# 67 OF 70 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO
IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. SEP. 13, 2020
PADRE PIO: THE TRUE STORY - C. BERNARD RUFFIN
Chapter 33 - 'Give Me the Obedience to Die' p. 373-378
September 20, 1968, was the fiftieth anniversary of Padre Pio's visible stigmatization. The church was decorated by Padre Pio's visible friends throughout the world. Pio, who, for weeks, when asked how he felt had been saying, "Only the cemetery remains," celebrated Mass at five in the morning. Later that day, nearly bent double with pain, he attended the public recitation of the Rosary and later the benediction service. At nightfall an immense crowd of town folk and spiritual children moved from town toward the friary, bearing candles in their hands, showing "Viva Padre Pio!"... When a confrere wished him another fifty yeas, the old man demanded, "What harm have I ever done you?" ...
September 22 marked the beginning of the First International Convention of Prayer Groups. Every hotel, every inn, every boarding house in the town was packed. The Casa was resplendent with lights and flags, and a large platform had been erected on the plaza in front of the church to accommodate the speakers of the day....
The day was marked by the blessing of the crypt in the morning, and, in the afternoon, the laying of the first stone for the laying of the Cross that was being erected in the hillside above the church. Unexpectedly, around ten o'clock, supported by two friars, Pio appeared in the window of the old choir, and blessed the throngs assembled in the plaza below, who, in turn, who in turn responded with the waving of the handkerchiefs and cries of "Viva! Viva! Viva! ...
Padre Raffaele called on him. "I belong more to the other world than to this one. Pray to Our Lord that I might die," he said. Raffaele, distressed at seeing his old friend in terrible pain, summoned a doctor from the Casa, Professor Bruno Pavoni. After the doctor examined Pio, Raffaele demanded the reason why the sick man had been given no pain-killer. "He doesn't want it," said Pavoni who walked away....
Padre Pio then asked Padre Pellegrino to hear his confession. Then he told him, "Son, if the Lord calls me tonight, ask all my brothers to forgive me for all the trouble I have caused them, and ask all our fellow priests and my spiritual children to say a prayer for my soul." ...
At this point, Dr. Sala, who up to now had believed that Pio was suffering from asthma, realized his patient was having a heart attack and began to administer injections to stimulate the heart. In the meantime Padre Carmelo told the sacristan, "Get the holy oil and anoint Padre Pio." As Padre Armelo administered the sacrament of the sick (the "Last Rites"), Pio continued to whisper, "Jesus ... Mary ... Jesus... Mary..."
At 3:30 A.M. his face wet with tears, Dr. Sala sobbed, "Padre! Padre!" The Capuchin opened his eyes, looked at the physician, closed them again, turned his head to the right, gave a little cough, and, as the little group standing around his armchair offered the prayers for the dying, stopped breathing. Sala administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pounded on Pio's chest. The heart started again and there followed the sound of a few more breaths - then silence. Sala noted that the face of Padre Pio was "pale, distended, and bloodless" and the lips "slightly parted, like a little bird's" Dr. Cusso observed "the clinical signs of death, the most peaceful and sweet I have ever seen."
"Where shall we put him now?" asked Sala. It was only then that most of the friars realized that Padre Pio had died. The corpse was placed on the bed, where it was prepared for viewing.There was no autopsy... Almost immediately, word of the padre's passing got out ... Quickly "an immense sea of people" congregated outside the friary... Between 8 and 8:30, as hundreds of mourners, "shouting, praying, and crying,"surged towards the coffin where the mortal remains of the "Wise Man of the Gargano" reposed...It is estimated there there were more than one hundred thousand people at San Giovanni for Padre Pio's funeral... George H. Kubeck
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