The one who was the official Vatican exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth was the spiritual son of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and confessed for 26 years to the Capuchin Franciscan friar who experienced the stigmata of Christ.
The exorcist was also in charge of taking an image of the Virgin of Fatima by helicopter to Fr. Pio before his death. This is what Paloma Pía Gasset, author of “Direct witnesses of Padre Pio” (ED. Custodian Books).
The author compiles in this volume that has just been published in Spain a series of interviews carried out for years with people who dealt very directly with the Capuchin saint.
Among them are Sister Consolata di Santo, the first nun who took Padre Pio to her Casa Alivio del Sufrimiento hospital and a key witness in his canonization process, or the personal photographer of the Franciscan Elia Stelutto.
They also parade through the pages of “Direct Witnesses of Padre Pio” Gemma di Giorgi, a girl who was born without pupils and whose blindness was healed thanks to the intervention of the saint or Paolo Covino, a priest who administered the anointing of the sick to the saint of the stigmata .
About him the author remembers that the first time she saw him they warned her that he looked a lot like the saint: “He was nailed to Padre Pio when he was older,” she recalls.
Each of them highlights an aspect of the saint: “some highlight humor; others his humility or his charity; also the acceptance of his sufferings to save souls or how he was able to dedicate so many hours to confession”.
The Bishop of San Giovanni Rotondo, Msgr. Franco Moscone, has said of this compilation of interviews: “An essential book to get to know Padre Pio through the witnesses of his spirituality.”
A spiritual daughter of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
Paloma Pía Fernández Gasset is the full name of the author, spiritual daughter of Padre Pio. She is married to José María Zavala, a journalist and author of the international bestseller “Padre Pío. The unknown miracles of the saint of stigmata”.
In 2009, both underwent a conversion process that radically changed their lives. On October 2, 2010, Paloma received the sacrament of Confirmation from her, adopting Pia as her middle name, in honor of the Capuchin saint. The godfather of the ceremony was, precisely, her husband.
The book is born from this conversion experience linked to Padre Pio and from a promise made when the author contracted COVID. “I had had a very bad time and on my birthday I promised to help him in any way I could. I felt indebted to him”, she explains to ACI Prensa.