Saint: Padre Pio and the Jets

Several Anglo-American aviation pilots of various nationalities and diverse religions who during the Second World War, after September 8, 1943, were in the Bari area to carry out missions over Italian territory, witnessed an unusual event. In the fulfillment of their duties, some aviators passed over the Gargano area, near San Giovanni Rotondo, and saw a monk in the sky who forbade them from dropping bombs there.

Foggia and almost all of Puglia were bombed several times, but incredibly, not a single bomb fell in the area of ​​San Giovanni Rotondo (where Padre Pio lived). A direct witness to this event was Italian Air Force General Bernardo Rosini, who, at the time, was part of the "Air Unit Command" with the Allied forces.

General Rosini told me that among the military, there was talk of a monk who appeared in the sky and caused the planes to retreat. Many laughed in disbelief upon hearing these stories, but because the episodes were repeated, and always with different pilots, the general decided to intervene personally; he took command of a squadron of bombers to go and destroy a German ammunition depot located right in San Giovanni Rotondo.

We were all dying of curiosity to know the outcome of the operation, so when the squadron returned we immediately went to see the general who, astonished, told how, barely arrived at the scene, he and his pilots saw in the sky the figure of a monk with his hands raised, the bombs detached themselves and fell into a forest, and the planes turned around without any intervention from the pilots.”

Everyone wondered who this ghost was that the planes obeyed. Someone told the general that in San Giovanni Rotondo there was a friar with stigmata, considered a saint by the people, and that he could perhaps be the author of these events.

The general said he wanted to go and find out as soon as possible, and when the war ended, that was the first thing he did. Accompanied by some pilots, he went to the Capuchin convent. Upon crossing the threshold of the sacristy, he found himself facing several monks; among whom he immediately recognized the one who had grounded his planes.

Padre Pio approached him and, placing a hand on his shoulder, said: "So you were the one who wanted to kill us all?" The general knelt before Padre Pio. The Capuchin had spoken to him, as usual, in the Benevento dialect, but the general was convinced that the monk had spoken to him in English. The two became friends, and the general, who was a Protestant, converted to Catholicism.