brother Michele to Giuseppa Cardone, but he answered that he was too busy to attend:
Dearest Father,
I respond at once to your dear letter, rejoicing with you that everybody there is in good health.
I’m very pleased about my brother’s upcoming wedding, and therefore I wish for a good celebration. Also, I would like to assist at the wedding celebration, if it were possible; unfortunately, because, as you have to know, these days I’m a bit busy with my exams, that will take place in days, so that I can stand, therefore, before the bishop to receive minor orders. Now you understand very well that it will be impossible for me [to come]. Perhaps [if it weren’t] for this circumstance, it would be easy for me to satisfy you. Anyway, don’t be upset that I’m not there; think instead that if God assists me, the day will come [when] I promise to give you a consolation greater than that I would be able to give you if [I were] present at the celebration of this wedding.28