Padre Pio : Story of a soul who had visited Padre Pio from purgatory.

 

In 1922, Padre Pio told a bishop and several friars the story of a soul who had visited him from purgatory.  On a snowy winter evening, Padre Pio was sitting by the fireplace in the friary, praying, when an old man sat down beside him. Padre Pio could not imagine how he could have entered the friary at this time of night. “Who are you? What do you want?” Padre asked. The man said his name was Pietro Di Mauro, and that he had died in this friary on September 18, 1908, when it was a poorhouse. He had fallen asleep with a lighted cigar, which set the mattress on fire, and he died, suffocated and burned.  “I am still in purgatory,” the old man said. “I need a holy Mass in order to be freed. God permitted that I come and ask you for help.”  “Rest assured that tomorrow I will celebrate Mass for your liberation,” Padre Pio answered, and then walked him to the door, which had been closed and locked.  Padre Pio offered Mass for the old man as promised. A few days later, he went with another friar to the town hall and looked at records from 1908. There they found that on September 18 of that year, a man named Pietro Di Mauro had indeed died of burns and asphyxiation in the place which at that time was a poorhouse and now was the friary. 

Padre Pio stated he had dealings with more dead souls than living ones, with souls appearing as shadowy figures needing prayers.  These visits emphasized that even minor sins needed expiation, and the Holy Souls relied on prayers, sacrifices, and Masses for their purification before entering Heaven.