Mary
Pyle was a saintly lady who spent much of her
life near Padre Pio and is regarded and one his spiritual children.
"Mary
Pyle" was born Adelia Pyle on the 17th April 1888 in
Morristown, New Jersey. The daughter of James Tolman Pyle and
Adeline McAlpin. Her family was wealthy and were
faithful Presbyterians so Adelia grew up in a religious
atmosphere. She attended mainly private schools and learned
to speak fluent Spanish, Italian, French and German. She also
studied music, singing and dance, all of which she enjoyed.
Adelia enjoyed an active social and, on one occasion after
a severe fall horse riding, she was heard to say: "This
is in reparation for all the dancing I've done."
During her adolescent years Mary often travelled to Europe
and, on one of these occasions, she met Maria Montessori,
the educationalist who developed the Montessori method of teaching
. This resulted
in Maria Montessori asking Mary if she would like to travel
with her and act as her interpreter. During
her travels, she became interested in the Catholic
faith and was Baptized into the
Catholic church by Jesuits while in Spain in 1913, aged 25.
Her mother, on hearing the news, was horrified and in Mary's
own words: "When
she was making her will, she excluded me as if I were not
her daughter."
Adelia said she first heard of Padre Pio and his stigmata in
1921 but it was 1923 before she decided to go and see him for
herself. We do not know much about that first meeting except
what Mary herself said later: "We
looked at one another only. Then, I fell on my knees and
said: 'Padre'. He put his wounded hands on my head and said
to me: 'My daughter, do not travel anymore. Stay here.'"
She left San Giovanni Rotondo but returned at a later date
and entered the Franciscan Third Order. In a simple ceremony
she took the new name of Mary (Maria) and received the brown
habit of the Third Order from the hands of Padre Pio himself.
Mary then built herself a villa close to the Friary; furnished
it in a franciscan manner and settled down under the spiritual
direction of Padre Pio.
Mary's mother came to terms with Mary's conversion to Catholicism
and visited her in San Giovanni Rotondo, as did
her brothers.
Mary performed acts of charity and had built in Pietrelcina
both the convent, the seminary and the Church of the Sacra
Famiglia (The Holy Family). Thus she fulfilled the wishes of
the inhabitants of Pietrelcina and of Padre Pio who had told
her to build it: “….soon, and dedicate it
to the Sacra Famiglia". The Convent rose up in the place
where a young Padre Pio had prophesised, years before, that
a convent would be built, for the sons of Francis.
During the building work Mary Pyle stayed at Pietrelcina in
the same house in Via Santa Maria degli Angeli where Padre
Pio had lived from 1910 to 1916.
Mary began to receive English-speaking visitors to
her home and thus began a lively correspondence between the
spiritual children of Padre Pio. In many of her
letters, she spoke of the importance Guardian Angels.
Mary always asked those who wrote to her to pray to their Guardian
Angel and this may well have been encouraged by Padre
Pio himself. She was one of the few women with whom he would
stop and chat to for a while.
Not only was
she close to her beloved Padre Pio, but she also took care
of his parents, in her villa, as they got older.
In December 1929, Mary took Mamma Peppa and “zì” Grazio
to San Giovanni Rotondo so that the two old peasants could
be closer to their son and
cared for them, in her home, until they died.
The memory of Mary remains in the hearts of those who saw her
charity and of those pilgrims and faithful who came to the
holy places connected with the "Friar of Pietrelcina".
More information on Mary Pyle can be found
in Dorothy M. Gaudiose's book, "Mary's House". |