Testimonials & Stories
Testimonials & Stories
Julie Torres It was in 1997 that I started invoking Padre Pio in my daily prayers after I read an inspiring book on him. Of all the saints whose intercession I appealed to, St. Pio stood out as the one who consistently manifested his intercession, next to Mama Mary my greatest intercessor. My husband and I are both cancer survivors. As a matter of fact, it was my husband who first received a small relic of St. Pio a few days after his surgery due to a malignant growth in his right kidney. This was on September 2002 and in January of the following year I held on to that relic as I went through a battery of tests for a suspicious growth in my breast. True enough, I was told that the growth in my right breast was malignant but fortunately it was at its earliest stage ( it was so tiny it could not even be palpated and was just discovered through that very first mammography exam I ever underwent in my life) I had the option of having my breast reconstructed immediately after surgery. While I was recuperating in the hospital a friend if mine, who had no idea that I was a St. Pio devotee, gave me a medal and rosary that she secured during St. Pio’s beatification in Rome. I credit St. Pio for leading us to competent surgeons, and for making it possible for our illness to be discovered at a very early, highly treatable stage such that neither chemotherapy nor radiation was required. To this day, I call on him for help. I have several relics of St. Pio that I always have on hand. I put them over aching parts of my body and always I find relief and comfort. I have unintentionally lost some of them but I am happy to say that each one I lost has been replaced with another one -- for some reason someone would just give me a St. Pio relic. What I find amazing is that most of them come from people who have no idea that I am a devotee. My husband and I have gotten used to occasional scents of roses and violets even when none are present, two signs associated with his presence. During my birthday last year, I received as a gift from yet another friend, a big statue of St. Pio. I took that as an indication that I should be more active in sharing with others the life and works of this holy priest. It would be selfish to keep his kind mediation all to myself. It is with that thought that, in a humble effort to give back, we are propagating the devotion to St. Pio by sharing with others what he has done for us and also by donating images of his to different parishes that will welcome him. It is our fondest hope that so many more lives will be touched by his intercession.
“ It would be selfish to keep his kind mediation all to myself. It is with that thought that, in a humble effort to give back, we are propagating the devotion to St. Pio by sharing with others what he has done for us... It is our fondest hope that so many more lives will be touched by his intercession.”
October 11, 2006
Julie Torres