Padre Pio’s life was a constant frontal struggle against the devil, who appeared to him and confessed his sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
According to the Italian website “Saint Pio of Pietrelcina“, on one occasion Padre Pio said that while he was confessing it was the turn of “a tall and slender man, dressed with a certain refinement and with polite and kind manners.”
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The individual penitent began to confess “aberrant” sins against God, his neighbor and morality. For this reason, the saint sought to rebuke him in the light of the Bible, the teachings of the Church and the morals of the saints.
However, the visitor slyly refuted everything the saint told him, justifying the sins as if they had no malice and seeking to show them as something normal.
This impressed Padre Pio, who wondered “Who is this? What world does he come from?”, while trying to see his face and continuing to listen to what he said.
At that moment, through an “inner light”, the Saint realized who he was and with a firm and determined voice said: “Long live Jesus, long live Mary!”
Immediately, Satan disappeared “in a flash of fire” and an unbearable foul smell spread throughout the place.
The escape of the devil
Another similar experience was told by Father Tommaso, who lived in community with Padre Pio. The friar narrated that the Saint once confessed a man in the sacristy.
When he began to pronounce the words of absolution, the penitent began to feel very bad and writhe, saying that he felt that his soul was going out. Suddenly, the man stopped and fled to the temple.
Padre Pio was stunned and trembling, but he went behind him and realized that there was no one in the Church.
Then he went to the door and asked the women who were there if they saw the man who came out, but no one saw anything. Finally, Padre Pio left very upset.
Father Tommaso concluded the story by wondering: “Who is that guy? Some demon must be assumed, in the form of a man. And for what purpose? Perhaps to intimidate him.”
This article was published in 2022. It has been updated for republication.
Abel Camasca
Journalist graduated from the Communication Sciences degree at the University of Lima. He has been part of the ACI Prensa journalistic team since 2014. Between 2016 and 2022 he was in charge of the production of the television program EWTN Noticias and Más que Noticias, a World Catholic Radio program. He often writes articles about the lives of saints.