Padre Pio The Irish Connection' written by Wicklow-based author Bray miracle' features in new Padre Pio book
Jane Smyth from Bray recounts in the just released book how she began her devotion to Padre Pio back in the 1960s when he was still alive. In 1961 she had to stay in Holles Street Hospital for six months while waiting for the birth of her baby.
I had heart trouble because I had rheumatic fever when I was a child. It affected all the valves. I was in bed all the time and they wouldn't let me out of the bed because of my heart. A friend of mine brought me in things of Padre Pio and I prayed to him all the time. I got very devoted to him,' says Jane.
She eventually had a healthy baby boy but then had to return to hospital in 1963 when she was admitted to Baggot Street for a heart operation. A plastic valve was put in her heart and the shocked 24 year old was warned that her health was extremely bad and that she would never have any more children.
I prayed to Padre Pio all the time and was greatly devoted to him,' adds Jane. Then I was in Holles Street again after that for another baby. I was bad in there again. This lady sent in the Padre Pio glove to me. I blessed myself with the glove and another of my children was born.'
She had to go back into the Mater Hospital after her third child was born in the late 1970s.
She recalls, they wanted to get at the valve. When they opened me up they discovered that I didn't have the plastic valve at all. It was gone. The heart was grand. They said I had brand new valves and skin in there. It had healed itself. The doctors and nurses couldn't understand it. The head surgeon came to me and said he couldn't believe it. Something happened,' he said, you had a wonderful miracle.' They don't know to this day where the plastic valve went.'
Jane went on to have three more children, making it six in all. She remains grateful to Padre Pio to this day.
