Various historical testimonies show that the beloved Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, whose feast day is celebrated next Friday, September 23, had the gift of xenoglossia, that is, he could speak and write languages that he did not know.
The PadrePio.it website recalls what was said by the spiritual director of the holy priest, Fr. Agostino da San Marco in Lamis, who in 1912 pointed out that the Saint of Stigmata “knows neither Greek nor French”.
In February of that year and after receiving letters in the second language, the priest asked Padre Pio: “Who has taught you French?”, to which the saint replied: “To your question about French I answer with Jeremías… nescio loqui” (Oh, I don’t know how to speak it).
On September 20 of that same year, Padre Pio told Fr. Agostino: “The heavenly personages do not stop visiting me and making me feel the emotion of the blessed. And if the mission of our guardian angel is great, mine is greater having to act as a teacher to explain other languages.
In his Diary of him, Fr. Agostino also explained that in 1911 Padre Pio wrote a response to a postcard in perfect French and without spelling errors.
In the book Sayings and Anecdotes of Padre Pio, Father Constantino Capobianco wrote that Angela Serritelli’s brother who lived in the United States took his daughter to San Giovanni Rotondo to receive communion from the holy priest.
The girl did not speak Italian and Padre Pio did not speak English, so he had a woman named Maria Pyle accompany her.
“Father, I have accompanied Angelina’s granddaughter to confess,” the woman said. “Okay”, said Padre Pio, to which the woman replied: “Father, I am here to help her because the girl does not understand Italian”, to which the saint replied: “Maria, you can go because these are things that We see her and I”.
After her confession, the girl explained that Padre Pio spoke to her in English and they could understand each other.
In his Diary of him, Fr. Agostino recalls that on January 21, 1945 he was told that “in 1940 or 1941 a Swiss priest came with Padre Pio and spoke in Italian with the Father.”
“Before leaving, the priest entrusted a sick woman to him and the Father replied in German: ‘ich werde sie an die gottliche Barmherzigkeit’ (I entrust her to Divine Mercy). The priest was amazed at the fact and told the person who hosted him.”
(This article is translated from ACI Prensa)