Padre Pio: City on a Mountain

Padre Pio: City on a Mountain by Pascal P. Parente. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780911988352.

After Padre Pios death on Sept. 23rd, 1968, the publishers thought to "update" this book which had been written when the famous Padre was still alive. But nothing of importance in Padre Pios life is missing from these pages except some of the more extraordinary miracles attributed to him in the last years of his life. This living biography of the "Living Crucifix" known as Padre Pio is timeless. Father Pio is the only priest in history known to have borne in his body the five wounds... like those carried by St. Francis of Assisi. And he lived in our midst, suffering and bleeding for half a century, as a consolation to those who are tempted to despair and as a warning to those who are presumptuous. There are many books about Padre Pio. There will be many more. But this particular book was "before its time" and is one of the finest, condensed views of Father Pio. AS a living crucifix. Dr, Parente, author of the book, was one of the few great experts of our time on mystical theology . He came to know Father Pio because of his study of stigmatization. And yet he didnt write a pondering book dwelling mainly on the phenomena itself. Like everyone who came to know Father Pio, Dr. Parente was touched by the mission of holiness which flowed from Father Pio like a wave of Grace. Father Pio was an assertion of the reality of Christ in our world, especially in the Eucharistic liturgy.