PADRE PIO GLEANINGS

Even if it presents a broad outline of the life of Padre Pio, this book, nevertheless, does not claim to be a biography. Although he knew this priest very well, the author has something else in view: the real hero of this book is... the supernatural. What element could better define the stigmatist of the Gargano besides his so very humble holiness and his legendary sudden changes of mood if not the omnipresence of this dimension around his person? A dimension so alien to our rational perceptions, so unacceptable in face of our need to explain everything... And yet, a collection of real indisputable facts left the medical doctors non-plussed and filled crowds with amazement. They created around the figure of a modest Capuchin friar racked with pain an atmosphere full of mystery that the author restores here through these gleanings (fioretti): from this condensed account of miraculous incidents emerges a fascinating image which, far from growing blurred with the years, reveals itself ever more distinctly, with a corollary in the form of a question: what particular message did God wish to pass on through the life of Padre Pio?