PADRE PIO'S JOKE ABOUT THE DRUNK AND THE DEVIL

 

Padre Pio and the famed exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth were very close friends. Their friendship was not blighted by jealousy or envy. It was an unfortunately negative trait in certain other priests that they resented Padre Pio's extraordinary popularity and that he was an international celebrity and made trouble for him. The opposite was true in the case of Father Amorth who wrote a book, Padre Pio, Stories and Memories of My Mentor and Friend, and he saw fit to include a joke that Pio loved to tell which is in the realm of black humor:

"In a friary there was a simple brother who was so good, but he had a huge fault: he drank, and when he really got a skinful, he had no idea how much foolishness he was spouting. The father guardian had chewed him out many times in private and in public, had made him kneel in the refectory and in the middle of the choir, in front of everyone. The brother promised, beat his breast, made big resolutions, but then...One day he found himself alone in front of the tavern. He looked this way and that: nobody around at all. He went in, sat down on a barrel and was blissfully knocking back a bottle of wine when he felt two big paws come down on his shoulders. The friar began to tremble. He could barely bring himself to turn around, and when he did, he was horrified. It was the devil! The poor guy started trembling even more. He had just enough strength to say in a croaking whisper, "What a relief! I was afraid it was my father guardian!""

You may get your copy of Father Amorth's Padre Pio, Stories and Memories of My Mentor and Friend from the Spirit Daily bookstore.