A new mailing list will send the personal correspondence of beloved 20th-century Italian saint Padre Pio – or St. Pio of Pietrelcina – straight to your inbox. A selection of letters from Padre Pio’s epistolary have been translated to English and split into batches of seven for a mailing list that will provide daily historic letters from the saint himself.
According to the St. Pio Foundation, the chosen letters of the epistolary were selected and edited by the foundation. While the entire body of letters includes “thousands and thousands” of letters, the foundation started with 365, which will be sent out on the mailing list each week throughout 2024. The letters are sent each Monday in a PDF file.
The letters offer a unique and personal glimpse into Padre Pio’s mind as he offers guidance to his flock, or even muses about his own faith revelations. In one example, in a November 1917 letter to Antonietta Vona, one of his “spiritual daughters,” he wrote:
“If God has not abandoned you in the past, how would he abandon you in the future when now, more than in the past, you want to belong to him from now onwards? Do not fear that something bad could happen to you in this world because it may never happen to you. But, in any case, should this ever happen to you, God will give you the strength to overcome it.”
In an interview with OSV News, Luciano Lamonarca, founder and CEO of the St. Pio Foundation, commented that the mailing list is just one initiative that the foundation has prepared to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. He said:
“He releases his fear, he releases everything (into) God’s grace,” Lamonarca said, adding, “remember, when he says, ‘pray, hope and don’t worry,’ he said them in a specific order. It never came to his mind to say, ‘Don’t worry, hope, pray,’ (but) in a specific order because that is the way life should be looked upon.”
Those who would like to join the mailing list to receive weekly historical letters from St. Padre Pio can sign up for free at the St. Pio Foundation.
And today we celebrate...