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promptly grant requests of all kinds, although they have not been beatified or canonized by the Church, in other words, are active without religious approval. The Church not only decides which visions are 'genuine'’, it also defines what a 'miracle' is. In 1870 the definition of what should count as a miracle was laid down by the Vatican. A miracle is 'in contradiction to the laws of nature’. Full stop. But this definition is over 100 years old, it has acquired a patina, like many church towers. Man is getting to know more and more about nature's tricks, he is even learning to manipulate the laws of nature at will. So I have a well-founded hope that in 100 years' time there will be nothing left we can call a miracle. the Vatican. Since Pope Benedict XIV published his work 'On the Beatification and Canonization of God's Servants' in 1738, the rule applies that each saint must be shown to have performed at least two miracles after his or her death. All those who are now on the waiting list of 1,200 'near-saints' have a very much harder time of it than their predecessors. Things that were readily accepted as miracles before are performed today by every competent medical practitioner. It is no longer so easy to become a saint as it was before. I remember the Latin tag from my schooldays: Tempora Mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis (Times change and we change with them). What does the Church do when one of its servants performs miracle after miracle during his lifetime? If he is venerated ... and prayed to as a saint by the faithful without its supreme blessing? It tolerates the situation. In initiated circles it is considered quite certain that Francesco Forgione, who became world-famous under the name of Pater Pio, will be summoned into the community of the saints. Pater Pio performed so many miracles during his lifetime that he was turned into a (living) saint long before there was any question of canonization. Francesco Forgione was born in Pietrelcina on 25th May, 1887. He died as Pater Pio in the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo on 23rd September, 1968, ‘almost fifty years to the day when he received the a 'maccherone senza sale’ (lazy lad). The Capuchins do not speak about the development of their saintly brother, but even during his novitiate rumours reached the outside world that 'strange phenomena’ distinguished the young brother, for 'this pale emaciated novice dispenses with food for days on end. ... In Venefro he lived for twenty-one days solely on the Holy Eucharist.’ His weak health made him suffer from sudden attacks of fever which ‘constantly burst the monastery thermometers’: the brother in charge of nursing tried him with a strong bath thermometer and the mercury rose to 48° (!). Nights in the monastery cell were exciting. 'Horrible monsters appeared from all sides, when he, obeying the holy rule, tried to get some rest.’ At the time of writing about 1,200 (!) cases for beatification or canonization are under consideration in There are already some 12,000 saints (!). stigmata of Our Lord’ [13]. Deliberately or by chance, little is known about Francesco's youth. He said of himself that he had been