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The house of Mary Pyle
THE HOUSE OF MARY PYLE
Pilgrims and tourists can visit the house of “Mary Pyle” where the American benefactor lived and hosted persons in need of a bed or a hot meal. Even Padre Pio's parents were her guests and the same Capuchin was her guest on two occasions. It can be visited from Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 12:00 and from 16:00 to 18:00 .
On Saturdays and Sundays only by appointment and calling on this number...
Adelia Pyle was born on 17 April 1888, in Morristown, New Jersey, but she lived in New York. She grew up in a Protestant family. Since childhood she received an excellent cultural education; she had a vivid intelligence, so she studied the native language and in addition she learned other foreign languages, music, singing and pedagogy. She became a friend and then a precious collaborator of the Italian educator Maria Montessori. Traveling around Europe, she got to know the Catholic religion better and found in it answers that she had always sought. She was baptized in 1918 in Barcelona and assumed the baptismal name of Maria. In 1923, she came to Rome with Maria Montessori and here she first heard about the stigmatized Capuchin of Gargano. She was on holiday in Capri with Maria Montessori and on October 1923, she left with a friend for San Giovanni Rotondo. On 4 October, in the Church of Our Lady of Grace, she met Padre Pio and with her great pleasure she finally found her spiritual director, when she was thirty-five years. At Padre Pio’s school, Mary proceeded quickly towards the way of Christian perfection and to comply fully with the life of Franciscans, she renounced everything appointing friars as heirs of her material goods. Her house soon became “the house of charity”, because it is always open to all, at any time of day, and the poor were always the most awaited guests at the table. The house of Mary Pyle is located a few dozen meters from the convent of the Capuchin friars. The mother of Saint Pio wanted to spend Christmas with her son, so she accepted the invitation of the “American lady” to spend the Christmas holidays near her son. Unfortunately, she became ill and died on 3 January 1929. Because of the grief for the death of his mother, Padre Pio was very ill, so his superiors ordered him to remain in the house until he was healed. On 7 October 1946 Saint Pio spent the entire day at the bedside of his elderly father who was sick. He remained close to his father until he died in his arms in the same bed in which his mother had died. Also the night of 8 October, Saint Pio slept in that house. After his death, the house became property of Minor Capuchin Friars of the Religious Province of Foggia. It was at first intended as “Provincial Infirmary”(1971-1975), and from 1978 to 1984 it hosted several Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters until the completion of their Monastery on Mount Castellano. Today it is the seat of the “Centre for Youth Vocation” of Padre Pio’s confreres.
