A priest in Italy is being hailed as a miracle worker by farmers after his prayers for rain appeared to bring an end to a prolonged drought.

Father Angelo Marcandella held evening prayers on three consecutive days at his church in the medieval town of Castell’Arquato near Piacenza, with about 50 farmworkers in the congregation.

On the fourth day the skies opened, ending three months of drought.

Father Marcandella, who is known to his parishioners as Don Angelo, said he realised that his intervention was not welcomed by tourists “enjoying a well-deserved holiday” in the sunshine. He said, however, that residents of Castell’Arquato lived off the land, and were struggling during the drought.

“Water is a vital resource,” he said. “How could I fail to respond to pleas to me to pray for rain?” Father Marcandella said that he had performed the same “miracle” in March, with the same pattern of three days of prayer followed by a deluge.

Residents of the town are divided about the priest’s ability to summon divine help. Sceptics say that he checks the weather forecasts to determine the right moment to pray.

Father Marcandella’s prayers — part of the Roman Catholic liturgy - are addressed partly to St Antony of Padua, to whom the parish church is dedicated, but mainly to St Isidore of Seville (AD560-636), patron saint of agricultural workers and author of On the Wonders of Nature (De Natura Rerum). One prayer of intercession reads: “O God, in Whom we live and move and have our being, grant us rain in due abundance, that, being sufficiently helped with temporal matters we may the more confidently seek after eternal gifts. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

Some locals - including the mayor - suggest that the priest “looks up the long-range weather forecasts and then prays when he knows it is going to rain”. This was denied by Father Marcandella, who said that this week’s apparently miraculous precipitation included a brief hailstorm “of which the forecasters made no mention whatever”. He added that he was not simply seeking attention or publicity “because if I did God wouldn’t listen to me”.

The rainmaking cleric has the support of local farmers and winemakers in the area, noted for its red wines such as Barbera and Monterosso - although some are cannily hedging their bets. “It’s not true that prayers bring rain, but we believe it anyway,” said Raffaele Arizzi, at the local association of farmers and winegrowers.

Alice Dodi, the secretary of the Castell’Arquato golf club, said: “Personally I think the rain is a natural phenomenon - but if it is a miracle, then we thank the Lord all the same - and the priest”.

In gods they trust

- In April Australian Prime Minister John Howard urged Australians to “literally and without any irony, pray for rain”, as farmers faced a total lack of water for the coming irrigation year

- In the summer of 2002, when India faced severe drought, women in Uttar Pradesh state were reported to be ploughing fields naked at night in an attempt to appease the rain gods

- Each year priests in ancient Sri Lanka performed the water-cutting ceremony to bring rain. They struck rivers with swords to symbolise the god Indra releasing water from the sky by slaying its mythical guardian

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