Ten unpublished shots of Padre Pio now available to all

By Tiziana Campisi

“Take as much as you want without this flash”: Padre Pio really couldn't stand this flash of light generated by the burning of the magnesium powder, but he had seen this boy hanging around the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo since he was a child, and had given him permission to photograph him “without flash” as much as he wanted, in order to earn a few pennies.

Elia Stelluto, born in 1935, took thousands of photos of the Franciscan friar, in daily life, during various celebrations, during intimate moments, all without flash. Yet they all have a unique light. “I still can’t understand the mystery of these photos,” says “Padre Pio’s photographer.”

Ten photographs of the saint taken by Stelluto, some of which have never been seen before, are now accessible free of charge to believers and devotees of Padre Pio on a dedicated website: Therealsaintpio.org.

Stelluto and Luciano Lamonarca, founders of the Saint Pio Foundation, presented the initiative during a press conference on Monday, April 29, at the Vatican Cinematheque, under the patronage of the Dicastery for Communication and the Dicastery for Education and Culture.

The “Photographs of Saint Pio – Memories of a Saint” initiative celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beatification of Padre Pio and the tenth anniversary of the Foundation.

A saint of the people

“Father Pio is a figure who is still relevant today and who continues to attract many people,” said Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, during the press briefing.

“He is a saint of the people because he comes from the people, a saint capable of communicating” despite his high spiritual demands, he added.

The photographs chosen by Stelluto and Lamonarca show the saint of Pietrelcina like that: a simple brother, among his brothers in community life or celebrating mass, or blessing a rosary.

The photos also help to reconstruct his life, underlined Mgr Felice Accrocca, archbishop of Benevento, the diocese where Father Pio lived during the first years of his life. He explained how important it is to contextualize the environment in which the religious was born and raised and to highlight everything that characterizes his personality, shaped by local customs and traditions.

The photographer's memories of Padre Pio

“I wanted to give the photos to the entire Catholic world and to the spiritual children of Padre Pio,” said Stelluto, who recounted some anecdotes from the years spent alongside the holy brother, “a gentle person,” an affectionate man. what did he manage to “capture” with his face lit up by a smile. Elia was also his altar boy and he recalled that after mass, the boys would kiss the wounded hands of Padre Pio, “a spring that never dries up” and of which we never tire of talking.

Don't forget to pray, go to mass on Sunday and say the rosary: ​​these are the teachings that Stelluto keeps in his heart. “His weapon was the Rosary,” he explained to Vatican News, recalling that to those who asked him for miracles, the religious recommended above all prayer.

Today, Elia Stelluto's enormous photographic archive, which includes around three thousand photos and several films, is managed by his nephew, Ruben Lobos. The films have been digitized, he revealed, adding that there are still many unpublished photos of Padre Pio through which it is possible to know his daily life.

The initiatives of the Saint Pio Foundation

The face of the saint of Pietrelcina is the face of a humble person, emphasized Lamonarca, whose idea of ​​making certain photographs of Stelluto accessible aims to know Padre Pio better and to allow us to see also beyond the image of the stigmatized saint. .

It is for this reason that the Saint Pio Foundation has made available various resources, including recently “The Song of Padre Pio”, composed by the musician Rico Garofalo with his friend and lyricist Gino Scauzillo, and sung by Lamonarca, to put it freely available to the public.

The Foundation has also selected 365 letters, one for each day of the year, translated into five languages, written by Saint Pio to his spiritual directors and spiritual children so that they can serve as a guide to those seeking a source of inspiration.

Finally, a documentary is in preparation: “We want to give a message of hope”, concluded Lamonarca: “We must be more in communion with ourselves and with others, and I believe and hope that Padre Pio will encourage people to be more peaceful. “.