Brother Daniele Natale was a Capuchin who devoted himself to helping the wounded and needy during World War II. He is said to have had numerous charisms, including bilocation, the power to cast out demons, and the gift of reading people's minds and hearts.
His experience of death and purgatory and his return to life became the foundation of his unique spiritual mission. It was he who received the extraordinary grace of conveying Padre Pio’s blessing to Servant of God Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo just before his departure to the Father's house.
“Don't be afraid”
Brother Daniele was one of the closest spiritual sons of St. Padre Pio. He met Padre Pio for the first time at the age of five during a visit to San Giovanni Rotondo. A few years later, the Italian stigmatist became his spiritual director.
“They were like twins, both in soul and body,” wrote Matteo Bevilacqua, author of a book on the mystical life of the Saint of Pietrelcina's confrere.
In 1952, Brother Daniele was diagnosed with spleen cancer. The first thing the friar did was to pass this news on to his close friend in San Giovanni Rotondo. The stigmatist referred Brother Daniel specifically to the Regina Elena Clinic, and to an atheist doctor, Prof. Riccardo Morreti, in Rome.
“Don't be afraid, I will be with you all the time,” the holy mystic reassured him.
At first, the doctor refused to perform an operation because the disease was already at an advanced stage. However, at the Capuchin's insistence, the doctor agreed to perform it. Brother Daniele fell into a coma after the operation and died three days later.
Three hours of purgatory
Relatives gathered around his body to pray. After three hours, the friar removed the sheet covering his body, stood up, and began to speak.
He said that after death, he stood before God. He saw him as a loving Father, not a judge who was only waiting to hold him accountable for all the sins he’d committed on earth. Brother Natale realized that the Creator cared for him every day, even though he didn’t always respond to that love.
The Capuchin was then sentenced to three hours of Purgatory. The pain was terrible and intense, “especially in the senses of the body, which most offended God.” The most painful thing was the feeling of separation from the Creator.
"The pain was unbearable. I didn't know where it came from, but I felt it intensely. The senses that most offended God, namely the eyes and the tongue, suffered the most, and it was indescriptable, unbelievable.” And all this, he added, was only for "breaking my vows of poverty, for those few lire that, instead of giving to my superiors, I used for what I thought were good causes, but according to my own judgment."
“What’s most painful in purgatory isn’t the fire, although it’s intense, but the feeling of being separated from God and the awareness that one had all the means of salvation at one's disposal and didn’t use them,” Natale recalled.
The Capuchin also saw the Blessed Virgin Mary. Brother Daniele asked the Mother of God to intercede for him with God the Father and give him the opportunity to return to earth. Suddenly, Padre Pio appeared next to Mary and asked Our Lady to ease his friend's pain. Natale was pardoned. This experience led Brother Daniele to carry out a unique mission of converting hearts after his return to earth.
The blessing of Father Dolindo
Brother Daniele also received Padre Pio’s blessing to convey to Father Dolindo Ruotolo, who was on his deathbed. Joanna Bątkiewicz-Brożek recalls this extraordinary meeting with the priest from Naples in her book Moja misja trwa. O. Dolindo Ruotolo (“My mission continues. Father Dolindo Ruotolo”):
Brother Daniele is a little nervous as he crosses the threshold of the apartment where his Neapolitan friends live. This isn’t his first visit to this city. However, this time something is driving him. He is afraid he won’t make it before Father Dolindo dies. So he leaves his bag, refuses to eat dinner, and immediately asks to be taken to number 58 on Salvator Rosa Street. They cover the distance of about five hundred meters down a winding street at a brisk pace in a few minutes. On the way, Brother Daniele feels a growing anxiety. He had a keen desire to fulfill his mission as quickly as possible. He was almost afraid that he would not succeed.
Brother Daniele headed for the room on the fourth floor. There he met women praying the Rosary. Then he passed through the hallway and entered a completely empty room with no furniture. Father Dolindo was lying on a folding camp bed. The Capuchin, seeing the suffering body of the Neapolitan priest, blessed him and prayed over him. He thus was able to fufill his mission before Father Dolindo’s death.
A mystical encounter with Mary
Brother Daniele was also known for his love of Mary. However, he wasn’t always able to concentrate on reciting the Rosary.
I loved the Mother of God and the Rosary fervently, yet in moments of physical or spiritual breakdown, I couldn’t bring myself to pray a single decade. The thought of the dozens of decades of the Rosary haunted me: “Fifty Hail Marys... Oh, will I be able to say them?!” Sometimes I’d start praying again, but I’d be overcome by a strange anxiety and intrusive thoughts: “When will I ever get to the end?” That is why sometimes I didn’t even pick up the rosary, he recalled.
A mystical encounter with Mary, who appeared to him in a dream, changed his attitude toward this prayer. The Mother of God said to him:
“Say the Rosary, son.” I replied, sobbing, “How can I do that? I can't!” Then she said, “I will help you. We’ll pray it together. Ask me in prayer for whatever you want, and I will grant your request.”
