On New Year’s Day, 1903, St. Pio was thinking about his vocation to the Capuchin cloistered life and was feeling apprehensive about leaving the world, his family, and his beloved countryside. Suddenly, he was favored with a vision, not of the imagination, but of the intellect.
We can see things in different ways, and it is said that we can know the angels like we know ideas, although they are persons; they are like living ideas. This is a part of our seeing that we do not exercise enough; we rely too heavily on the physical sense of sight, “Seeing is believing.” But this vision was presented to St. Pio through his intellect: he knew what he saw. And it gave him the answer to his apprehension about his vocation. It was a mandate, a warning, and a promise of aid. This vision was the mean and mode of St. Pio’s life as a priest and monk of God—and his immense suffering. He was permitted a part in protecting and helping weaker souls to attain salvation in Christ.
This vision, which the icon depicts in visual form, was the meaning and the goal that Our Lord planned for Padre Pio, and St. Pio accepted it. It is his acceptance, and the mode and depth of his acceptance, which is one of the great hallmarks in the life of this beloved saint. The Padre’s life was suffused with obedience, for he knew that all obedience, in its proper form, was directed ultimately towards Christ. “If my superior asked me to, I would jump out that window,” he was heard to say. Does this sound like folly? Yes, the Padre was a fool for Christ, and his way of showing that folly was love, to be obedient, obedient when no other would be, to show his love of Our Lord.
From his earliest days, Padre Pio was a docile servant to Our Lord. He did not place his will in any place where it would ever conflict with the Lord’s; therefore, he was freer than the rest of us. It is interesting to note, that he was often charged with disobedience, especially as a young friar, when he was too ill to be at the friary and could only survive, it seemed, in his home area. This was a suffering the Lord allowed him, perhaps to test and strengthen his obedience to the Lord’s will, even at the cost of his superiors accusing him of disobedience. He simply continued to follow orders where it was in his power to do so. And later, when the Holy Office censured him, and even took his spiritual director from him, he expressed sadness but not complaint. This did not mean that he did not see injustice and mistakes; he simply accepted them as from the hand of the Lord, as part of his mission as expressed in the vision.
Obedience is an integral part of the meaning of the vision, because Padre Pio had developed it and been given the virtue in such high degree that his will was malleable for great things by the Lord. For most, the devil we fight is primarily our own wayward will, the desire to put ourselves above what others want for us, primarily the Lord. We will not accept the mysterious will of God because we cannot understand it for ourselves. Padre Pio seemed to forego the need to understand for himself, and he just obeyed. Therefore, the Lord was able to use him to fight Satan himself in order to save other souls.
Obedience was Padre Pio’s crown, which he wears now: obedience and docility to the Lord’s hand, and great love of poor, little souls. Here is the description of his intellectual vision in his own words:
At his side he beheld a majestic man of rare beauty, resplendent as the sun. This man took his hand and said, “Come with me for you must fight a doughty warrior.” He then led him to a vast field where there was a vast multitude. The multitude was divided into two groups. On the one side he saw men of the most beautiful countenance, clad in snow-white garments. On the other. . . he saw men of hideous aspect, dressed in black raiment like so many dark shadows.
Between these two groups of people was a great space in which that soul was placed by his guide. As he gazed intently and with wonder . . . in the midst of the space that divided the two groups, a man appeared, advancing so tall that his very forehead seemed to touch the heavens, while his face seemed to be that of an Ethiopian, so black and horrible it was.
At this point the poor soul was so completely disconcerted that he felt that his life was suspended. This strange personage approached nearer and nearer, and the guide who was beside the soul informed him that he would have to fight with that creature. At these words the poor little soul turned pale, trembled all over and was about to fall to the ground in a faint, so great was his terror.
The guide supported him with one arm until he recovered somewhat from his fright. The soul then turned to his guide and begged him to spare him from the fury of that eerie personage, because he said that the man was so strong that the strength of all men combined would not be sufficient to fell him.
“Your every resistance in vain. You must fight with this man. Take heart. Enter the combat with confidence. Go forth courageously. I shall be with you. In reward for your victory over him I will give you a shining crown to adorn your brow.”
The poor little soul took heart. He entered into combat with the formidable and mysterious being. The attack was ferocious, but with the help of his guide, who never left his side, the soul finally overcame his adversary, threw him to the ground, and forced him to flee.
Then his guide, faithful to his promise, took from beneath his robes a crown of rarest beauty, a beauty that words cannot describe, and placed it on his head. But then he withdrew it again, saying, “I will reserve for you crown even more beautiful if you fight that good fight with the being whom you have just fought. He will continually renew the assault to regain his lost honor. Fight valiantly and do not doubt my aid. Keep your eyes wide open, for that mysterious personage will try to take you by surprise. Do not dear his formidable might, but remember what I have promised you: that I will always be close at hand. And I will always help you so that you will always succeed in conquering him”.
When that mysterious man had been vanquished, all the multitude of men of horrible countenance took to flight with shrieks, curses and deafening cries, while from the other multitude of men came the sound of applause and praise for the splendid man, more radiant than the sun, who had assisted the poor soul so splendidly in the first battle. And so the vision ended.
