The Truth About Padre Pio S Stigmata

A collection of ten articles and stories about St. Padre Pio. Seven have been published separately in Catholic magazines and periodicals, and the other three appear here for the first time in print.

This is by far the best life of Padre Pio in print. It tells the amazing story of the obscure Italian priest who became famous all over the world, both for his stigmata and for his miracles and supernatural insights. #goodreads-widget { font-family: georgia, serif; padding: 18px 0; width:350px; } #goodreads-widget h1 { font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; border-bottom: 1px solid #BBB596; margin-bottom: 0; } #goodreads-widget a { text-decoration: none; color: ʔ } iframe{ background-color: #ffffff; } #goodreads-widget a: hover { text-decoration: underline; } #goodreads-widget a: active { color: ʔ } #gr_footer { width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid #BBB596; text-align: right; } #goodreads-widget .gr_branding{ color: #382110; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue," Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; } Goodreads reviews for Padre Pio Revised and Expanded: The True Story Reviews from Goodreads.com

Chronicles the life of the priest and saint Padre Pio, particularly the Vatican's investigation of his stigmata in 1921 through documents recently released by the Catholic Church.

The first historical appraisal of the astonishing life and times of a controversial twentieth-century saint Padre Pio is one of the world's most beloved holy figures, more popular in Italy than the Virgin Mary and even Jesus. His tomb is the most visited Catholic shrine anywhere, drawing more devotees than Lourdes. His miraculous feats included the ability to fly and to be present in two places at once; an apparition of Padre Pio in midair prevented Allied warplanes from dropping bombs on his hometown. Most notable of all were his stigmata, which provoke heated controversy to this day. Were they truly God-given? A psychosomatic response to extreme devotion? Or, perhaps, the self-inflicted wounds of a charlatan? Now acclaimed historian Sergio Luzzatto offers a pioneering investigation of this remarkable man and his followers. Neither a worshipful hagiography nor a sensationalist exposé, Padre Pio is a nuanced examination of the persistence of mysticism in contemporary society and a striking analysis of the links between Catholicism and twentieth-century politics. Granted unprecedented access to the Vatican archives, Luzzatto has also unearthed a letter from Padre Pio himself in which the monk asks for a secret delivery of carbolic acid—a discovery which helps explain why two successive popes regarded Padre Pio as a fraud, until pressure from Pio-worshipping pilgrims forced the Vatican to change its views. A profoundly original tale of wounds and wonder, salvation and swindle, Padre Pio explores what it really means to be a saint in our time.

Life of one of the most famous saints of modern times

Padre Pio died September 23, 1968, his funeral attended by over 100,000 people. During the fifty-eight years he was a priest, his monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, became a mecca for pilgrims from all over the world. Born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887 at Pietrelcina in southeastern Italy, Padre Pio joined the Capuchin Order in 1903 and was ordained in 1910. On September 20, 1918 he received the sacred wounds of Christ, or the stigmata, which he bore the rest of his life.

From inside the Vatican, the book that became a modern classic on sainthood in the Catholic Church. Working from church documents, Kenneth Woodward shows how saint-makers decide who is worthy of the church's highest honor. He describes the investigations into lives of candidates, explains how claims for miracles are approved or rejected, and reveals the role politics -- papal and secular -- plays in the ultimate decision. From his examination of such controversial candidates as Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who became a nun and was gassed at Auschwitz, to his insights into the changes Pope John Paul II has instituted, Woodward opens the door on a 2,000-year-old tradition.

From the day Jorge Bergoglio stepped out on the loggia of St. Peter's down to the present, Catholics have been confused and dismayed by many of the words and actions of Pope Francis. Not content to allow errors to be spread (whatever their source or putative justification), international groups of pastors and scholars composed documents of inquiry, appeal, critique, and, finally, accusation: the Dubia of the Four Cardinals, the Theological Censures of Amoris Laetitia, the Filial Correction Concerning the Propagation of Heresies, the Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, the Appeal to the Cardinals, and the Protest against Pope Francis's Sacrilegious Acts. These historic interventions, which made news around the world at the time of their first appearance and garnered the support of hundreds of thousands of concerned Catholics, are gathered here in a definitive edition for the benefit of all who seek to adhere to "the faith delivered once for all to the saints" (Jude 3). The six documents are accompanied by a selection of important articles and interviews prompted by them, which criticize, defend, or develop their evaluation of Pope Francis.