About the book and the author: John McCaffery (d 1981) was lecturer in English at Genoa University and Director of the British Institute there, 1933-1940. During the war, he was Chief of SOE Italy, the underground organisation centred in Switzerland. After the war, he went into insurance, banking and business in Milan. In his early days, he was also a journalist and in that capacity, gave Fleet Street a famous scoop, revealing the identity of Lord Haw-Haw.
A fairly tough character of Scots-Irish extraction, McCaffery did not want to have anything to do with superstitious business of healings and signs and wonders; but friends kept pressing him to go and see a Franciscan Friar in the south of Italy.
In the end, he went to see Padre Pio in his Monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo. He became a close friend of the man who was to become well known among Catholics for his miracles, clairvoyancy and bi-location. McCaffery set down in the form of many true stories the extraordinary phenomena connected with Padre Pio.
McCaffery wrote first hand and his tales are like travellers' tales from a very strange land. Yet, they all occurred in twentieth-century Italy. The stories are of interest for their sheer strangeness. But they deserve, perhaps, to be taken more seriously.
McCaffery was a man of wide practical experience and proven integrity, as were the many public figures to whom he alludes. Students of extrasensory perception (ESP) and of the new understanding of the powers of the mind may find interesting subject matter here. But the stories press one for a further response.
The world we live in today seems to be increasingly in thrall to materialism and self-indulgence, and it is therefore more important than ever to bring the reality of Padre Pio's life and work to the fore, providing as it does, hope and clarity in our life's journey towards God.
The Friar Of San Giovanni: Tales Of Padre Pio was first published in 1978, ten years after Padre Pio's death. This new edition was published in 2020.
Front cover drawing of Padre Pio was by Moira McCaffery.
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