Early in 1919, in an article entitled "The Miracles of a young Capuchin in San Giovanni Rotondo", the newspaper Il Giornale D'Italia reported the curious case of "miraculous" happenings concerning a young Capuchin monk based in Puglia, southern Italy.
The monk in question was, of course, Padre Pio and the "miracles" concerned "stigmata" (Greek for marks) or bleeding wounds which had appeared on his hands, feet and side and which were similar to those suffered by Christ on the cross. From that first newsflash in 1919 through to his death in September 1968, Padre Pio remained a highly controversial figure.
For millions of Catholics around the world, he was nothing less than a living, de facto saint. For many others, including senior Vatican figures, he was at best a pious zealot, at worst a total charlatan.
Just before Christmas, the Vatican gave its own definitive judgement on Padre Pio when the Congregation for the Cause of Saints declared him "venerable", thus paving the way for almost certain subsequent beatification and then sainthood. As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, it is now official - Padre Pio is, or very soon will be, a saint.
The Vatican has not exactly rushed to this conclusion. The supernatural or mystical powers attributed to Padre Pio - the stigmata, bi-location, the gifts of prophecy and of visions - have all been traditionally handled with immense scepticism, even by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, which tends to emphasise the practical "heroic virtues" of a candidate for sainthood rather than the unexplained mysteries attached to him or her.
In modern times the Catholic Church has tended to make saints of those whose practical, organisational skills have been in evidence (if you have founded a religious order in recent times, your chances are pretty good) and "good works", just as much as the necessary "miracles" worked, come into the equation.
Born to a poor peasant family in southern Italy in 1887 and with the family name of Francesco Forgione, Padre Pio had just finished service in the first World War as a military chaplain when he first experienced and reported the stigmata in 1918.
Reaction up at central HQ in Rome was decidedly cool. Then the Vatican initiated the first of 25 inquiries it has held into Padre Pio and his controversial life.
Both inside and outside the Church, many different theories were aired as to how Padre Pio pulled it off. Some claimed it was a conjuring trick, others that he had used phenol or carbolic acid.
Despite the speculation, doctors never were able to explain why his wounds oozed blood without any apparent laceration nor why the wounds closed to leave no trace or scar within hours of his death in 1968.
As news of his stigmata spread and as his fame grew, the Vatican became more concerned. For much of his life, lived almost entirely in the Capuchin monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, Padre Pio received over 600 letters a day and hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world for confession. Today
more than a million pilgrims annually visit his tomb.
The Vatican "investigations" prompted him to be temporarily suspended on several occasions. Such was the official distrust (or jealousy) that even when he was in his seventies a Vatican inspector accused him of regularly having sex with pilgrims who visited his cell late at night. In a report to Pope John XXIII, Msgr Carlo Maccari wrote: ". . . bis in hebdomada copulabat cum muliere" (twice a week he copulates with women).
One of Padre Pio's fellow Capuchins, Padre Emilio, was so concerned by these allegations that he placed a microphone in Padre Pio's confessional - to listen in when the monk was receiving a female penitent.
Furthermore, he was also accused of fraud in relation to the 1956 bankruptcy of a certain Giuffre, an enterprising financier who became involved in the affairs of the Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza, the hospital built in San Giovanni Rotondo, funded mainly by Padre Pio's followers.
All of these accusations have fallen by the wayside, as Padre Pio has had one very important ally - Pope John Paul II. Legend has it that when blessing the newly ordained young Polish priest Karol Wojtyla in 1947, Padre Pio prophesied that one day he would "become pope".
Fact is that in 1963, the auxiliary Bishop of Cracow called on Padre Pio to pray for a psychiatrist friend, Wanda Poltawska, allegedly suffering from terminal cancer. Some time after Padre Pio's prayers, Ms Poltawska recovered and she is alive and well and living in Warsaw today.
The pope has never made any secret of his belief in Padre Pio. In 1987, as pope, he went to pray at his tomb, a gesture which many interpreted as meaning that the Padre Pio was launched on the road to sainthood.
Unlike some senior Curia figures of past and present, Pope John Paul II has always been at ease with the mystic, the supernatural, and in that sense Padre Pio is very much a saint of this pontificate.