On this day in 1968

The Beatles recorded the song “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”
A bloody war was being fought in Vietnam.
“Funny Girl” was the most popular motion picture.

And an old man died in a small town in Italy.

In that same small town, on the night of June 20, 2000, a seven-year-old boy was admitted to the I.C.U. The next day, his organs were failing and the doctors lost hope.

That evening, his mother prayed with some Capuchins from the town, asking for a miracle. Meanwhile, in the I.C.U., though the young boy’s eyes were still closed, he saw an old man with a white beard and a brown robe. The old man looked at him kindly and said, “Don’t worry, you will soon be cured.”

Suddenly, to everyone’s amazement, the boy got better. When he was fully awake, he told them what he had seen. The older people were awestruck, because they recognized that he was talking about the old man who had died back in 1968: the old Capuchin priest whom so many had called a saint even before his death.

Doctors and Church experts examined the boy and the circumstances of the case and the very next year it was formally declared to be a miracle.

Six months later, on June 16, 2002, Pope John Paul canonized St. Pio of Pietrelcina (“Padre Pio”).