nearly everyone in southern Italy was Catholic, Christianity there was badly vitiated by superstition, comprising, for many people, a mixture of Christian and pagan elements. A popular prayer, whether to God, Mary, or the saints, was: “You give me something, and I’ll give you something in return.”3 Many approached God, Mary, and the saints only when they were in need, and sometimes blasphemed them when they failed to obtain what they wanted. One historian has characterized southern Italian men at the time as typically skeptical and anti-clerical, while their wives were wont to attend Mass daily, “rosaries in hand, fervently praying and supplicating priests, seeking out holy people who seemed closer to God.” They were often completely lacking in theological understanding and ignorant even of the words they prayed in Latin.
Pietrelcina was two miles from the nearest railroad station, its only communication with the outside world, as there were no roads, not even to Benevento. The social hierarchy of the town was similar to that of others of the Mezzogiorno. Except for a few artisans, nearly everyone was tied to the land and belonged to one of two classes: the possedenti, who were the landowners, and the braccianti, who were landless laborers. All were considered “peasants” except four or five wealthy families who lived on big estates near Benevento and owned much of the land worked by the braccianti.4 Most of the possedenti of Pietrelcina were the proprietors of very small farms, which they worked themselves with the help of hired braccianti during the busiest times of the year. While many braccianti lived in miserable dwellings in the country, most of the possedenti had houses in town and went out every day to work in their fields, remaining in the summer in cottages in the country.5
At Pietrelcina, the day was punctuated by the striking of the church bell, marking the various periods of prayer specified by local devotion. The year was highlighted by numerous saints’ days. Few towns in the region observed so many religious feasts as Pietrelcina. One writer noted, “The year was a veritable succession of feasts, novenas, High Masses, processions, with the inevitable accompaniment of fireworks [and] music.”6
Devotion to Mary was especially strong in Pietrelcina. Aside from Christmas and Easter, the chief feast of the year celebrated the town’s local patroness, La Madonna della Libera (Our Lady of Deliverance), in August. During her three-day festival, the faithful went to the church, offering the firstfruits of their harvest of grain. Some of those who were better off left candles with banknotes pinned to them. The bejeweled wooden statue of La Libera was carried through the streets, accompanied by the town band. Padre Pio later wrote, “The main street was splendidly illuminated and in the evening there was an artistic fireworks display. There were games, horse-racing, tight-rope walking, and theatrical performances.”7
The Pucinari hailed La Libera as their personal protectress. They were familiar with the account of how Our Lady delivered their ancestors from the wrath of the Byzantine Greek armies, who rampaged Italy in the seventh century. When the area escaped the wrath of these invaders, the bishop of Benevento, venerated as San Barbato (“The Holy Bearded Man”) taught his flock to pray to Mary under the title Our Lady of Deliverance. As late as 1854, La Libera was credited with rescuing the town from an epidemic of cholera that claimed 153 lives.8 Records indicate that after the town gathered to pray for La Libera’s intercession, many were healed, and new cases of sickness rapidly declined.9
The supernatural was near at hand for the Pucinari. Many people believed at the time that a special prayer or combination of prayers, if repeated in a certain way, would enable one to predict the day of his death. They spoke of a formula, supposedly in Aramaic, by which a person could commit himself to Satan in return for worldly gain. The “old people” of the town made prophecies and predictions about the future, even “predicting,” in the 1800s, the advent of automobiles, airplanes, and space travel.10
A native of Pietrelcina, who was a slightly younger contemporary of Padre Pio, described her town: “It was all farms in Pietrelcina. For us, Benevento was the big city. That’s all we knew. We dressed like people did in America. We didn’t have arranged marriages. We didn’t wear local costumes [except on special occasions], but all our clothing was handmade. We never closed our doors. We had no running water or plumbing.”11 Another near contemporary of Padre Pio had a less rosy recollection of Pietrelcina at the turn of the twentieth century: “So uncivilized you couldn’t even leave your doors [unlocked] at night because everyone was robbing each other.”12
A God-Fearing Family
The paternal family of Padre Pio, the Forgiones, were possedenti — small landowners. According to local tradition, the family came originally from the Abruzzi, a region to the northeast. The earliest ancestor of record was Antonio Forgione, who died in Pietrelcina in 1837 at the age of about eighty. Little is known of him or his son Donato (1786–1841) except the vital statistics noted in the fragmentary records of the parish church. Donato had a son Michele, who was born in 1819 and died forty-eight years later, leaving behind his second wife, the young widow Felicita D’Andrea (1839–1887) and his two little children by her: seven-year-old Orazio Maria (Padre Pio’s father) and two-year-old Orsola.
Orazio was born October 22, 1860. He was baptized Grazio Maria, but, although his wife usually called him “Gra,” throughout his life he was almost always known as “Orazio” — the name that appeared on his death certificate and on his tombstone. He spent most of his childhood in the household of his stepfather, Celestino Orlando, who married his mother shortly after the death of his father, Michele.
Young Orazio spent his childhood in relative poverty, minding the family sheep. While still a teenager, Orazio was named a “Master of the Feast,” a member of the committee that planned the annual festivities in August. That was a great honor and a sign of the respect in which the devout young man was held among the townsfolk.
On June 8, 1881, Orazio, now twenty years old, donned the local costume — a doublet trimmed with gold buttons, knee-stockings adorned with white ribbons, and white shoes — and was escorted by his stepfather to the home of Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio, who was to be his bride. Giuseppa was dressed in a red satin gown, an azure-blue apron, and a red bodice covered with gold brocade. A white scarf adorned her head, and, to ensure fertility, around her neck she wore a cloth imprinted with the image of thirteen male saints. In her pocket she carried a pair of miniature scissors, which were said to ward off the “evil eye.” Orazio’s stepfather gave a perfunctory speech of advice to Giuseppa, and she kissed the hands of her future parents-in-law and left with her female companions, resplendent in red silk dresses nearly as lovely as her own. The little company went first to the town hall for the civil ceremony, and then to the church to celebrate the Sacrament of Matrimony. During the ceremony, Giuseppa tucked the hem of her skirt between Orazio’s knees “to keep away evil things.” The nuptials concluded, and a band accompanied the couple back to the De Nunzio house, where they were to live.13 Thus Orazio Forgione and Giuseppa De Nunzio commenced forty-eight years of married life. (As was customary, the bride retained her family name.)
“Gra” and “Beppa,” as they called each other, were remarkable people. Orazio has been described as “a little runt of a man,” supple and wiry, with fair skin, dark eyes, and chestnut hair that remained full and thick to the end of his days. He exemplified what his granddaughter Pia Forgione called “the Forgione character.” “Whenever there was a difficulty, Grandfather, like my father and Uncle Pio, wouldn’t let it weigh on him. He would get through it. He’d sit down, discuss what was to be done, straighten it out, and go on.” Trusting the Lord to give him the wisdom to solve all his problems, he never worried and tried to instill this characteristic in his children.14 Adjectives frequently used with regard to Orazio Forgione are “simple” and “lovely.” A neighbor, questioned about his character, described him as “holy.” In a society in which men typically went to Mass only at Easter and possibly at Christmas, and at other times stood outside the church chatting with each other while their wives worshiped, Forgione not only went to Mass every Sunday, but, with his wife, stopped at the church to pray every day after working in the fields. He was constantly praying his rosary, a habit he instilled in his saintly son. Not an oath or a foul word ever