Saint Pio: Man of Hope And Healing To Premiere on EWTN On Demand

Discover What You Don’t Know About This Great Saint

If you think of St. Padre Pio as a beloved but grumpy saint, if you don’t know about his connection to St. Francis of Assisi or the United States of America, not to mention his early years and so much more, you will not want to miss EWTN’s new docudrama, “Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: Man of Hope and Healing.” EWTN will premiere this outstanding program for free on its On Demand platform, www.ondemand.ewtn.com, beginning Sept. 23, his feast day and the 25th anniversary of his beatification! The film, which was co-produced with the Saint Pio Foundation and Cristiana Video, will also air on the Foundation’s website, www.saintpiofoundation.org, and will later air on EWTN television.

Luciano Lamonarca, Founder and CEO of Saint Pio Foundation in Tuckahoe, N.Y. was especially enthusiastic about obtaining, for the first time, testimonials from many high-profile people. “They talk about the impact Padre Pio’s teachings had on their lives,” he said. “These include Executive Producer and Actor Joe Mantegna, who narrates the film; Actor Gary Sinise, who tells the story of Padre Pio’s impact on U.S. veterans; Padre Pio’s professional photographer Elia Stelluto, who has never spoken to foreign media before; Renzo Allegri, the journalist who last spoke with the saint; and several high-ranking Church officials.”

Writer/Director Daniela Gurrieri of Cristiano Video said she was honored to interview people who personally knew the saint, which greatly impacted the script. For example, Photographer Stelluto revealed that “Padre Pio was [not only] a good storyteller, he liked to tell jokes.”

This will surprise many, who may never have seen a photo of the saint smiling. It is also a testimony to the piety of the man who bore the stigmata for 50 years, a pain that was both external and internal; a man who endured physical attacks from the devil; and a man who suffered much persecution. But Gurrieri says that his jokes and stories lightened the atmosphere in the convent and were a sign of the saint’s love for his friars. “This was also a sign that he was a normal person who liked to live together with others, to share with others, to relate with others in a normal way.”

Gurrieri said she herself was changed by reading St. Pio’s letters to his spiritual fathers in which he revealed that he asked Jesus to remove the external sign of his stigmata, which bled profusely, but to leave the pain. 

“Such great humility on behalf of Padre Pio!” Gurrieri said. “It touched me so much that he offered himself as a victim. By reading those letters from Pietrelcina, you understand what it meant to offer himself as a victim, like Jesus, for the salvation of human beings.”

And many of those human beings for whom the saint was offering himself up would relentlessly and cruelly persecute him. Viewers will learn about these persecutions as well as the many spiritual gifts the saint received, the miracles the Lord wrought through this victim soul, and much more.

The Saint Pio Foundation’s Lamonarca says that, in honor of the Foundation’s 10th anniversary, the Foundation is releasing letters, photos, and songs to the community as well as a special edition of “Padre Pio in America,” the book from which Gary Sinise reads in the film. That book is only available at Saint Pio Foundation.

If you think you know everything there is to know about St. Pio, you won’t want to miss “Saint Pio: Man of Hope and Healing.”

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