Father Pio was born 130 years ago: his image in cinema and television

Father Pio was born 130 years ago: his image in cinema and television

On May 25, 1897, he was born in Pietrelcina, in the province of Benevento, Francesco Forgione.

On January 22, 1903, at the age of 15, he became Fra 'Pio.

He died on September 23, 1968 in San Giovanni Rotondo (FG).

Pope John Paul II proceeded to canonization on June 16, 2002. Since then, the Catholic Church has venerated him as a saint and celebrates his liturgical memory on September 23, the anniversary of his death.

Padre Pio da Pietrelcina was and is certainly one of the most complex and enigmatic figures in the history of Italian Catholicism in the twentieth century.

He was a recipient, still alive, of a popular veneration of imposing proportions, to which certainly belonged to the fame of miracle-worker attributed to him by the devotees and the story of the stigmata.

At the same time he was also subject to harsh criticism, hard struggles and misunderstandings in ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical environments.

The discussion of the authenticity and the miraculous significance of the stigmata, that of the destination of the great economic funds collected by the apparatus around Father Pio: all the affair of Padre Pio was characterized by radical divisions between those who worshiped him and those who totally slated him in his religious and social dimension.

It is true that almost fifty years after his death the charm and devotion to the figure of Father Pio remain intact. They have become more accentuated.

Father Pio in cinema and television

To a such strong figure could not remain indifferent cinema and television.

Many programs and documentaries have been dedicated to him. Together with some movies and TV series.

Father Pio da Pietrelcina (1997) by Alberto Rondalli

It is a not hagiographic fiction about the first decades of conventual life of St. Pius by Pietrelcina. Based mainly on the autographs of the Capuchin friar, it is the biography of a great suffering mystic, narrated with almost ascetic rigor. The Saint is played by Spanish actor Antonio Buil Pueyo.

Father Pio-The Night of the Prophet (1999) by Jean-Marie Benjamin

It was written and directed by French presbyter Jean-Marie Benjamin. In the film Saint Pio da Pietrelcina is played by Sergio Fiorentini.

Two TV miniseries were presented in 2000 at the end of the cause of beatification of the Friar of Pietrelcina.

Father Pio (2000) by Carlo Carlei

Broadcasted on Channel 5, fiction traces the life of Friar da Pietrelcina, from childhood, to ordination, to stigmata, through a long flashback, offered through a long interrogation by a priest.

Father Pio is played by Sergio Castellitto.

Father Pio - Between heaven and earth (2000) by Giulio Base

It was broadcasted on Rai 1 in November 2000. The Saint of Pietrelcina is played by Michele Placido.

Father Pio (2006)

Finally, an animation film about Father Pio dedicated to children