Today, Lidia Arena is a talented 20-year-old dancer, but when she was two years old, she was at great risk of dying.
This was recounted by her parents, Maurizio and Francesca Arena, originally from Giarre (Sicily), during a Sicilian meeting of the Padre Pio Prayer Groups which took place in the cathedral of the city of Catania.
“Saint Pio,” explained Mr. and Mrs. Arena, “saved our daughter Lidia. When she was two years old, having come down with hemorrhagic measles, with a very high fever, she was admitted to the San Giovanni di Dio e Sant’Isidoro hospital in Giarre. The head physician told us that the situation was desperate and that there was little we could do. We were devastated. I get goosebumps just talking about it.”
The glove and healing
Lidia’s parents, reports the Catania edition of Giornale di Sicilia, turned in desperation to a devotee of Padre Pio. “A very dear friend of ours introduced us to Mrs. Nerina Melita Rapisarda who had a relic of Padre Pio, a glove that had covered his stigmata,” the shared. “A glove that she had received with the specific mission of helping the sick, the most desperate cases. We relied on our faith and rubbed the glove over the girl’s back. Suddenly and inexplicably for the doctors, something happened during the night and the child was healed. She was cured of the illness she had.”
Lidia’s healing through the intercession of Padre Pio was instantaneous and lasting.
The parents of the little girl who was healed through the intercession of Padre Pio concluded:
“Afterwards, when she saw an image of Padre Pio the little girl told us about a dream she had. She told us, ‘I recognize him. It was he who embraced me and who helped me get well.’ My daughter is now a beautiful, perfectly healthy girl,” they told Giornale di Sicilia.
