Matteo Colella

8/14/2019 Matteo Colella

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The Miracle Accepted by the Vatican for Padre Pio's Canonization!

The personal testimony of the mother of Matteo Colella, the little boy declared by the Church to have been miraculously cured through theintervention of Padre Pio.

In February 2002, Voce di Padre Pio, the official magazine for the cause of Padre Pio, (published by Padre Pio's Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo),

featured this wonderful love story in a ten-page article.

The testimony of Mrs. Sanita Maria Lucia Ippolito on

THE MIRACLE

The anxieties, anguish, and faith of the mother of little Matteo Colella [age 7]

[Translated from Voce di Padre Pio, February 2002, pp. 28 37, see www.frankrega.com for translation disclaimer]

Jesus, you have said "One does not light a lamp in order to hide it, but to put it on high, in order to light everything in the house". For this reason I

have decided to recount the marvelous gift that you have willed to bestow on our family, in that interminable, incredible month-long period between

January 20 and February 26, 2000.

You have given me the great gift of a miracle, but prior to that, the very great gift of faith. You have given back to me Matteo in your infinite kindness.

"Te Deum laudamus".

Dear Padre Pio, I wish to address myself to you in a way similar to what I have read in your Letters. "Many, many graces were conceded by Jesus in

that tempest", said Raffaelina Cerase, and I echo what she said, in that moment so complex in my life.

Dear Padre, sweet and lovable protector, under whose guardianship I have always placed myself and my family certain that you will never abandon

one who turns to you as a humble and hopeful child you have seen my sorrows and have carried to God my pitiable prayer. Thank you for your

protection.

I am certain quite apart from the judgement of men that the return to life of Matteo is the work of God, of his mercy, and of your intercession, of


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your nearness to him in prayer.

The dreams and the first sign

About a year and a half ago I had a very pleasant dream. I found myself in the infirmary of the convent about to go to confession when suddenly I

heard many people exclaiming, "Padre Pio is arriving, Padre Pio is arriving!" Then I experienced a very deep, unaccounted for grief, and I knelt down

shedding a flood of tears. In an instant the Padre came close to me and he gently said to me: "Why are you crying?" And I replied "I dont know why!"

Then Padre Pio, with his right hand, of which I still recall the warmth of his woolen glove, caressed my cheek while pronouncing these words: "What

are you afraid of? I am with you, I will always be near you!"

Six or seven months later I experienced another dream. I was in an unknown, distressful cemetery. While I was trembling with fear, the Padre came on

the scene and asked me "What are you doing here?" and I replied only with a shrug of my shoulders while looking around me terrified.

Padre Pio smiled at me and said in dialect: "Walk on, move, get out of here, this is not for you! Be strong, you in front and I behind you, we will go

away from here!"

I awoke frightened and thinking that something very perilous must be about to happen.

Then, some days before the end of August, having entered my bedroom with tears in my eyes, after a little discussion I had with my husband (which

had made us both angry and led me to ask the Padre to help me), a good two times I smelled an unusual perfume that was sweet and delightful, a

mixture of roses and violets. I looked around surprised and realized that there was nothing that could give forth that odor. I even went out on the

balcony, thinking that the perfume could have come from there, but it wasnt so.

I quickly called my husband and when he came into the room I asked him if he detected an unusual odor. Antonio replied: "Yes, of flowers, and so?"

After that he calmly walked away. Meanwhile the smell went away and only then I thought of Padre Pio, and very moved I realized that this could

have been a sign, and that he surely wanted to tell me that he was near to me. Never would I have believed that waiting for us was everything that, with

the illness of Matteo, we would have to face.

January 20, 2000


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"How did you see yourself?" I ask him curiously.

"I saw myself while asleep, from a distance, all alone in that bed", Teo told me.

"Oh!" I replied. "My poor love. All alone. And there were no doctors, nurses, mamma or papa?"

"No," adds Teo.

The he closes his eyes again. Evidently he is concentrating on his memories. He reopens them suddenly and adds: "No, mamma, I was not alone!"

"And who was with you?" I ask him.

"There was an old man, old with a white beard," he replies.

At that moment I do not understand and ask, perplexed: "And how was this man dressed?"

And Matteo: "He had on a long, maroon garment".

"And what was he doing?" I ask.

"He gave me his right hand and said to me Matteo, dont worry, you will get better soon."

At these words my heart began to beat like crazy. I understood that Matteo must have seen someone exceptional and I could imagine who it was, but I

did not dare to believe it. So I took the little image of Padre Pio that Matteo had been grasping in his hand (without having looked at it), and put it in

front of him, not saying anything. He looked attentively at it for a little while, with his eyes all bright and with an unexpected joy, then he said to me

with his lips "It is him, mamma, it is him, it is Padre Pio. It was Padre Pio who was with me!"

My instinctive response, at his clear and certain affirmation, was to kneel down beside the bed and to thank the Lord for not only for the gift of being

able to re-embrace my baby, but also for the marvelous and unexpected gift of this sign. I had felt, through all of the incredible events that followed

one after another, that Padre Pio was close to me, to all of us, but I never could have imagined having such certainty from that spontaneous and

innocent story of Matteos.

And that was not all.

A second later Matteo added that on the other side of his bed he saw large angels.


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"How many?" I asked him.

"Three," he replied.

And I: "How do you know that they were angels?"

"From the wings! One was white with yellow wings and two red ones had white wings".

"And what did they say to you?" I asked him.

"Nothing, they were there in silence!" he replied to me.

And I: "What were their faces like?"

"They did not have faces because they were too full of light," added Matteo.

A moment later Dr. Mione entered, and found Matteo radiant and me perplexed. He asked why, and I told him what happened. The doctor listened in

silence and after a while, lowering his eyes, said: "You know, Matteo, that even we believe that he came!"

The next day I related to each nurse that came on duty, in particular I remember Angela, what Matteo had told me. Fascinated and happy, theyconfirmed that certainly something incredible had occurred, especially seeing the terrible and violent beginning of the malady, and then the inexorable

worsening of the situation the next morning, Friday the 21st.

Thus, speaking with them, I come to learn the terrible particulars that up till then I was ignorant of. This makes me hold with great conviction that God

intervened and that the doctors - although very courageous, conscientious and profoundly compassionate, the primary physician in particular so silent

and hardworking, sensitive and untiring - were all instruments in the hands of God.

Something that particularly strikes me and makes me tremble is a phrase by Angela. Recalling that sad morning, she tells me she had thought with

much sorrow, while Matteo was getting worse, that she would soon have to wash this baby who was already near its end, to take him down below.

Below, I realize, even if she does not say it explicitly, means the mortuary. I experience a chill that shakes me throughout, and that scene, only spoken

of and imagined, takes away my breath. I turn towards Matteo, his body torn but alive, lower my tearful eyes, and say within myself: "Jesus and Mary,

thank you, thank you, thank you!"

A little later Dr. Del Gaudio enters Matteos room, saying that he had heard about Matteos dream. He said he was with Dr. Salvatore and others(whom I dont know), working at the bedside of Matteo at the time that the baby seemed done for. I ask him to explain further, and he tells me that the


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Then I returned to Matteo and explained to him that I described to Fr. Gerardo his dream (which I believe however to have been a true occurrence)

with the Padre. And Matteo related to me by now he was feeling better and very alert other particulars.

"You know mamma" - he said to me "I was sleeping and was looking at myself from behind the bed, where the pumps were, then at a certain spot I

saw from the door to the room, such a show of strong light coming in. The light awoke me and then I saw first Padre Pio and then the angels on theother side.

"And what did you think of this light?" I ask him.

"I thought that perhaps it was Jesus!"

The words are strong, but I make believe it is nothing. After a few seconds, Matteo adds: "I saw myself and I was well!"

"Then did you feel anything?" I asked.

"No, nothing, I was well because I did not feel anything. Instead when you awoke me I was sick and I was alone, because Padre Pio and the angels

were no longer there and I looked for them and suffered".

I remain in silence for some minutes thinking, then it occurs to me to ask: "Excuse me Matteo, you say you were with Padre Pio. How can you be

sure?"

"Because he is the same person there in that photo" he says, indicating the photo hanging in his hospital room. "And then in our house we have him

in all the rooms!"

"You are right, Teo, you know him well, perhaps you can explain to me why when you were with him you did not ask him anything?"

And Matteo, with a long-drawn sigh, tells me: "I could not speak, mamma. You forgot that I had the tube? Perhaps another time I spoke with PadrePio!"

"And when?" I ask him.

"Some nights after I awoke I dreamed I made a trip with Padre Pio, I already told you that I had cured a baby that was rigid, do you remember mamma?

I also told uncle Giovanni. I along with Padre Pio that night made a sort of flight. He gave me his hand and we went to a famous city, what is it called,

mamma?"


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"I dont know Matteo: Naples, Foggia!"

"No mamma, that city with the houses that I know. We went together!" He pauses a second and then satisfied he says: "Rome, it was Rome!"

"And what did you go to do in Rome?" I ask him curiously.

"We went to a hospital where there was a very sick child 11 years old, that I seemed to know, and there Padre Pio said to me: Matteo, do you want to

cure him?" And I asked him: "How is it done?" He: "With will power."

"Then the child woke up, and from then on I no longer saw Padre Pio!"

At the words of Teo I remained silent and I remembered what he had told separately to me and to my brother Giovanni, in intensive care a few days

after he awoke.

He had told both of us, at different times, of having a dream during which he had cured a child that was rigid. However we had let the matter drop.

And I certainly would not have thought that, after so many days, he would have remembered and repeated the dream in such a detailed manner,

making us also participants in his hypothetical voyage with Padre Pio.

I can not succeed in giving a meaning to his words, but one thing is certain: Matteo relates his dreams with conviction and certainty.

Only the Lord knows the meaning of all that has happened to our family. My certainty is that he was close to us and has blessed us, thanks also to the

intercession and the loving prayer of Padre Pio, who of his mission on earth said: "As a priest mine is a mission of propitiation: to propitiate God in

confrontations with the human family".

And so it was, dear Padre Pio. You have embraced us in the trial and have recommended us to God.

See Disclaimer regarding Italian translations on my main page.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

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This page was last updated on 04/25/2002.

Copyright 2002 Frank M. Rega

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