When Mark Wahlberg’s hit movie “Father Stu” was released in 2022, audiences all over the country were introduced to Father Stuart Long, a former boxer-turned-wannabe-actor-turned Catholic priest who died in Helena, Montana in 2014 at the age of 50. The motorcycle-riding tough guy who found his way to Christ and the priesthood captured the hearts of many moviegoers, but the film only told part of the story of the real Father Stu’s remarkable life and spiritual legacy.

Few people knew Father Stu as well as did Father Bart Tolleson, Stu’s close friend and fellow diocesan priest. His new book “That Was Father Stu: A Memoir of My Priestly Brother and Friend” recounts Stu’s often-bumpy road to conversion and ordination, but also tells the story of his transformative priestly ministry and his fight against the degenerative disease that ultimately took his life. In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Father Bart about his friendship with Stu and about the tremendous witness of holy suffering Stu gave in the final years of his life.