“It seems to be a fact,” wrote Flannery O’Connor in July 1955, “that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.” The American author’s words could…

Padre Pio lived a life of prayer and suffering, writes Greg Daly   Padre Pio was a priest with a worldwide following, Pope Paul VI told a gathering of Capuchin Chapter Fathers in 1971, not because he was a philosopher or especially wise or blessed with extensive resources he could use. “No,” he said, his…

Padre Pio was far from the only saint to have borne stigmata, writes Greg Daly   “God,” Pope Francis reminds us in Amoris Laetitia, “allows parents to choose the name by which he himself will call their child for all eternity.” For all that we think of St Pio of Pietrelcina by his religious name…

Irish links to the famous Capuchin date back to the 1920s, writes Colm Keane   To the Irish setting out for San Giovanni Rotondo in the 1950s, it must have felt like the ultimate pilgrimage. They first travelled long journeys by air in old prop planes. They then wound their way by slow trains and…

Did Padre Pio’s intercession save a 
family of seven, asks 
Chai Brady   In a near-death experience a holidaying Irish family of seven crashed onto a motorway after losing control of their car in the US. Tumbling down an embankment after swerving to avoid another motorist, Cavan man Martin McBreen said the accident could have…

Colm Fitzpatrick speaks with the director of an Irish St Pio charity   With devotion to Padre Pio still continuing to grow, one woman is providing an opportunity for people globally to learn more about the incredible work of this modern saint. Eileen McGuire, who is the director of the Irish Office of St Pio…

Padre Pio’s path to acceptance in the Church was far from a smooth one, writes Greg Daly   When Padre Pio was canonised by Pope St John Paul II in June 2002 before a crowd of 300,000 people it seemed in some ways almost a formality. The path to Padre Pio’s beatification just three years…

It was with good reason 
that Padre Pio’s Mass drew huge crowds, according to 
Fr Francesco Napolitano   Padre Pio’s life on earth was in perpetual union with God; all of his letters give valid evidence of this. In a letter written to his spiritual director, Fr Benedetto of San Marco in Lamis, on September…

First and foremost, Padre Pio was a simple friar, writes Fr Bryan Shortall   Padre Pio was asked once who are you? He replied: “I’m just a poor friar who prays.” I’ve no doubt that he would prefer to be remembered for this rather than all his supernatural gifts. Many years ago, one of our…