On May 25, 1887, Peppa De Nunzio was in the countryside, in Piana Romana, when she felt the first signs of labor. The mother of the future Padre Pio was now in her fourth pregnancy and knew exactly what to do: she left her husband in the fields and walked alone back to the village, to her home in Vico Storto Valle, where "at 21 o'clock" (five in the afternoon) she gave birth to little Francesco. The next morning, Grazio took the child to be baptized in the church of Sant'Anna.

The servant of God, Professor Enrico Medi, said: "Blessed are you, O Pietrelcina, because you saw Padre Pio born, because from the moment a man is born, he breathes and comes into contact with the first molecules that enter his lungs and his life, and the first molecules of that village leave a mysterious trace in him, which we call a genetic trace, throughout his life."

May 25th and 26th are deeply felt celebrations for the people of Pietralcina and for devotees of Padre Pio, who attend in large numbers the solemn mass and the procession of the statue of Saint Pio through the streets of the town.