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Click on the logo to link to the Padre Pio TV website for live transmissions





Tele Radio Padre Pio is available by satellite or internet.
The website is in English but the transmissions are in Italian.
The satellite transmissions are only in Italian.
The Mass will be recognisable to you, as will many of the prayers.

"Tele Radio Padre Pio" - Satellite Information

BBC News Online: Monday, 11 February, 2002 A new TV station has been launched in Italy, dedicated to the life of the controversial monk Padre Pio. Capuchin Franciscan Friars have started the service in a bid to get the padre known throughout the world. The friar, who died in 1968, is due to be made a saint later this year after being credited with performing miracles. The padre was said to bear the marks - or stigmata - similar to the wounds Christians believe Jesus Christ suffered when he was crucified. The new TV service will initially broadcast around the San Giovanni Rotondo area of Southern Italy, where the Padre is buried, but it will also be broadcast around the world on the internet. It will feature images of people praying and transmit interviews with people who knew him. The town has become a mecca for his followers, with more than seven million people making a pilgrimage to his grave every year. His cult has spawned a huge business in souvenirs, statues and icons worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. He was born into a peasant family in southern Italy in 1887. He became a Franciscan monk before developing the stigmata wounds at the age of 31. The wounds did not heal for the rest of his life, and he had to change the dressing four or five times a day to stem the flow of blood. Despite this the Padre was said to have miraculous healing powers. For many years the Vatican was suspicious of the Padre's claims, even bugging his confessional and opening his mail. He was even banned from saying Mass for many years during his life. However after his death, the Padre's cult grew. The current Pope is a believer, having met the Padre at his monastery in 1947 when he was a priest living in Poland. In 1999, crowds of more than 250,000 attended a ceremony for his beatification, the final step before becoming a saint. At the time Pope John Paul II told the audience: "When I was a student here in Rome I had the opportunity to meet him myself, and I thank God for allowing me to enter his name in the book of the blessed."

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