The name "La Madonnina" derives from the owners' devotion to the Madonna, but also from the devotion shown by Padre Pio to Her. It is, in fact, difficult to imagine the stigmatised friar without Maria, for the many times that She appeared to him, even accompanying him to the altar. Padre Pio, in fact, called the "Madonna della Libera" the patron of his native town, Pietrelcina, "'a Madonnella nostra", and it is from these words - 'a Madonnella - that "La Madonnina " derives.
"I would like to have a voice strong enough to invite the sinners of the whole world to love the Madonna" (Padre Pio)
