Joey Lomangino
Joey Lomangino
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A good place to start my story is to talk
about a blind man by the name of Joey Lomangino who entered my life in
1971.
Similar to Padre Pio, I found his life story very interesting and
thought provoking. In 1947, Joey who was about 16 years
old at the time, would help his father who was in the coal delivery
business in
Brooklyn N.Y. One day Joey was putting air into his father’s
truck tire at the
same gas station where I used to put air in my bicycle tires when I was
a child. The tire actually blew up in his face, cutting his eyes and the
bridge of his nose. After coming out of a comma, Joey realized he was blind,
and had also lost his sense of smell. When Joey was about 25 or 26, a
Jewish friend of the family loaned Joey $30,000 to buy a garbage
collection business that was for sale. Although blind, Joey was very intelligent.
He borrowed the money, bought the business, ran
the office, and had his brothers drive the trucks. The business
prospered and provided for Joey and his family.
At age 30, around the 1961 time frame Joey went to Italy for a vacation, and visited his uncle. His uncle told
Joey that he should visit with Padre Pio. His uncle told him “What do
you have to lose?”
Somewhat reluctantly Joey visits Padre Pio and goes to confession with him.
During confessionPadre Pio told Joey of his sins, and named actual
names of
people he committed sins with, and places where the sins were committed. I
remember Joey telling me personally that his body got soaking wet from perspiration while in theconfession box.
After confession, Joey asked the Padre
what he could do for his eyes. The Padre responded to Joey that he could not give him the eyes to see, but that he could give him the
eyes for the
soul. At that moment, the Padre blessed Joey, and Joey instantly
received his
sense of smell back.
At that same 1961 time
frame, the Blessed Mother was appearing in
Garabandal, Spain. Joey asked the Padre if it was true that the Blessed
Mother was appearing there. The Padre said yes. Joey asked the Padre if
he should go there. The Padre said, “Yes but be very
prudent.” Joey then goes to Garabandal, and meets the four
little visionaries, Conchita, Mary Loli, Mary Cruz, and Jacinta, all
age 11 except for Conchita who was 12. Conchita gives to Joey a Blessed
Mother medal about 3 inches by 2 inches in size.
Conchita told Joey that “The Blessed Mother told me to give it to you, and She
said that Her Son Jesus would perform miracles with it.”
Since that time, Joey has been blessing people with that medal.
By the way, I have never witnessed a miracle with Joey’s
medal, but I have heard stories from several other people who did.
Joey came back home to the USA on fire from his experiences with Padre
Pio and Garabandal. He put together a collection of picture slides and
quite naturally started telling people about his exciting European
experiences.
After a while his fascinating stories spread, and people
started calling Joey, wanting to hear his accounts, and to be blessed
with his medal. As a result, Joey became somewhat famous, and started
going around doing what he called conferences. He would go to
people’s homes, and wherever else he was invited, usually on
Friday and Saturday nights, and talk about Padre Pio, Garabandal, and
Our Lady of Fatima. He did this while a sighted person, who obviously
had to accompany Joey on his talks, showed slide projection pictures.
As far as I know, and I am guessing a little bit here, Joey gave these
conferences from 1963 to 1978.