December 23, 2013

When a Saint Asked Others to Pray for a Miracle

Giovanni Savino and his wife were devoted followers of Padre Pio. One day after Mass, Padre Pio uncustomarily embraced him and said, “Courage, Giovanni, I am praying to the Lord that you might not be killed.” For the next two days, Padre Pio repeated this ominous warning.

Savino had been among those working on an addition to San Giovanni Rotundo, Pio’s monastery. On the third day, February 15, 1949, Savino and another man placed some dynamite under a boulder. When the fuse failed to ignite the charge, Savino went forward to investigate. The dynamite went off in front of him.

His face was badly mangled, his right eye was a “bloody pulp” and his left eye had many “foreign bodies” in it. Doctors gave up any hope of saving the right eye but thought perhaps they could save the left one.

Padre Pio asked everyone to pray for Savino. He exposed the Blessed Sacrament and prayed before His Presence himself for three days. On February 25, Savino smelled a sweet fragrance, something that others frequently reported in connection with an intervention by Padre Pio. Savino also felt three slaps on his forehead. The understanding he had at the time was that Pio was next to his bed.

Later that same morning, the ophthalmologist came to examine him. Savino told him he could see. The ophthalmologist asked him to turn his head so he could see his left eye. Savino responded that it was the right eye with which he could see. The doctor said he must be mistaken, but Savino insisted to the contrary. Upon examination, the left eye was found to still have its horribly distorted condition. Still, Savino could see with it. For the following 25 years of his life, Savino could still see with it. The left eye never regained the power of sight.

The ophthalmologist had been an atheist at the time. He converted to the Catholic Faith as a result of this incident.

Padre Pio was said to be a procuring cause of more than a thousand physical healings. This one time, when he asked others to pray for a miracle, he asked them to pray before the Eucharist. He asked them to pray to Real Presence. He asked them to pray directly to Christ Himself.

(Source: “The Miracles of St. Padre Pio,” by Brother Lawrence Mary, M.I.C.M., Tert., http://www.basilica.org/pages/ebooks/Brother%20Lawrence%20Mary-The%20Miracles%20of%20Saint%20Padre%20Pio.pdf.)

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