Flying Monk St Pio French Toast

BACKGROUND ON THE FLYING MONK

Below passage was translated by Frank Rega from the Italian from the book:
I Miracoli di Padre Pio, by Renzo Allegri,1993 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano (Italy), 1993, Pages 110-111.   ISBN 88-04-41322-0

Many Allied aviation pilots of various nationalities (English, American, Polish, Palestinian) and of varied religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Moslem, Protestant, Jewish) who during the Second World War, after September 8, 1943, were based in Bari to undertake missions on Italian territory, testified to an amazing occurrence.

Each time, while fulfilling their Italian military mission, they approached the zone of the Gargano, in the environs of San Giovanni Rotondo, they saw in the sky a Friar, who in stretching out his wounded hands, prevented them from dropping their bombs. Foggia and almost all of the centers of Puglia were subjected to repeated bombardment; on San Giovanni Rotondo not one bomb fell.

This event, which is to say the least unheard of, was directly witnessed by the general of Aeronautica Italiana Bernardo Rosini, who at that time was part of the “United Air Command” operating out of Bari with the Allied air forces. “Each time that the pilots returned from their missions,” General Rosini told me, “they spoke of this Friar that appeared in the sky and diverted their airplanes, making them turn back.