Fr. Alessio Parente, O.F.M. Cap. — born Antonio, son of Luigi and Teresa Pisano — was born in 1933 in Montefusco, in the province of Avellino, and died on January 6, 2000, at the age of 67.
From 1958 to 1961 he served as sacristan, and from 1965 to 1968 he was assistant for the personal care of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. He was a key witness in the beatification process of the Capuchin friar of Gargano.
He became a well-known English-language speaker on the life of Padre Pio and wrote two best-selling books: one on Padre Pio and the Angels, and one on the Souls in Purgatory.
A Personal Recollection
In his book Padre Pio and the Souls in Purgatory, Fr. Parente writes:
“Allow me a personal recollection. I don't know how many people can recount personal experiences relating to the souls in purgatory: we often hear strange tales, and everyone attributes different importance and values to them. I too had one and I relate it as I experienced it then and I experience it now when I recall it in my mind. I recognize that since then my faith in the efficacy of prayers and good works for the liberation of the souls in purgatory has always been strong in my religious life and that is why I never forget them in my daily prayers.”
The Night at San Marco la Catola
In 1949, Fr. Parente was sixteen years old, a Capuchin seminarian in the convent of San Marco la Catola, in Foggia. There were twenty-four seminarians with him. Their dormitory was on the ground floor, and their director, Fr. Atanasio da Teano, also slept there.
That winter was very harsh. Fr. Parente, a boy full of energy and absent-minded, had paid little attention to precautions against seasonal ailments. One evening, after playing snowballs all day, he found himself with a bad case of bronchitis and a terrible cough.
That night, his constant coughing kept his director and classmates from sleeping. The director came to his bed, muttering, “We can't go on like this all night.” He gave him some syrup and led him to a cell upstairs in the convent. He set up a small bed, had him sit down, and left. Fr. Parente was left there alone, rosary beads in his hands, praying and coughing.
At a certain point, he felt the covers slowly slide down to his feet.
“With a quick, instinctive movement,” he recalls, “I grabbed them and pulled them back up, taking care to cover my chest.”
A few minutes passed, and he felt the covers slide down to his feet again.
“How strange,” he said to himself. “Why do these covers come off on their own?”
He put them back in place, holding them tight to his body. But after a few minutes, he felt them slipping away again. He reached out for the light switch. At that moment, he felt soft hands pulling his hand away from the switch. This lasted a few seconds. Immediately afterward, he began to feel a sense of dread.
He was frightened. He got up and turned on the light. The window and door were closed. He searched under the bed, but in vain.
It was strange for him to find himself in bed, but this time, instead of reciting the Hail Marys for each bead of the rosary, he recited the prayer for the souls in purgatory:
“Grant eternal rest to them, O Lord...”
“I don't remember how long I spent praying for the souls in purgatory,” Fr. Parente observes, “but I remember with certainty that the next morning I was awakened by the director late.”
He told the director what had happened to him during the night. To avoid frightening him further, the director reassured him, telling him not to think about it anymore and to forget it, because the imagination sometimes plays nasty tricks. Reassured by these words, he really didn't think about it anymore.
Two Years Later: The Explanation
Two years later, Fr. Parente was attending high school at the convent of Pietrelcina. One day, while Fr. Atanasio was giving them a lesson on devotion to the souls in purgatory, he turned to him and said:
“Do you remember that night at San Marco la Catola, when you received a visit from a stranger? You told me that someone pulled down the covers and wouldn't let you turn on the light? Well, at the same time that night, I came up to check on your cough. As soon as I entered the corridor, I saw a priest lying on the floor in front of the door! I was scared too, and not imagining any connection with you, I ran downstairs to the dormitory to feel safer in the company of the seminarians.”
The next day, Fr. Parente checked the convent chronicles and discovered that a few years earlier a priest had died in that room. It was a diocesan priest, sent there by his bishop for a three-month retreat, for behavior unbecoming of his priestly state.
So he had confirmation that his adventure that night had to do with a soul in purgatory. That poor soul was forgotten by his relatives and by the friars. The cell had remained empty and never inhabited since that priest's death.
A Lifelong Devotion
“Since then, the souls in purgatory, I repeat, have been constantly present in my prayers and in my Masses. I am comforted by the thought that that night perhaps I contributed to easing the pain of that soul and perhaps to freeing it from purgatory. Perhaps God needed prayers for that soul, and even the prayers of someone who happened to be in a place where the other had died were good and useful. And to think that I often say of myself that I am good for nothing. I say this to myself and to all those who consider themselves useless on this earth; one can always be useful to the souls in purgatory and to heaven.”
One can always be useful to the souls in purgatory — and to heaven.
- Alessio Parente, Padre Pio and the Souls in Purgatory — primary source for Fr. Parente's personal recollection of the night at San Marco la Catola in 1949, his account of the covers being pulled down, the intervention of Fr. Atanasio da Teano, and his later discovery in the convent chronicles.
- Alessio Parente, Send Me Your Guardian Angel — Fr. Parente's best-selling companion work on Padre Pio and the Angels, cited as his most notable book.
- “Padre Pio and Father Alessio Parente,” Pamphlets to Inspire — biographical profile confirming that Fr. Alessio was born in Montefusco in the province of Avellino, entered religious life at twelve, was sent to San Giovanni Rotondo, served Padre Pio, and devoted his life after Padre Pio's death to promoting devotion to him through travel, retreats and lectures in the English-speaking world.
- Fr. Alessio Parente, O.F.M. Cap., as cited in secondary literature on Padre Pio — described as having “lived and worked alongside Padre Pio for many years in Our Lady of Grace Friary at San Giovanni Rotondo” and as author of numerous books about his confrere.
