While it might sound glamorous, it can be a burden to be a channel of God's miracles in the world.
Such was the case with St. Padre Pio, who was widely known throughout Italy during his life and attracted a large number of visitors.
Among these visitors were "Pious Ladies," as the friars called them -- religious women who weren't afraid to use physical violence to get what they wanted.
Attack of the Pious Ladies
Author C. Bernard Ruffin narrates several of these encounters in his book, Padre Pio: The True Story.
Ruffin explains how before dawn, many pilgrims would arrive at the church, including "the infamous 'Pious Ladies,' who often appeared a few minutes before the church opened, taking what one writer likened to a 'flank position' near the head of 'the enemy column.'”
As soon as the doors of the church opened, these women "would 'charge the enemy ranks' and — armed with hat pins, pocketbooks, and fingernails — jab, kick, and even bite their way to the front, often literally trampling their victims."
Padre Pio and the friars were not happy about these women and tried to exhort them to recognize that they were in the presence of God.
Unfortunately these women didn't listen and daily, "forced their way into the seats in the front of the church, and the rest of the throng had to pack in behind them."
They didn't stop there.
When Padre Pio concluded Mass and went to the sacristy, the throng of "Pious Ladies" followed him aggressively:
[T]he “Pious Ladies” surged toward him. Some of them, standing on the pews, held out babies or religious objects to be blessed. Others grabbed at his robe or the cord around his waist, while others incessantly screamed: "Bless me!" "Help me!" "Touch me!" "Grant me a favor!" Father Dominic wrote his family, "The crowd would steal his handkerchief, cut pieces from his habit and cut off his cord."
Padre Pio often rebuked these "Pious Ladies," yelling at them one day, "This is paganism! This is fanaticism!"
He frequently said, "'Oh, get away! Get away! (Ah, via! Via!)'"' and took his cord and twirled it at them menacingly."
These stories remind us that we should fight against any temptation to worship human figures, even if they are holy and are channel's of God's miracles. They are not God and we need to redirect our worship to Jesus, and not his instruments.
