For 50 years, Italy's favourite saint, Padre Pio, stoically bore the marks of the bleeding stigmata - those marks of the wounds inflicted on the suffering crucified Christ.
Pilgrims flocked to the monastery where Pio once lived in a simple cell in Italy's deep south, and his reputation seemed assured for ever when he was canonised by the most popular Pope of all time, John Paul II, in 2002.
But in a new book an Italian historian suggests the bearded saint was nothing more than a fraud.
Sergio Luzzatto claims the 'stigmata' injuries were not a miracle but were self-inflicted using carbolic acid.
He said he found documents in libraries at the Vatican which apparently included a letter from an Italian pharmacist who claimed to have delivered the acid to the former monk. Full story...
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Pilgrims flocked to the monastery where Pio once lived in a simple cell in Italy's deep south, and his reputation seemed assured for ever when he was canonised by the most popular Pope of all time, John Paul II, in 2002.
But in a new book an Italian historian suggests the bearded saint was nothing more than a fraud.
Sergio Luzzatto claims the 'stigmata' injuries were not a miracle but were self-inflicted using carbolic acid.
He said he found documents in libraries at the Vatican which apparently included a letter from an Italian pharmacist who claimed to have delivered the acid to the former monk. Full story...
Don't miss:
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