By CNA Staff

St. Pio of Pietrelcina — better known as Padre Pio — one of the most beloved modern saints in the Catholic Church, was born 137 years ago on May 25 in Pietrelcina, Italy. On the occasion of his birthday, we remember what one of the last journalists to interview him said about how the friar bore his sufferings.

Renzo Allegri, the author of the biography “Man of Hope,” visited the famous friar a year before he died in 1968 and said that while Pio’s suffering was difficult to witness, the saint’s silent strength was observable.