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The news that the body of Padre Pio is to go on display in his home town of San Giovanni Rotondo, in the southern Italian region of Puglia is only the latest twist in an extraordinary story of miracles, alleged fraud and Papal vacillation. Francesco Forgione was born in Pietralcina, Campania in 1887, the son of poor shepherds. He later claimed he had made a decision to dedicate his life to God as early as the age of five, going on to serve as an altar boy and elected to enter the priesthood. Like many southern Italian fathers, Forgione senior went off to the US to earn money … in this case for private tutoring to enter the Capuchin Order.

It must have been a matter of immense pride for this poor Catholic family have a son enter the priesthood, but they couldn’t have guessed the bizarre twist Francesco’s life would take. As a youth he had experienced visions. As an adult he adopted the motto ‘Pray, Hope and don’t Worry’ – a hard code to live by as he was beset by diabolical attacks, including the devil visiting him disguised as ‘an angel of light’. Padre Pio now began manifesting the stigmata and transverberation, could survive for weeks at a time with no nourishment. The word spread and those close to him began to claim he could levitate, be in two places simultaneously, perform miracles… All were guaranteed to unsettle the Vatican, particularly as Pio was becoming a ‘star’ in his own right. Counter accusations followed – of insanity, of preying on women and ‘perverting the fragile souls’ of his young pupils.

None of which stopped the cult from growing, despite the best efforts of the Vatican. Padre Pio died on 23 September, 1968. His home town of San Giovanni Rotondo has been massively commercialised and is up there with Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela as a site of pilgrimage. The Vatican, who either saw the light or became intensely pragmatic, depending on your level of cynicism, eventually canonised Padre Pio as a saint. And there’s no rest for the good – on 3 March 2008, Saint Pio’s body was exhumed in preparation for public display in a glass case later in 2008. Observers described the body as being in surprisingly good condition (a hint at divine intervention?) though as the ‘skull was showing through the skin’ we should perhaps take that with a small pinch of incense. Morticians were put to work to brush up the late saint for public display.

As Padre Pio would doubtless say himself, he is just a man. What is more remarkable about the whole San Giovanni Rotondo circus is how, despite the best efforts of the Vatican to control and regulate, the supernatural and miraculous retains a huge hold over a certain type of believer. And how a resolutely practical Catholic Church can turn superstition into cash – there will be hundreds of thousands of visitors to San Giovanni Rotondo this year and for many years to come.

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More about the life and work of Padre Pio