The Unique Bond Between Padre Pio and Luisa Piccarreta

St. Padre Pio said, "The world will be filled with Luisa… The third millennium will see her light."

When Christians from Corato, Italy would go to San Giovanni Rotondo to visit Pio, he was known to say to them, "What have you come here for? You have Luisa, go to her."

Federico Abresch, a mutual friend to both, regularly transported letters from one to the other. St. Pio and Luisa were regularly in communication with each other, in this way. Pio also developed a center for prayer that was inspired by the spirituality of Luisa.

In a letter to Abresch, written by Luisa, pertaining to Pio, she wrote:

"Thank you, my child, for remembering me when you went to Padre Pio. Tell him to pray for me for I have great need of it... Why not tell the holy Padre Pio to pray in a very special way that the Divine Will be made known?.. Tell the holy Padre Pio to pray to the Lord that the Kingdom of His Will come if we want peace; but I believe that our Lord will put His limit with a general scourge throughout the world and perhaps with an epidemic for only in this way will the heads of governments surrender."

She further wrote, "Tell Padre Pio to pray for me, because I need it and with all respect I kiss his right hand. The dearest Jesus says: The first one to sacrifice will be I because you want to do My Will. For this reason it will not harm the many miracles worked by Padre Pio to add this one also. Beg Padre Pio to pray to the Lord and obtain this cure that can produce much good for souls. Kiss His hand and tell him to pray for me... I leave you all in the sea of the Divine Desire. I kiss the hand of Padre Pio and tell him to pray for me... I leave you in the Divine Desire so that you become holy; Kiss the hand of Padre Pio on my behalf, greet him with the love of the Fiat; pray for me."

It was well known that Luisa and Pio wrote such letters and addressed each other regularly during difficult and trying years when both were being silenced under obedience while they were mutually being investigated by the Church authorities. Pio, for his stigmata and miracles; Luisa, for her writings and apparitions.

Adriana Pallotti lived in San Giovanni Rotondo in Foggia, Italy. She was very devoted to St. Pio, who was her confessor and spiritual director. Pallotti founded the House of Prayer for the Kingdom of the Divine Will, to Pio's delight and approval. It still exists to this day in Foggia, Italy.

Here is an extract of an interview transcript with Pallotti regarding Pio and Luisa:

"Among the young people who came to Abresch to listen to the Lessons on the Divine Will, one of them told us that he went to Confession to Padre Pio, asking him: 'Father is it true that the Blessed Mother is great not because She has been the Mother of God… for Her Virginity… for Her being Immaculate, but because, as Luisa says in her Writings, She never did Her human will, but only and exclusively the Will of God?' Padre Pio answered, 'Yes my son, this is the truth!'"

Adriana was asked, "You have been reading about this spirituality, teaching It to many people, for years. What does this spirituality of Luisa mean to you?"

"It means that as we give to the Lord our own will, and we no longer use it, receiving His Will in exchange,we feel such interior peace that we are able to bear things that, humanly speaking, we were not able to suffer. But with His Divine Will, the Lord gives us His Power, His Divine Power… His Creative Power."

The interviewer asked her if she believed this was the future of the Church. She responded, "Yes, in the writings of Luisa, it is said that when the Church will possess them, there will be fire within the Church… It will the same fire which the Gospel talks about: 'They came to bring the fire on earth. Oh how I wish that it could be already burning…' This is the Fire of the Divine Will."

She went on to say, "If these souls have sufferings, problems, and many other things, they can say to the Lord, 'Lord, I can do nothing, but I know that You can do everything. Take my will, and come to act in me… to work, to walk, to breathe, to suffer in me…' As we empty ourselves and let Him do it, our lives become more simple… and perfect. It will be easier to proceeed along the path of this life."

Luisa Piccarreta was bed ridden for her entire life since her youth, and Padre Pio was cloistered. So the two never did meet each other in person, although they regularly exchanged letters and prayers for one another. They also frequently recommended souls to visit the other.

St. Hannibal, who was Luisa's spiritual director, called her spirituality the Divine Science of Holiness.

Pope St. Pius X, when reading her Hours of the Passion with St. Hannibal, said, “One must read while kneeling. It is Jesus Christ that is speaking.”

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We love you. Save souls. Amen.