San Giovanni Rotondo

Situated in the south-western part of the Gargano area, among karstic formations and sink-holes, San Giovanni Rotondo was founded around the year 1000, as stated in writings dating back to the Byzantine Period, when the early inhabitants of Castel Bussano (Crocicchia) built their homes around a baptistery consecrated to Saint John. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen fortified it with walls, and then came the Angevins, Aragonese, and Spanish. The spreading of a terrible plague in 1656 was stopped by Saint Michael, whom the people and Bishop Puccinelli had turned to during their pilgrimage to the basilica in Monte Sant'Angelo.

To mark the miracle, a statue to Saint Michael the Archangel was erected in a niche on the main door of the church of San Leonardo. The true "story" of the town in modern times begins with Padre Pio, to whom it is lastingly bound. On July 28th 1916, Padre Pio climbed up from Foggia to the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady of Grace) for the first time, festively welcomed by the few clergymen that had not been called up yet, and by the students of the Franciscan seminar.

"The days that Padre Pio spent in San Giovanni Rotondo - Padre Paolino wrote - were of great relief to his body." On August 5th, Padre Pio climbed back down to Foggia and on September 4th he left again for San Giovanni Rotondo. What began as a temporary stay became a permanent one, interrupted only by brief absences for spiritual and military reasons. When Padre Pio arrived, there was not a soul around the friary, but only "some herds of goats and sheep climbing up the mountain. A narrow path was the access way to the village." The Capuchins came to San Giovanni Rotondo in 1540. They came because they had been invited repeteatdly by the entire community.

They erected the cross on a small hillock at the foot of the Monte Nero, where it can still be admired even today. Facing the new square, opposite one wing of the original convent with its main door, on the left there are the facade of the old ant new church and the 'Pilgrims' room', while the monumental "Way of the Cross " and the "House for the Relief of Suffering" - the world famous hospital - are on the right. By hosting Padre Pio within its walls, the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie soon became an oasis of holiness. During his first two years in San Giovanni Rotondo, Padre Pio matched his saintly-led religious life and the scrupulous fulfillment of his task as dean of the Franciscan College, with the priestly ministry of providing spiritual guidance to an ever-increasing number of souls. Padre Pio received the stigmata on September 20th 1918, an important event in the history of San Giovanni Rotondo and indeed the whole world. Even today, Santa Maria delle Grazie, blessed and sanctified by Padre Pio's prayers and tears, the witness of outstanding conversions and returns to faith, the source of wonderful acts of charity and love for the suffering mankind, the sanctuary of graces and miracles, continues to have irresistible charm on all those who enter.

Some find their lost Christ and faith again. Others, deep down in their hearts, hear the voice of Padre Pio who, from the silence of his sepulchre, speaks of the vacuity of the world's material goods and of the pure joy of a life dedicated to serving the Lord and mankind. On May 16th 1993, Provincial Father Mariano Di Vito blessed the beginning of the construction of the new church designed by architect Renzo Piano which will welcome a great number of Padre Pio's faithful and spiritual children. It is said that in 1959, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Friary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, speaking to his fellow-brothers with his usual brusque candidness, Padre Pio exclaimed: "What have you built? A matchbox?" He knew already that a grand building was needed in order to hold the multitude of "those called upon". Saint Francis said: "He who brings me a stone will receive a reward, he who brings two stones two rewards, who three, that many rewards!" People's participation in this great work is extraordinary: someone offers a pew, another one square meter of flooring, another one day of work, another one organ pipe, another a stone, another a coin, whatever they can. In a golden book that will be kept in eternal remembrance in the sanctuary under construction, the names of all the "stone carriers" will be entered.

A new church in San Giovanni Rotondo is not only an oasis of cool stone, a place where to rest after a long walk; it is the place where one's heart itself can rest in Christ the Lord. So that, with the eyes of faith, one can look at the infinite love of Padre Pio, often defined - also by one humble fellow-brother of his - as "the photocopy of Christ the Lord".

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