Padre Pio: The Flying Friar
During World War II, Allied bomber pilots flying over southern Italy reportedly encountered something extraordinary: a Capuchin friar appearing in the sky, seemingly warning them away from the town of San Giovanni Rotondo.
The friar was Padre Pio.
And that was only one of the remarkable stories surrounding one of the most mysterious saints of the twentieth century.
In this Chesterton Radio Deep Dive, we follow Francesco Forgione from a small Italian village to the Capuchin monastery where he would spend more than fifty years. We investigate the stigmata he bore for decades, reports of miraculous healings and reading of consciences, mysterious fragrances, and extraordinary accounts of bilocation—Padre Pio apparently being seen hundreds or even thousands of miles from the monastery he rarely left.
We examine the famous stories individually: General Luigi Cadorna after Caporetto, a dying monsignor in Uruguay, Cardinal Mindszenty in prison, the Allied bomber crews and their mysterious “Flying Friar,” and an extraordinary reported encounter at Manoppello on the day before Padre Pio died.
But there is another side to the story.
Padre Pio was investigated and restricted by Church authorities. His extraordinary phenomena were questioned. And through controversy, celebrity and enormous crowds, he continued doing something remarkably ordinary: celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, praying and caring for the suffering.
Perhaps that is the great paradox of Padre Pio.
The man famous for allegedly being in two places at once spent most of his life in one place—pointing beyond the miracles and toward Christ.
On his September 23 feast day, Chesterton Radio explores the history, testimony, controversy and enduring mystery of Padre Pio: The Flying Friar.
Stories. Ideas. Wonder.
Chesterton Radio
