PADRE PIO'S FRIEND

 

Today is International Women's Day and what better way to celebrate, than showcasing a lay woman who better needs to be known in our country.

A friend of St. Padre Pio is now venerable.  LUIGINA SINAPI was born in Itri in 1916 of a wealthy Italian family. She was the first of five children. From early childhood Luigina had what are presumed to be visions of Our Lady, Our Lord and the angels. Because her mother was disturbed by this, she took the child to see Padre Pio at San Giovanni Rotondo in the 1920s.

It was the beginning of a close relationship between Luigina and the Saint from Pietralcina. In November 1931 Luigina’s mother died, necessitating Luigina to take on the role of mother for her younger siblings.

A few years later it was discovered that Luigina had a tumor. She seemed close to death and was anointed. But on August 15, 1935, Jesus and Mary appeared and healed her miraculously. From then on, Luigina offered herself for all the evil in the world, all the while carrying on normal activities. 

During the Second World War she took refuge in her hometown and, upon returning to Rome, she lived in dire straits due to the hardships of the postwar period. From 1956 to 1970 she worked at the National Institute of Geophysics as secretary to the Venerable Servant of God Enrico Medi (a spiritual son of Padre Pio).

 In April 1937 in a cave not far from Tre Fontane Basilica in Rome, Luigina had a vision of Our Lady who told her that Pius XII would be elected Pope. She also told her that in ten years she would appear again to Bruno Cornacchiola, an Adventist who wrote an article against Marian dogmas and wanted to assassinate Pope Pius XII. (This happened on April 12, 1947). After the vision Luigina followed Our Lady’s instructions and sought a meeting with Cardinal Pacelli’s sister. She told the sister about Our Lady’s prediction. From that time forward Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII,  was a friend of Luigina.

 She often met with the Pope in private audience and there were frequent telephone calls between the Pontiff and the Mystic. In 1940 Luigina established a charitable work for the most vulnerable at the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Civita in Itri.

 In 1950 before proclaiming the dogma of the Assumption, the Pope and Luigina met. She told him that Our Lady had expressed her approval of the dogma in a vision. Luigina moved to Rome and became a Franciscan Tertiary.

 In 1954 she became a Servite Tertiary as well. Later she became the secretary of the scholar, Professor Enrico Medi – a position she held for fifteen years.The last years of her life were spent in hospitality, listening, offering advice and spiritual consolation to all who came to her. Her spirituality, which was centered on the Eucharist and Mary, led her to help those in need, even in the midst of her own poverty.

She died in Rome on April 17, 1978 of gastric cancer. Her attending medical doctor, Dr. Mark Grassi testified that the last days were of great suffering for Luigina. Yet she was very peaceful, loving and happy. On one occasion, smiling she was overheard murmuring, "I am waiting!"

 At the moment she died she was completely alone, just as Jesus had foretold her many years earlier. She was found with her face toward the tabernacle. The funeral was celebrated in the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome, and she is buried in the cemetery Verano in Rome.

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints states that Luigina's  journey “was accompanied by numerous supernatural gifts such as precognition of events and situations, bilocation, discernment of spirits and, above all, mystical union with the Lord Jesus, lived in an atmosphere of modesty, humility, and service.”