Paperback: This colourful memoir offers a rare, up-close glimpse of the life and personality of St Pio of Pietrelcina, the beloved Italian monk who was blessed with extraordinary gifts.
The late Fr Amorth - well-known as an exorcist - enjoyed over two decades of a close friendship with the holy, quirky Padre Pio, whom he considered his spiritual father.
Adding his own personal experience to a foundation of biographical research, Amorth gives an entertaining and illuminating account of perhaps one of the best-known saints of the twentieth century.
In this book, we span from Padre Pio's childhood - where he cured himself of a disease by wolfing down all his mother's fried bell peppers - to his miracle-filled priesthood, to his Italian gift for mimicry, humour, and storytelling.
Rather than a plaster image of a saint, Padre Pio: Stories And Memories Of My Mentor And Friend (2021) by Fr Gabriel Amorth is a portrait of a fully human kind of holiness, proof that even the most astonishing graces can be lived out with simplicity and joy.
It is translated from the Italian Padre Pio: Breve storia di un santo (2016) by Matthew Sherry.
About the author: Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), a priest of the Congregation of San Paolo, was the chief exorcist at the Vatican and internationally recognized as the world's foremost exorcist. Two of his major books are An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories.
Translator's Note: As much as I enjoyed seeing Padre Pio in a new light, one of the nicer surprises in translating this book was Fr Amorth's talent as a writer. The man knew how to tell a story. He also knew how not to be a stickler when it comes to trivia. This is not an academic biography and he makes a few mistakes on things like names and dates, just enough to keep the fingerpointers happy. I have noted some of these errors with footnotes and brackets, but they are generally unimportant. Fr Amorth knew Padre Pio better than any Pio scholar could. He writes from over twenty-five years of friendship. Readers who want food for heart and soul will be happy to have found this book. - Matthew Sherry, 10 March 2021
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