Padre Pio and the General - A Study in Bilocation
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Published in the November, 2011 issue of Catholic Family News and in The Voice of Padre Pio, Jan-Feb. 2012, published by his Friary |
by Frank Rega
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It
is a little known fact, even among Padre Pio devotees, that not long before
he received the visible stigmata in 1918, he was drafted into the Italian
army. But the tenure of the great saint’s tour of duty during World War I was
greatly shortened by his chronic ill-health. He was declared fit only for
non-combat duty within Italy, and was assigned to the Medical Corps, where
the sickly and very unhappy private was only considered capable of menial
tasks such as janitorial duties. He was repeatedly hospitalized and given
more than one leave-of-absence for convalescence because of his incurable
lung-related infirmities. In fact, the total time of his active duty amounted
to only one hundred eighty-two days over a two and one-half year period. 1
During
the summer and fall of 1917, he was assigned to the military barracks at
Naples, which at that time was under the overall command of General Luigi
Cadorna, Chief of Staff. Cadorna was engaged on the northern front,
personally leading hundreds of thousands of Italian troops that had been
stalemated for years on the Austrian-Italian frontier. Then, on October 24,
1917, the German forces combined with the Austrians to launch a surprise
attack along the front, culminating in the infamous battle of Caporetto. It
was a disastrous defeat for the Italians, who had to retreat south almost to
Venice. Their staggering loses included forty thousand casualties, with
almost three hundred thousand troops taken prisoner, and even more than that
number fleeing in retreat. The
Italian lines finally held on November 7 at the Piave River, but on the next
day the monarchy relieved Cadorna of his command, replacing him with Armando
Diaz as Chief of Staff. The battle of Caporetto is considered the most
humiliating military defeat in Italian history. On the 9th of the
month, Cadorna packed his bags and prepared to leave for Rome. |
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Read the complete article in the above book, available in print or Kindle format.
Frank Rega is the author of: Padre
Pio and America,
St.
Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of the Muslims,
The
Greatest Catholic President: Garcia Moreno of Ecuador
Life of the Mystic Luisa Piccarreta
- Journeys in the Divine Will vols. 1 and 2
Life of the Mystic Luisa
Piccarreta - volume 3 in preparation
The
Truth about Padre Pio's Stigmata and Other Wonders of the Saint
Vatican II, Evolution, and Medjugorje: Hubris, Heresy, and Mystery
www.frankrega.com www.sanpadrepio.com www.thepoverello.com www.lifeofluisa.com
This page was last updated on 02/09/14