Italian historian wins $75K Cundill Prize

A book about controversial 20th century saint Padre Pio has won the Cundill Prize, a $75,000 award from McGill University for historical literature.

Italian historian Sergio Luzzatto won the top award on Sunday in London for his book Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age.

Padre Pio was an Italian Capuchin priest famous for his stigmata who was declared a saint because of his popularity, despite much skepticism at the Vatican. The Cundill jury called the book “masterful” and acclaimed it as an examination of the politics of sainthood and the persistence of mysticism in the modern world....