Mysterious Red Chairs

May 2, 1999

At the beatification of Padre Pio, approximately  400,000 people filled the square and surrounding streets. Those who had tickets in the square were able to sit in their pre-assigned areas.  All the chairs in the whole square were of the same type and colour: dark grey molded plastic.

After the ceremony,  we had to wait for the crowds to disperse, as it was virtually impossible to leave with the masses of people present. While we were waiting, the clean-up crew arrived and began stacking the chairs. There's nothing unusual about that. Many members of our group spent the time taking pictures of St. Peter's Square and of the crowds. When we returned home, one of the pilgrims, Angie S., who was healed of cancer (see Story), called to say that one of her pictures looked most strange.The picture below, which she took while we were waiting to leave St. Peter's Square,  is most mysterious.

   As you can see, there are red chairs in the photograph. There were NO RED CHAIRS at St. Peter's Square that day, as all of us can attest. Other photographs and videos of that event all document the fact that there were no red chairs. Angie's negative has been analyzed by photographic specialists and their conclusion is that the negative and picture have not been doctored in any way.

We wish to also present another photograph, taken at about the same time as Angie's, which clearly shows that all the chairs were of one color - dark blue-grey. How did this photograph come into being? Where did the red chairs come from?  The red color on  these chairs is, as several individuals have remarked,  a fresh blood red color. We thank the Lord and Padre Pio for this mysterious gift. What a wonderful sign of intervention from the holy Padre! It was his day and the scene of his beatification and we were there in pilgrimage to honour him and to express our love and devotion to him. Thank you, Padre Pio.

We leave it up to you to pray and discern for yourself about these "red chairs". They were definitely not there at the beatification. The film was not defective. The processing was not flawed. There is no explanation. This cannot be done by human hands. Or was it done by heavenly hands? You must discern for yourself...
 
 

Published January 14, 2000