Padre Pio
The True Story
Revised and Expanded, 3rd Edition
C. Bernard Ruffin
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Lillian Rebecca Jones Ruffin
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible — Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 1965, 1966, 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Some Scripture quotations, where noted, are from the King James Version (KJV).
Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly.
Copyright © 1982, 1991, 2018 by C. Bernard Ruffin. Published 2018.
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All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission from the publisher. For more information, visit: www.osv.com/permissions.
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
200 Noll Plaza
Huntington, IN 46750
1-800-348-2440
ISBN: 978-1-61278-882-1 (Inventory No. T1677)
eISBN: 978-1-61278-886-9
LCCN: 81-81525
Cover design: Tyler Ottinger
Cover art: Elio Stelluto, San Giovanni Rotondo. All rights reserved.
Photo-section design: Chelsea Alt
Interior design: Sherri L. Hoffman
Interior art: See the credits in the photo section
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Prologue: The Wise Man of the Gargano
Chapter One: The Roots of a Saint
Chapter Two: A Boy Who Talked to the Angels
Chapter Four: Encounters with the Invisible World
Chapter Five: “A Holy Priest, a Perfect Victim”
Chapter Six: Illness and Ecstasies
Chapter Seven: The Double Exile
Chapter Eight: “Supernatural Graces”
Chapter Nine: Return to the Friary
Chapter Ten: San Giovanni Rotondo
Chapter Thirteen: Holiness or Hysteria?
Chapter Fourteen: The Spiritual Director
Chapter Fifteen: Skeptics and Detractors
Chapter Sixteen: The Friar and the Inquisitor
Chapter Seventeen: “A True Satanic War”
Chapter Eighteen: The Transfer That Never Happened
Chapter Nineteen: Remarkable Providences
Chapter Twenty: Friends, Family, and American Benefactors
Chapter Twenty-One: “I Feel Like I’m Halfway in Hell”
Chapter Twenty-Two: Imprisonment
Chapter Twenty-Three: “What a Fearsome Thing a Saint Is!”
Chapter Twenty-Four: A Prophet in Time of War
Chapter Twenty-Five: Soldati Americani
Chapter Twenty-Six: Seer on the Mountaintop
Chapter Twenty-Seven: “A Magnificent Work of Charity”
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Twenty-Hour Day
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Signs and Wonders
Chapter Thirty-One: “I Only Pray … God Heals”