How the Forgiones Raised a Saint
by Mary Ann Budnik

"Choose this day. . . .whom you would rather serve. . . . ; but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

The above quote from the Book of Joshua describes the lives of Grazio Maria Forgione and Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio, the parents of Padre Pio. Before work, leisure, or personal desires they served God. Neighbors called them the "God-Is-Everything Family." This is the simple formula of how to raise saints and foster vocations.

Padre Pio’s father, Grazio Maria Forgione, was born October 22, 1860, to Michele and Felicita D’Andrea Forgione. When he was but seven years old, his father died suddenly. His mother remarried and Grazio and his brother, Orsola, was raised by their kind stepfather, Celestino Orlando. The family, while happy, lived in poverty. As he matured, Grazio was known not only for his piety but also for his leadership and strong sense of justice. While still in his teens, he was honored by being named a "Master of the Feast"—a committee member that planned the annual festivities for Pietrelcina. "Gra," as he was affectionately called, had fair skin, dark eyes and chestnut hair. Of medium height, he was strong, supple, and wiry with handsome features and a strong voice which he used to serenade the young ladies of the village.

Grazio was a man of action. He faced his problems, resolved them the best way he could and then moved on. He trusted that God would give him the wisdom to do the right thing. This attitude of personal responsibility and trust in God he likewise instilled in his children. Six adjectives aptly describe him: he was simple, enthusiastic, intelligent, full of life, holy and hardworking. Gra’s conduct was virtuous and his speech free from oaths or foul words. His struggle to live the different virtues (good habits) was the root of his joyful personality which expressed itself in singing and storytelling. It is said that he radiated "a contagious joy about him which communicated itself to others." He instinctively knew that personal happiness consists of developing and living the virtues while at the same time learning to deal with suffering in a positive manner.

June 8th, 1881, at the age of twenty, Grazio Forgione married Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio. By law, the couple first married in a civil ceremony at the town hall and then in church. Although Maria’s relatives initially disapproved of her marriage to the "humble" Grazio, it was a love match that endured for forty-eight years. Their marriage produced eight children, five of whom survived, including two religious vocations, one soon to be named Blessed. Padre Pio’s mother was likewise a virtuous woman. Born March 28, 1859, Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio was the only child of Fortunato De Nunzio and Maria Giovanna Gagliardi. A year and a half older than her husband, she was as tall as her husband with light blue eyes. Maria Giuseppa was called "The Little Princess" because of her grace, elegance, and sharp intelligence. She was as petite and dainty on the day that she died as she was on her wedding day.

Maria Giuseppa matched her devout husband in putting God in the first place. Even as a young woman she always prefaced her plans by saying, "If God is willing." When Francesco was born the midwife told her, "…your son has been born wrapped in a white veil. This is a good sign because he will be either great or fortunate." Maria simply replied, "Let the will of God be done." Despite her work load at home and in the fields, after morning prayers with the family, Maria always attended daily Mass. Known in town as Zia Beppa, she refused to criticize or gossip. Even when her beloved son, Padre Pio, was under attack she would cut short any criticism of his attackers by saying: "Who are we to permit criticism of the ministers of God? The Lord said that we ought not judge if we do not wish to be judged ourselves, and this means that we should judge neither the good nor the evil, because we can see only what people are doing, while God alone can see into men’s hearts the reason why they do such things."

She mortified herself by abstaining from meat not only on Friday but also on Wednesdays and Saturdays in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but this did not stop her from exercising the virtue of hospitality. It is said that "She was happier when she could give than when she could receive." Later in life Blessed Padre Pio referred to Maria Giuseppa as "my holy mother," quite a compliment coming from a saint!

St. Augustine advises: "As regards the offspring it is provided that they should be begotten lovingly and educated religiously." This was the case in the home of Padre Pio. Of the five children who survived to adulthood, Michele the eldest was born on June 25, 1882. He married and eventually took over the family farm. On May 25, 1887, a third son was born and given the name of his short-lived brother, Francesco. This son would be known to the world as Padre Pio. His sister Felicita was born on September 15, 1889. She married the town clerk and had three children. Pellegrina was born three years later and was a source of sorrow to the Forgione family because of her loss of faith and scandalous behavior. Despite her devout upbringing, she gave birth to an illegitimate son, Alfredo, who was rumored to have been fathered by Felicita’s husband Vincenzo Masone. Felicita forgave her sister and on her deathbed urged her husband to marry Pellegrina. Through the prayers of her family Pellegrina was reconciled to God before she died. Grazia (or Graziella) was born on December 26, 1894, and became Sister Pia of the order of St. Bridget in Rome.

The Forgiones not only taught the Catholic faith to their children but more importantly they lived their faith. The family attended Sunday Mass together at a time when many men stayed outside chatting while their wives and children attended Mass. Weekdays, after walking a half hour home from their farm fields, the family would stop into church to thank God for His blessings and present their needs to Him. Grazio was never without a rosary in his hands which he prayed continuously. From his example his children also developed devotion to the rosary. The Forgione children were strongly influenced by their parents mortified example in regard to food and drink. Imitating their example, young Francesco would also secretly deprived himself of food and drink for the love of God. The children were disciplined by persuasion and scoldings, never by spankings. They were taught to avoid blasphemy and crude language. Working on Sunday was forbidden.

The Forgione family lived simply. Originally their home seems to have been two small houses since one has to go out the door of Number 27 to get into Number 28. As Padre Pio would reminisce: "We had little. But thank God, we never lacked anything." The only decorations in the home were a crucifix and lithographs of Our Lady and the saints. These lithographs were more than decorations. The Mother of God and the various saints were considered important members of their family. It was in this atmosphere that Blessed Pio developed his fervent love of the Madonna.

A typical day began for the Forgione family at daybreak with morning prayers. Then the family would set off for a half hour walk to their five acres in Piana Romana where they tended their sheep, goats, hens, ducks, rabbits, some hogs, and occasionally a milk cow. On the land itself they raised grapes, wheat, Indian corn, olives, figs, and plums. There was a cottage with a dirt floor located on their land where they kept their animals, stored their equipment, and ate and sleep in the summer. The crops were picked or reaped by hand and the threshing was done by animals dragging a stone behind them on the threshing floor. Once a crop was harvested, another was planted. Later in the season the grapes and olives were gathered. The workday would end for Gra at sundown. Maria Giuseppa, on the other hand would rise in the middle of the night to begin baking bread. Three times a day Maria would have to climb up and down twenty steps to carry home water for the family’s needs. While an exhausting life, she and her husband were content.

On winter evenings, the children would listen to stories told by their father or maternal grandmother, Giovanna Gagliardi, who lived closed by. Most of the stories came from Scripture which Grazio had memorized since he was unable to read. The day would always end with the family saying the rosary on their knees. Graziella, later Sister Pia, related that prayer was given the first priority in their family.

Maria Giuseppa, was frugal, industrious and generous always donating a portion of their farm products as alms for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. She also gave the firstfruits of the family harvest to the poor. It was after Mamma Giuseppa donated an abundant amount of wheat to a questing friar that Francesco told his father, "I want to be a religious." Immediately his father gave his consent. Pio’s vocation necessitated heroic sacrifices for his mother and father. They would have to forgo his help on the farm while he went to school. Grazio would have to procure a job in the United States to earn money for his son’s education. Mamma Giuseppa was left to care for five children and the farm while her husband was thousands of miles away. Their only means of communicating was by letters written by Francesco to his father. Until an American taught his father to read and write, Grazio had to rely on strangers to read his son’s letter to him and write letters for him to his family. Blessed Pio relates: "My father crossed the ocean twice in order to give me the chance to become a friar." Francesco began his junior high studies with Dominic Tizzano, but he did poorly. Later Grazio admitted, "Our choice of a teacher for our son was poor. Sending him to a former priest who had left the Church and married was an error on our part."

Each Sunday evening the children attended catechism classes in preparation for their First Holy Communion at the age of ten and confirmation at the age of twelve.

Grazio and Maria passed on to their children the Catholic tradition of making pilgrimages to the various shrines. It was on one such pilgrimage with his father, that the future Padre Pio witnessed a miracle at the Shrine of St. Pellegrino which taught him the power of prayer(see page____).

Heroic sacrifice was part of this family’s everyday life. It broke the hearts of both parents and children when they left home to follow a religious vocation. Grazio was unable to even attend his son’s ordination, Aug. 10,1910, since he was in the states earning money for his son’s education. He had to rely on details in a letter written by Don Salvatore, the parish priest, to describe his son’s great day for which he had labored so diligently for years.

In 1928, when she was nearly seventy-years-old, Maria Giuseppa came to San Giovanni Rotando to spend Christmas near her son. In a short meeting with her son, Giuseppa fell to her knees and asked: "Padre Pio, how can we know if before God we are not great sinners? We confess everything that we can remember or know, but perhaps God sees other things that we cannot recall." Pio replied: "If we put into [our confession] all our good will and we have the intention to confess everything—all that we can know or remember—the mercy of God is so great that He will include and erase even what we cannot remember or know." She attended his Midnight Mass but was not dressed warmly enough for the weather. She refused an offer of a fur coat saying, "Oh, I don’t want to look like a great lady, my dear." She caught double pneumonia and died January 3, 1929. Francesco Morcaldi relates that "Her death was truly beautiful. She breathed her last serenely while they were praying [around her bed]. Unaided, she raised the crucifix, pressed it to her lips, [and died]." Upon her death Padre Pio collapsed. For hours he sobbed, "Mammella! Mammella! My beautiful Mammella! My sweet, darling Mammella!" He was unable to return to the friary or even attend her funeral. For days he wept as did his younger sister, Sister Pia in her cell in Rome.

In 1938 Grazio moved to San Giovanni to be near his son until his death. When people complimented Grazio on his son, he would humbly reply, "I didn’t make him. Jesus Christ did." On October 7, 1946, Gra died at the age of eighty-six. Upon the death of his father, Padre Pio again collapsed in sorrow.

Grazio and Maria Giuseppa knew the formula for raising a happy, holy family. It consists in the four S's. By serving God they became Christ-like. Their son, Padre Pio, even bore the wounds of Christ. Daily they struggled to grow in the various virtues. They suffered with acceptance. They sacrificed themselves for family members and strangers alike. By living this simple formula they gave the world a great saint. Can we not imitate their example? John Paul II reminded us in New Orleans: "Holiness is not the privilege of a few; it is a gift offered to all."