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Adriana Pallotti Founder of
The "House
of Prayer for the Kingdom of the Divine Will"
In San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
(Photo taken October 2005)
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Adriana Pallotti is a wonderful lady who lives in San Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia – Italy), where she founded the "House
of Prayer for the Kingdom of the Divine Will". She is originally from Modena (Northern Italy), but she moved to San Giovanni
Rotondo many years ago, “..to live close to Padre Pio..”, as she says. Padre Pio, then, became her Confessor and Spiritual
Director.
In San Giovanni Rotondo, she attended the Cenacles of Federico Abresch on the Divine Will, when Luisa was
still alive. During the 40’s, Federico Abresch became a close friend and disciple of Luisa. He used to visit her house and
learn, directly from her and from her manuscripts, of the Sublime Truths of Living in the Divine Will. He also exchanged frequent
correspondence with Luisa.
Federico Abresch, a Franciscan Tertiary. Complying with wishes of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina,
he was the first apostle of the Divine Will in S. Giovanni Rotondo and did much to spread Luisa Piccarreta’s writings.
In
the following interview, made in 1994 on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Transit into Heaven of Luisa Piccarreta,
Miss Adriana Pallotti gives clear testimony on the fact that Padre Pio knew and loved Luisa and her Writings. She also gives
wonderful testimony on the conversion of Federico Abresch through Padre Pio, on the First “Divine Will” Cenacle in the San
Giovanni Rotondo, and on direct and specific comments of Padre Pio regarding the spreading of the writings of Luisa.
Brief
Highlights on Federico Abresch
Federico Amalia and their son Pio Abresch, friends of Padre Pio, were also admirers
of Luisa. The book “Padre Pio: The True Story” by C. Bernard Ruffin, states “…Friedrich Abresch, a native of Germany who came
to see Padre Pio in 1925, at the age of twenty-eight, out of pure curiosity. A nominal Lutheran in his youth, he had become
Roman Catholic on marrying an Italian but did not practice his religion. ‘I had no faith,’ he admitted. …. Padre Pio did not
expel Abresch from the confessional, but he did make him, as he put it, ‘understand immediately that in my previous confessions
I had committed certain mortal sins.’… ‘He concealed his knowledge of my entire past under the form of questions. He enumerated
with precision and clarity all of my faults, even mentioning the number of times I missed Mass!’
In 1926, a year later,
Abresch’s wife began to hemorrhage, and doctors diagnosed a tumor in her womb….Amalia Abresch was devastated by the certainty
that a hysterectomy would leave her incapable of bearing children, so she went to Padre Pio…he told her not to submit to the
knife. After that, the hemorrhages ceased and, although the tumor remained, to her great delight, she conceived and, at the
age of nearly forty, gave birth to a son. The boy, who was named Pio, later became a monsignor.
Eventually the Abresch
family settled in San Giovanni Rotondo, where Friedrich opened a photography studio. For many years he was something of an
official photographer for Padre Pio ad his brethren, …”
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Interview with Andriana Pallotti at
San Giovanni Rotondo – Foggia - Italy
Legenda:
Interviewer = I Adriana
Pallotti = AP
I - Well. Adriana, we are very happy to have you with us today, to witness to the world, which is getting
to know Luisa. We know that you are very important in this process, since you have been one of the first and most persevering
persons to spread this message, so important for the world. We would like to hear from you a little bit about your story.
Let’s start from the beginning, when you came here to San Giovanni Rotondo. How did you begin your growth under the guidance
of Padre Pio, and then, your first meetings with Federico Abresch?
AP - I came to live here, in San Giovanni Rotondo
in 1945, when I heard from some friends that here there was a saint, so great, so holy, and with the stigmata. I decided to
leave the house of my father and all my things to come here, to live in poverty close to Padre Pio. After a few years, I met
Federico Abresch, who was a German man, converted by Padre Pio. He had come to live in San Giovanni.
I - Wasn’t Federico
a doctor, from Bologna?
AP - No. Federico was a photographer, who had established his laboratory in Bologna.
I
- ...And how did he arrive here?
AP - He was here because a friend of his invited him to come and visit this great
saint. He didn’t know him, but he came out of curiosity. As soon as his eyes met the eyes of Padre Pio, his heart was touched
and he felt the desire to kneel at Padre Pio’s feet. And Padre Pio told him: ‘What are you doing here after so many years
without going to Confession?!’
He said: ‘Father, please help me!’
And Padre Pio: ‘Start from your last Confession!...
No, I don’t mean this confession now... I mean from your last Confession before you got married!’ So he started his new Confession
and then, touched by the words of Padre Pio, he was converted. After his conversion, he started to go around in search for
spiritual things and beautiful souls. He heard that there was a saint in Corato, bedridden for 70 years, so he went to visit
this soul, who began to talk to him about beautiful spiritual things on the Divine Will. He was very touched, and continued
to visit Luisa with the permission of Padre Pio. Luisa continued to talk to him about living in the Divine Will, and he wrote
notes.
Sometimes, he saw her when she received the stigmata. One day, he was visiting Luisa and saw her bed shaking.
He asked: ‘What’s happening?’ And Luisa said: ‘I suffer, I suffer! - but gladly!’ She was suffering the Passion of Jesus.
Abresch went to her very often, also with his little son Pio, who was three years old. He asked: ‘So, what are we going to
do with this little boy... a Priest?’ And Luisa said: ‘Eh, eh, let’s pray.’ In fact, Pio became a priest and now he is in
the Vatican. Abresch always continued to go to her. He learned from her diaries, which she wrote at night. He would copy them
and then return them to Luisa. We learned this spirituality from him, since he always continued to keep these writings.
I
- So he started his first little cenacles...
AP - Yes, at night we used to go and listen to his talks about Luisa.
We were enthusiastic! I couldn’t wait to go there, every Saturday night. We were about 5 or 6. He spoke every week for one
hour and a half, but we never wanted him to stop, so much we loved this spirituality! It was about to give our human will
to God, and to receive His Will in exchange, so as to become divinized... In hearing this, we felt that we had found Paradise
on earth! We were enthusiastic, and Padre Pio was happy too.
Once I asked Padre Pio: ‘Father, is it good for me to
listen, write and print the writings of Luisa Piccarreta? And he said: ‘Yes! Repeat it!’ So, I asked again: ‘Father, can I
give some money to Andrea Magnifico to buy the equipment to print the books of Luisa? And he again: ‘Yes!!!’ So I understood
that it was really the Will of God to have the writings printed...and we did it.
I - In which year did Federico start
these conferences?
AP - Before I came, in 1945, he had already started with another group.
I - So, Luisa was
still alive...
AP - ....yes, Luisa was still living.
I - ...so, you started during the 50’s...
AP - ...Yes,
I started from the 50’s to talk about Luisa in my home to my guests. All were enthusiastic about this spirituality of the
Divine Will...
I - Who were some of the other souls?...You and who else?..
AP - There was a certain Giulietta Marchi
from Bologna...She was very happy... Jesus spoke to this beautiful soul... She died all of a sudden, after many years in which
we were going together to Abresch. Before dying she told me: ‘Adriana, you must get some tapes and record all that Abresch
says, because in the future you will have to talk about this spirituality.... The Lord wants this, because He wants to free
us from the misery of the human will, in order for us to live in a divine manner!...
I - Tell us about Andrea. When
did you meet him?
AP - Andrea Magnifico from Milan came to my home to “change air.” I told him that we were going to
listen to Abresch who spoke about the spirituality of a certain Luisa from Corato, who lived in bed for many years.... and
that the spirituality that Jesus taught to Luisa was so sublime and so great that we felt that were living in Heaven,.. no
longer on earth! He said: ‘I want to come and listen’ And after he came he said: ‘Oh Finally! I had asked St. Joseph to let
me know if there was something, in the spiritual life, much greater than the things I knew.... And here it is! St. Joseph
is now letting me discover this great novelty....much greater than anything else
I - ...So he started to make copies
of the books...
AP - Yes, he started with photocopies, which we gave to many people... and we started to distribute
them also to Priests and others. Many souls followed them and were very happy about these spiritual lessons which Jesus had
given to Luisa, and which - through Luisa - we were able to know.
I - Are there other things that - as you remember
- Padre Pio said about the Divine Will? Did you talk with Padre Pio about Luisa?
AP - Yes, I asked him if it was a
good thing to get a recorder in order to tape the writings of Luisa....and I went to Milan to buy a recorder, because here
I couldn’t find a good one... I asked him and he said: ‘Yes!!!’ After this other positive answer...I went to Milan to get
it.
I - ...So he was aware of this...
AP - Yes, yes, yes, very much... Even more, among the young people who
came to Abresch to listen to the lessons on the Divine Will, one of them told us that he went to Confession to Padre Pio,
asking him: ‘Father, is it true that the Blessed Mother is Great not because She has been the Mother of God,.. for her virginity...her
being Immaculate, but because - as Luisa says in the writings - She never did Her human will, but only and exclusively the
Will of God?’ Padre Pio answered: ‘Yes, my son, this is the truth! This is the truth!’ And he continued: ‘Father, allow me
to ask you one more thing. Is it true that Jesus would have remained on the Cross even till the end of the world in order
to save the humanity?... And that His Cross is long as much as the centuries, and large as much as humanity?’ And Padre Pio:
‘Yes, my son, this is the truth! This is the truth!’ And he said: ‘Father, please, can we hug each other?’ And they hugged.
I - Adriana, you have been reading about this spirituality, teaching it to many people, for years. What does this
spirituality of Luisa mean to you?
AP - It means that as we give to the Lord our own will, and we no longer use it,
receiving His Will in exchange, we feel such an interior peace that we are able to bear things that, humanly speaking, we
were not able to suffer. But with His Divine Will, the Lord gives us His Power, His Divine Power...His Creative Power.
I
- He says that these writings will renew the face of the earth...
AP - ...we will live on earth as the Blessed in Heaven....
It is the fulfillment of the Our Father!
I - ...so, in you opinion, this is the future of the Church...
AP
- Yes, in the writings of Luisa it is said that when the Church will possess them, there will be a fire within the Church...
It will be that same fire which the Gospel talks about: ‘They came to bring the fire on earth. Oh, how I wish that it could
be already burning...’ This is the fire of the Divine Will!!!
I - ...and do you think that Luisa herself is important
in this? I mean, is it possible for people to know the Divine Will without knowing Luisa?
AP - The two things go together!
I
- Is Luisa a saint?
AP - ... remaining in bed for all those years, writing all these things...Of course!! We know from
Abresch, who knew Luisa personally, that Jesus Himself called her “My Divine Luisa... I exalted her up to the highest Seraphim”
I - Will she be Canonized, in your opinion?
AP - It might be that the Lord does not need this, since He is
already glorified if we live this spirituality. If we do it, this is His Glory! But it is up to us to live this spirituality...so
that It may open its ways. In this way Luisa is “ipso facto” (by fact) a Saint!
I - Well. Is there anything else you
would like to tell us? What would be your advice to someone who has just heard about the Divine Will for the first time?
AP
- If these souls have sufferings, problems and many other things, they can say the Lord: ‘Lord, I can do nothing, but I know
that You can do everything. Take my will, and come to act in me,...to work, to walk, to breathe, to suffer in me...’ As we
empty ourselves and let Him do, our lives become more simple,… and perfect. It will be easier to proceed along the path of
this life.
I - Are you happy to have known this spirituality?
AP - It has been the greatest grace I have received
on this earth. Even greater than knowing Padre Pio, who has been a great Confessor and Spiritual Director,... But with this
spirituality we become divinized. We find this also in the Gospel, but Jesus teaches this to Luisa with many examples, which
make it easy and attractive. This is the greatest grace for us, which allows us to bear and suffer things that we could not
bear before; but with the suffering of Jesus within us, everything becomes easy!
I - Very well Adriana. May God bless
you always. Thank you.
AP - Thank you.
I - Adriana, do you know whether Padre Pio did ever read any of the
writings of Luisa?
AP - One lady who went to Confession to Padre Pio told him that she had read the Hours of the Passion.
Padre Pio said: ‘I read it four times! Oh, how beautiful! And now, another one is about to come out - about the Blessed Virgin
in the Kingdom. Oh, how beautiful that one too!’ So, Padre Pio was aware of everything that came from Luisa’s hands.
I
- Is it possible that he was reading the Hour of the Passion when he received the stigmata?
AP - It is possible. It is
said that they found a “pool of his tears” on the floor of the Chapel, when he meditated on the Passion.
I - Adriana,
do you know whether any vocations matured from the conferences of Federico Abresch?
P - Yes, many vocations! For example
there was a young lady, who left her boyfriend to become a cloistered nun. When Padre Pio told her that those things were
the truth, she said: ‘So, what am I doing here in the world? I want to be in a Convent and lead a cloistered life.’ So she
went and died in the Convent. Also, other young people, when they heard Abresch talking about this spirituality - which is
living on earth as the Saints and the Blessed live in Heaven - decided to become priests or monks.... Yes, listening to Abresch...
saying that, as we exchange our miserable human will, which is only capable of evil, with the Divine Will, we start living
in a divine way, and our acts become like shining suns...like stars...divine things! So they said: ‘What are doing in the
world? We’d rather spend our lives thinking about these things!!’
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Saint Padre Pio, Luisa Piccarreta
and Rosaria Bucci
(Aunt of Padre Bernardino Bucci)
Luisa Piccarreta and
Blessed Padre Pio of Pietrelcina knew one another for some time without ever having met, for Luisa was always confined to
the bed where she sat, while Padre Pio was enclosed in the friary of the Capuchin Fathers of San Giovanni Rotondo.
One
question naturally arises, how did they come to know one another?
This is difficult to discover, yet one thing is certain,
that the two did know and esteem one another.
My aunt recounts how Luisa would speak with respect and veneration of
the blessed father, describing him as a "true man of God", who still had great suffering to face for the good of souls.
In
about 1930, a well-known figure arrived at Luisa’s house, sent personally by Padre Pio. He was Federico Abresch, a convert
of Padre Pio. Federico spoke at length with Luisa. What they said we are not given to know; but one thing is certain. Federico
Abresch became an apostle of the Divine Will and regularly visited Luisa, with whom he always had long conversations.
When
his little son received his first communion from Padre Pio’s hands, he was also immediately taken to see Luisa who, according
to the story, foretold that he would become a priest.
The small boy of that time is now a priest and works at the
Congregation for Bishops in Rome; he is known by the name of Mgr. Pio Abresch.
When Luisa was condemned by the Holy
Office and her works put on the Index, Padre Pio sent her this message though Federico Abresch: "Dear Luisa, saints serve
for the good of souls, but their suffering knows no bounds". At that time Padre Pio was also in very great difficulties.
Blessed
Padre Pio sent many people to Luisa Piccarreta and would say to the people of Corato who went to San Giovanni Rotondo: "What
have you come here for? You have Luisa, go to her".
Padre Pio recommended to certain of his faithful (including Federico
Abresch) that they open a spirituality center at San Giovanni Rotondo, inspired by the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta.
Miss
Adriana Pallotti (a spiritual daughter of Padre Pio) is currently an heir to Padre Pio’s wishes. She has opened a House of
the Divine Will at San Giovanni Rotondo, keeping alive the torch lit by Padre Pio with Federico Abresch. Miss Adriana Pallotti
says that it was Blessed Padre Pio who encouraged her to spread Luisa Piccarreta’s spirituality in San Giovanni Rotondo and
to help disseminate the Divine Will throughout the world, as Padre Pio desired.
Aunt Rosaria went regularly to San
Giovanni Rotondo, especially after Luisa’s death. Padre Pio knew her very well, and when Luisa was still alive he would ask
Aunt Rosaria when he saw her: "Rosa’, how is Luisa?".
Aunt Rosaria would answer him: "She is well!".
After Luisa’s death,
Aunt Rosaria increased her visits to San Giovanni Rotondo, in order to receive enlightenment and advice from Padre Pio.
Aunt
Rosaria was the one lamp that stayed alight to resolve Luisa Piccarreta’s case regarding the sentence of the Holy Office,
visiting various ecclesiastical figures and, in addition, confronting the Congregation of the Holy Office. Once she managed
– it is not known how – to enter the office of the Cardinal Prefect, Ottaviani, who heard her kindly and promised to take
up the case.
Indeed, a few days later, Aunt Rosaria was summoned by Archbishop Addazi of Trani, who said to her: "Miss
Rosaria, I do not know whether to reprimand you or to admire you for your courage. You have faced the guard dog of the Church,
the great defender of the faith, without being bitten".
The conclusion was that permission was obtained to move Luisa’s
body from the cemetery to the Church of Santa Maria Greca.
Luisa said to my aunt: "You will be my witness" and one
day Padre Pio told her point-blank in his Benevento dialect: "Rosa’, va nanz, va nanz ca Luisa iè gran e u munn sarà chin
di Luisa" (Rosaria, go ahead, go ahead for Luisa is great and the world will be full of Luisa). My aunt often recounted this
episode, but things were not going well: everything indicated that Luisa would soon be forgotten.
After the venerated
Padre Pio’s death, my aunt said one day: "Padre Pio prophesied that Luisa would be known throughout the world". And she repeated
the phrase Padre Pio had said in his dialect.
I answered that there would be no easy solution to the case of Luisa
Piccarreta Indeed nothing further was said of it in Corato either, and Padre Pio’s words could have been considered merely
a comforting remark. But Aunt Rosaria retorted: "No! During my confession Padre Pio told me that Luisa is not a human factor,
she is a work of God and he himself will make her emerge. The world will be astounded at her greatness; not many years will
pass before this happens. The new millennium will see Luisa’s light".
I was silent at this assertion and my aunt asked
me: "But do you believe in Luisa?".
I answered her that I did.
Then she said to me: "Come to my house in a
few days’ time, because I have something very important to tell you".
It was during the 70s and Padre Pio had been
dead for a several years.
Aunt Rosaria’s secret
In 1975, on 2 February to be exact – I remember it was a
very chilly day – my aunt summoned me to her house. She was very old and was beginning to have problems with her sight, due
to diabetes. My nephew and niece, Vincenzo and Sara, went to her house to keep her company.
That day, I found her sitting
at the window as she recited the Rosary.
I sat down next to her, and having greeted her, asked her what it was she
wanted to tell me that was so important.
She looked at me and said: "What I am going to tell you now is of the utmost importance.
Try to use it well and I urge you to meditate on the miracles of the Lord who gave us Luisa, a precious creature in God’s
eyes and an instrument of his mercy. You would find it hard to discover such a precious, great soul. Luisa goes beyond herself,
and you can only contemplate her fully in God’s mystery. Mary was the One who brought redemption into the world with her Fiat,
which is why the Lord enriched her in such a wonderful way that she became a creature who was raised to the dignity of Mother
of God. Mary is the Mother of God, and no other creature will ever equal her in greatness and power; after God it is she alone
who expresses the Lord’s marvels to the world. After Our Lady comes Luisa, who brings the world the third Fiat, the Fiat of
Sanctification".
She said this quietly, marking her words well, convinced of what she was asserting. I was overwhelmed
by these assertions.
"That is why Luisa was always nailed to her bed and every day offered to the Divine Majesty as
a victim of expiation to God’s Most Holy Will", she continued. "God was pleased with this creature and so jealously guarded
her that he removed her from human beings, entrusting her only to his Church, so that she could preserve her and humanly forge
her with infinite penances and misunderstandings. My Luisa knew no human consolations but only divine ones; her body was continually
suspended between heaven and earth, and her earthly life was a continuous contradiction in comparison with normal human lives.
Even in her body, she had to belong entirely to God".
She then confided to me: "One day the Lord said to Luisa: ‘all
those who have seen and known you will be saved’".
"Dear Peppino, this is an extraordinary gift of God and it has remained
shrouded in silence because Luisa did not want knowledge of it broadcast, or she would have become the object of curiosity
or veneration which, she said, she did not deserve. Except that one day her confessor told me that I could speak of it and
spread it with discretion. Now I have told you, in the hope that you may be able to make good use of it".
That day
I was left enchanted by the language used by Aunt Rosaria, who expressed theological concepts perfectly, and even in a poetic
vein.
By accident, the notes I had made were lost and I have limited myself to writing what I remember.
Her
death, almost unexpected, gave me no time to ask her further questions, which would have provided a clear explanation of what
she had told me.
Aunt Rosaria died in 1978.
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