The Spiritual Family

In San Giovanni Rotondo, Padre Pio discovered not only a climate more suited to his frail health but also an environment that perfectly aligned with his deep vocation as a guide for souls. This calling had accompanied him everywhere he went, often expressed through letters to individuals entrusted to him by his superiors, who greatly admired his spirituality and his extraordinary ability to touch and inspire hearts.

Here, in the small, secluded friary two kilometers from the town—surrounded by barren moors scattered with almond trees, the only vegetation able to thrive in the rocky, arid soil, and overlooked by the rugged, desolate ridges of the mountains to the north—he quickly drew a small group of followers. Most were Franciscan tertiaries who already frequented the friary and had been prepared by the friars to meet this remarkable confrere.

Padre Pio was well known throughout the monastic province, not only for his profound spiritual depth but also for the mysterious phenomena that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

In the simplicity of a guest room, he began offering these women intimate spiritual talks, teaching them the art of meditation and prayer. One of them, Lucietta Fiorentino, had years earlier experienced a dream or vision in which she foresaw Padre Pio’s arrival and his universal mission, symbolized as a great tree whose shadow stretched far and wide.