Padre Pio was born in a rural, farming village. He entered a Franciscan order centered on harsh penance and radical poverty. He lived more than fifty years in a mountain hermitage. And yet, everyone has heard his name. But few know who Padre Pio truly was. In his latest work, Bret Thoman has pierced the life of Padre Pio in a novel way: through a pilgrimage to all eleven Capuchin friaries and sites where the stigmatic saint lived. With Pietrelcina as his base, Thoman sets out each morning to the "Convents of Padre Pio." He accompanies the reader into these special places with captivating ...

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina is perhaps the single most extraordinary saint in the modern history of the Catholic Church. His heart was pierced. He carried the wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side for half a century. He communicated with his spiritual sons and daughters through bilocation and mystical perfume. He read the souls of his penitents. He offered his suffering so that others might be healed. He built one of the most significant hospitals in Southern Italy. Most importantly, Padre Pio wanted others to be redeemed. In Bret Thoman’s latest book, he has created a fresh, new ...

It is said that one cannot fully know someone else without visiting the place where they grew up. This is also true of Padre Pio. Like us, the saints led human lives. They were not formed in a vacuum. Among parents and relatives, educators and catechists, and companions and confreres—their personalities, minds, and spiritualities were formed. In this unique work, a continuation of Following Padre Pio: A Journey of Discovery from Pietrelcina to San Giovanni Rotondo, author and Padre Pio expert Bret Thoman explores all the convents where Padre Pio lived. There are ten sites. In 1903, young ...

Adolfo Affatato is one of the last living spiritual sons of St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Recently translated into English, “Padre Pio and I” is the culmination of what he witnessed as he sat by the saint’s side for sixteen years. This is not a typical biography by a journalist, friar, or academic; instead, the author presents “the Padre” intimately and personally -- as a father figure who tenderly guided and directed him. This book is filled with riveting new accounts of the mystical side of Padre Pio: from the moment Affatato was called by name by Padre Pio out of a crowd to Padre ...

Fr. Gabriele Amorth is considered one of the most important figures in the Italian Catholic Church. Not only was he a renowned exorcist, he was a journalist, a noted theologian, and biblical exegete. The recent Hollywood film about his life (though highly embellished) has only added to his mystique. Behind the man was a powerful faith. He could not have performed exorcisms for thirty years without supernatural aid. Toward the end of his life, while retired in a rest home in Rome, he revealed his secret: the Rosary. For years, he had an unpublished book that he kept in a drawer of his cell ...

We see and hear the horrors of terrorism and war, crime, corruption, rage, violence, inequality, poverty, and attacks on human dignity at every level. We are in a war with evil. It's real, and it's personal. Here is your weapon, and here is a warrior to fight beside you. In this book, you'll learn to pray the Rosary in a whole new way, battling along-side Mary as you pray the 20 mysteries.

Adolfo Affatato is one of the last living spiritual sons of St. Pio of Pietrelcina. When he was sixteen years old, he was called by name by Padre Pio out of a crowd in the hot, crowded sacristy, though he had never met Padre Pio. Padre Pio placed his hand on his head and said, “I have been waiting for you for many years.” Soon afterward, he became a spiritual son of Padre Pio. In this follow-up to his first book, Padre Pio and I: Memoirs of a Spiritual Son, Adolfo shares more stories and personal reflections on the life of Padre Pio. He begins by describing how his concept of faith was ...

St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727) is considered one of the most extraordinary mystics in the history of Christianity. A Poor Clare nun, she was a stigmatic who offered her many mystical sufferings for others. After fifty years in a monastery, where she served as abbess and novice directress, she ended her life essentially divinized. And yet, even though numerous popes have extolled her virtues, St. Veronica Giuliani is little known outside her native region and Capuchin Order. Now, for the first time ever, a compendium of her Diary has been translated into English. While all saints are ...

Many of us do not trust our own thoughts, feelings, and desires when it comes to discerning God's will. Instead we look outside ourselves to determine what God wants from and for us. In God's Voice Within, spiritual director Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, shows us how to use Ignatian discernment to access our own spiritual intuition and understand that the most trustworthy wisdom of all comes not from outside sources, but from God working through us.

On July 5, 1902, Maria Goretti was brutally stabbed to death by Alessandro Serenelli. The 11-year-old virgin-martyr not only fought to maintain her purity; she forgave her killer and declared that she wanted him to be with her in Heaven. In what is the most in-depth biography on the life of St. Maria Goretti in the English language, author Bret Thoman brings the saga to life like never before. To create the most extensive and comprehensive English-language biography of Maria Goretti, the author drew from the most updated Italian biographies as sources. Moreover, he personally visited the ...