The Bilocation of Padre Domenico da Cese

The Parallel Lives of Padre Pio and Padre Domenico of the Holy Face

Bilocation, or sometimes multilocation, occurs when an individual or object is located (or appears to be located) in two distinct places at the same instant in time.

Wikipedia article on bilocation

In the 15 second video the monk on the bottom left with the bushy white beard is said to be Padre Domenico da Cese or Padre Domenico of the Holy Face attending the funeral of Padre Pio. Apparently people who knew him well can attest to this being his image or him in person. Yet he was also seen at the Capuchin monastery (his home) 200 km away at the same time.



Padre Domenico


I am condensing a blog by Raymond Frost in which he translates Antonio Bini. This is the link to the original blog.

Padre Domenico, born March 27, 1905 at Cese, near Avezzano, had a childhood marked by singular events, such as his prediction of the earthquake that devastated Abruzzo January 13, 1915, with thirty thousand dead. He himself had been saved by a man whose face he recognized many years later as the Holy Face of Manopello.

I got to know the close spiritual relationship between Padre Pio and Padre Domenico. They had met in 1940, in San Giovanni Rotondo, from that time on the life of Fr. Domenico became in fact parallel to that of Padre Pio, even in the stigmata. Padre Domenico experienced sufferings and humiliations as did Padre Pio, though they did not reach the levels of persecution by the Holy Office and did not rouse the attention of the media. Suspicions were aroused among some envious brothers due to the constant influx of pilgrims directed solely to the patient Capuchin, who heard confessions tirelessly from morning to night, who comforted and strengthened in the faith so many people in need of a word of encouragement and hope, and daily received and wrote dozens of letters to those who sought his help. He presented their request for prayer to the prodigious Holy Face. For many he was simply "Padre Domenico of the Holy Face.”

Padre Domenico reported that early in the morning of September 22, 1968, he went to open the church at Manoppello located more than 200 kilometers away to the north of San Giovanni Rotondo in the province of Abruzzi. Inside the church, he found Padre Pio on his knees, his head in his hands, before the image known as the Holy Face. Padre Pio said to him: "I do not trust myself any more. Pray for me. Goodbye until we meet again in Paradise." Padre Pio died few hours later. The next day, Padre Carmelo went to visit a sick man and was amazed when the man expressed his appreciation for permitting Padre Pio to go visit him the previous evening. Padre Carmelo than understood what had happened.

The testimonies and rumors regarding the episode were confirmed to me with ease and simplicity by Brother Vincenzo D'Elpidio, for years his devoted friend.

Padre Domenico met his death on September 17 1978 as a result of a traffic accident, which according to the testimony of a Roman priest, Don Aldo Bollini, he had predicted, down to the date.

Mr. Francesco Bernardino Farchioni, resident in Rieti, related on August 29, 2011 an unusual episode which occurred during the funeral of Padre Pio. Mr. Farchioni on the day of the funeral had come with his friend Francesco Chionni to Manoppello and the two of them were about to leave for S. Giovanni Rotondo [funeral of Padre Pio] together with Padre Domenico, who changed his mind and decided he would not go after all. At that point Farchioni and Chionni gave up the idea of continuing their journey and stayed Manoppello. A few weeks later the two friends returned to visit Padre Domenico. During their stay, several busloads of pilgrims arrived. Some women came to Padre Domenico to ask him why he had not responded to their greeting when he attended the funeral of Padre Pio. Padre Domenico excused himself to hear some confessions. Upon his return, Mr. Farchioni asked, "Padre Domenico, but on the day of the funeral we were here, explain this to me." The Capuchin was silent. Upon further insistence, Padre Domenico replied evasively, "Francesco, you want to know so very many things." Farchioni refrained from trying to get to the bottom of the question, also at the suggestion of his friend Chionni.

This testimony could certainly be classified among the many unusual episodes that are ascribed to the life of Padre Domenico. Then in the past few weeks I heard rumors on the fact that Padre Domenico would have been seen and recognized in a recent documentary film on the life of Padre Pio. After much research, I managed to learn that this is a documentary film by Nicola Vicenti "Padre Pio: La Storia di un santo” (The Story of a saint), which aired on June 11, 2010 on the television network RAI 3. The viewing of the individual sequences of images allows one to confirm the presence of the Capuchin in the funeral procession, as it moves slowly from the Sanctuary to the town center, while in a later sequence, you can see the same friar just as he is leaving the procession of the Capuchins. Padre Domenico's own neice Caterina Petracca has confirmed that it was Padre Domenico in the footage.

But I felt it necessary to have other confirmation from other people who knew Padre Domenico very well. Especially significant in my opinion is the testimony of the photographer Gianni Cati, who was associated for a long time with the Sanctuary [in Manoppello] and with Padre Domenico for years, and who started in 1965 to document the Holy Face. Without stating the reason for the request, I met the former photographer on February 1, 2013. At the appearance of the images of the funeral procession of Padre Pio he immediately and without hesitation said that it was Padre Domenico. Yet the Capuchin had not moved from Manoppello, while living deeply the painful end of the human story of the beloved Padre Pio, with whom he had lived in communion his priestly life.

reply to post by Cinrad


Thanks, I was just researching Padre Pio earlier today, and haven't heard of this fellow. Pio is one of my favorite Catholic mystics. My teacher said that the catholics used to hustle their mystics off to remote monasteries, as they didn't really have a mystic training tradition (they were just lucky when one showed up imnho).

I was raised Catholic, and was taught by nuns during my early years. We were taught about Padre Pio. One of the nicer nuns taught us about how Padre would tell people: "Pray..don't worry" Even though he was troubled with terrible pain and afflictions, he would say that it's useless to worry. What an inspiration!

A quote from him:
“My past, O Lord, to Your mercy; my present, to Your love; my future to Your providence.”

reply to post by Cinrad


Interesting to say the least. Very similar look to the two white haired Monks. Add the vagueness of the Padre's response to being at the funeral and you have a mystery. I wonder if there is more info on this event.

From this link below though, there looks to be a few other Capuchins that look pretty similar to him.
caccioppoli.c... om/Close%20encounters%20of%20a%20special%20kind%20of%20the%20Capuchin%20friars%20with%20Padre%20Pio.html

Originally posted by pavil
reply to post by Cinrad

 

Interesting to say the least. Very similar look to the two white haired Monks. Add the vagueness of the Padre's response to being at the funeral and you have a mystery. I wonder if there is more info on this event.

From this link below though, there looks to be a few other Capuchins that look pretty similar to him.
caccioppoli.c... om/Close%20encounters%20of%20a%20special%20kind%20of%20the%20Capuchin%20friars%20with%20Padre%20Pio.html

At least two people who knew him very well identified him on the footage, he is moving in the footage, not just a photo, they would know if it was him or not. If it is not him then they must be lying. Some ladies asked him why he had not answered when greeted there that day, if it was not him then at the very least he would have looked at the ladies puzzled and as if to say, "you have me mistaken for someone else". I don't think his response was vague, in Italian, Abruzzi at least, this is the same as saying "mind your own business" or in Aus we say "none of your business" but in a way amongst friends.

I think this is as close as we get to definitive proof. Short of a DNA sample being taken of the two men at the two locations on the same day at the same time. Even then there would be people saying he has an identical twin. Then we would look up the birth records and there would be no record of an identical twin and people would say that the records have been tampered with. Oh, and of course the DNA test would have to be carried out by members of the Skeptics Society as anyone else is too incompetent or too untrustworthy.

I am of the Evangelical persuasion (if I had to pick a description) so I don't in any way endorse this as a miracle of the church or that either men should be sainted. But as far as I can see, this really happened.

And thanks Cole Younger for the two quotes, they are very good - Catholic Mystic or not.

A documentary on the life of Domenico

holyfaceofmanoppello.blogspot.com.au...