Why this name (Armata Bianca - White Army)

«Father Eusebio, get the weapon from my pocket». Father Eusebio didn’t understand and Padre Pio pointed to the pocket of his habit where he kept his rosary.
His closest spiritual sons knew well what the rosary meant to Padre Pio. Cleonice Morcaldi writes: «the night before he died he was at his usual place, on the porch, with the weapon in his hand».
This is where the name “Army” comes from.

God’s most famous advocate in the Old Testament is David, the little shepherd boy who takes up Goliath’s challenge and defeats him with his sling. The rosary has five decades, just as David put five stones in his bag when he got ready to confront Goliath: «David ran quickly toward the Army. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. And he fell facedown on the ground» (1Sam 17, 48-49).

Goliath is satan’s advocate, filled with his weapons and pride; David is God’s advocate, filled with his faith: «You come to me with sword and spear and javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied» (1Sam 17,45).

Never as today has Goliath been so strong, he has the world in his hand. Salvation can only come from Mary who, «as terrible as an army set in battle array» (Ct 6,4) confronts him in her children, young Davids armed with the rosary: «Recite the Rosary every day in order to obtain peace in the world and the end of the war» (Fatima, May 13, 1917).

Every child consecrated to Mary who recites the rosary is a new David and the beads are his sling: it is Our Lady’s “Army”; “White” because white is the colour of innocence.