Family Troubles
In the letters he wrote to his superiors, Padre Pio almost never made any direct references to his relatives. Orazio was living in Queens, New York, doing “pick and shovel work” for the Erie Railroad.1 Michele was also working in New York, while his wife and little son, Francesco, remained in Pietrelcina. “Franceschino” (Little Francis) was adored by his namesake, Padre Pio.
Padre Pio’s mother, Giuseppa, had been managing the farm virtually alone for more than a decade. Felicita, who was closest in age to Padre Pio and who was his favorite sibling, married Vincenzo Masone (perhaps the same person who entered the Capuchin order with Padre Pio, but quickly left). Masone was an administrator in the town hall. Their daughter, Giuseppina, was born in 1912, followed by sons Pellegrino and Ettore. Padre Pio’s sister Pellegrina, at the age of twenty, gave birth out of wedlock to a son named Angelo Michele in July 1912. A year later, pregnant again, she married a tailor named Antonio Masone and moved with him into his parents’ house, where she gave birth to a daughter whom she named Maria Giuseppa, after her mother. Her husband acknowledged paternity of both children. Sadly, both died as toddlers. Then Pellegrina’s husband deserted her and left for America, never to return to her. Baby sister Graziella evidently still lived at home. A “pale, fragile” girl, she aspired to become a nun, but to enter most women’s religious orders at the time required a university degree, or else a substantial financial payment called a “dowry.” She hadn’t the means to obtain either.
There were clearly some family troubles at this time. In later years, Padre Pio told his niece Pia (Michele’s daughter, who was born several years later in 1924), “I had to go to Pietrelcina to straighten things out at home.”2 Just what things needed to be straightened out he did not say.
In a letter to Padre Agostino on May 1, 1912, Padre Pio made a brief comment that may be an allusion to some tension with his mother: “In my greatest sufferings it seems to me that I no longer have a mother on this earth, but a very compassionate one in heaven [Mary].”3 It seems Giuseppa blamed her son’s poor health on the ascetical life of the Capuchins and evidently opposed his return to community life. She and the archpriest Pannullo were pressuring him to leave the order and become a secular priest. Giuseppa frequently told Padre Pio, “Dear boy, with your poor health, how can you get along in a monastery with monks? I weep for you, my dear.”4
Comments like this caused Padre Pio grief and frustration, but his relationship with his mother was not the family crisis that seems to have been part of the reason why he believed the Lord wanted him in Pietrelcina. If not always in agreement with his goals, “Mammella” was entirely supportive. Referring to the fact that his order expected his parents to pay his medical bills, Padre Pio insisted, “They give their very blood for me without the slightest regret.”5
The greatest problem seems to have been Padre Pio’s sister Pellegrina. In May 1913, surmising his unmarried sister was pregnant for a second time, he wrote to Padre Agostino: “How I suffer … because of certain obstinate souls, and how I would even give my life that they might come to their senses and give themselves entirely to God. What devastates me most is that among these are souls united to me by ties of kinship.”6 The subject of Pellegrina seems to have been a forbidden topic for most who knew the family. Pellegrina was remembered by her niece Pia as lively and very beautiful — the prettiest of the three Forgione sisters — with long auburn hair. But she would say no more. Other people, willing to speak only anonymously, characterized her as “evil” and “a devil.” One Italian author described her as a “prostitute,” by which he probably did not mean that she exchanged her favors for money, but that she was “sexually liberated.” A man who knew her well said that she was perhaps the greatest source of grief and pain in Padre Pio’s life, but refused to elaborate, saying it was too painful. Apparently rebelling against everything the rest of her family believed and practiced, Pellegrina evidently led a life that scandalized not only her family but her neighbors too. The prayers and counsel of her family seemed all in vain. With her father and older brother in America, one wonders whether she displayed violent conduct toward her mother, which might be why, as the only adult male in the family, Padre Pio felt he had to be nearby to protect his mother and his youngest sister.
Assisting the Archpriest
Pannullo, the archpriest, loved Padre Pio like a son. Once, as the two of them took their evening walk, he confided his hopes that the younger man would leave the Capuchins so that he could succeed him as archpriest at Pietrelcina. “Pati,” answered Padre Pio, “I’d die before I’d abandon the habit of St. Francis!”7
During his “exile” in Pietrelcina, Padre Pio celebrated Mass nearly every day, often in rural churches that were part of the parish. He also taught school. One of his students, Celestino Orlando, recalled in his seventies how diligently Padre Pio had worked to help him, a slow student, learn mathematics. Once, as a reward for mastering a particularly hard problem, Padre Pio invited the boy to his home to enjoy a dinner of fried fish. Orlando remembered Padre Pio as a strict disciplinarian who always prayed before he taught. If two boys fought and swore, Padre Pio would not hesitate to take off one of his sandals and swat at them with it.
Padre Pio also organized adult education classes and held school in the fields, successfully teaching farmers and laborers to read and write. Moreover, he got together a choir of fifteen boys and taught them how to sing various hymns. He led them without accompaniment, singing along in what has been described as a robust, fervent, but unmusical baritone voice.
Padre Pio was not welcomed at first at the archpriest’s domicile. Pannullo lived with a brother and his three daughters: Antonietta, Rosina, and Grazia. Antonietta, the oldest, was married and had children who lived there at the house. She was afraid that Padre Pio had tuberculosis and would infect her children, and whenever the young priest came to see her uncle, she and her sisters refused to talk, for fear of being infected if they opened their mouths. They made Padre Pio sit on the same chair every time he came and drink out of the same cup, which they set apart for his exclusive use. One evening Antonietta humiliated Padre Pio terribly when Archbishop Schinosi of Benevento came to visit Pannullo and insisted that Padre Pio join them at the dinner table. Antonietta flew into a terrible rage, berating her uncle for allowing a tubercular priest to eat at the same table with her children, and she forced him to tell Padre Pio to leave.
Antonietta’s sister Rosina was horrified that Padre Pio was using the same vestments, chalice, and paten as the other priests in the parish, and she demanded that her uncle provide a separate set for Padre Pio’s exclusive use. The henpecked archpriest yielded to the demands of his niece.
One day the sacristan, Michele Pilla, got drunk and forgot to change the chalice. While Padre Pio was celebrating Mass, Rosina noticed he was not using his special chalice. She called the sacristan and demanded that he switch the chalice on the spot. In front of the entire congregation, the sacristan interrupted Padre Pio’s Mass to exchange chalices.
This was too much for Padre Pio. That evening, as they took their walk, he complained to Pannullo: “I must tell you that I’m angry about two things. First, your niece Antonietta doesn’t want me in the house, lest I give my disease to her children. Second, your other niece, this very morning, while I was celebrating, told the sacristan to change the chalices. Well, today the Lord gave me the grace of knowing that my disease is not contagious.” This motivated Pannullo to put his foot down. He had a conference with his nieces, and, after he laid down the law to them, they ever afterward welcomed Padre Pio into the house, without insisting on demeaning restrictions.8