As the coronavirus persists throughout the world, loneliness and quarantines continue to be a very real part of our lives. We can learn something about dealing with isolation from today’s saint, Padre Pio. 

Born May 25, 1887 in the small village of Pietrelcina as Francesco Forgione, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin at age 15. He would later explain that it was his observations of a mendicant Capuchin roaming the hills of Benevento in search of alms that first inspired him to enter the Franciscans.

A period of challenges for the young Pio began in 1910. In August, Pio was ordained to the priesthood in a simple but solemn ceremony in Benevento. In the midst of this he was fighting stomach and eating ailments, so severe at times that he was ordered to leave the friary to seek treatment and convalescence. But it was the miraculous stigmata, which appeared shortly after Pio’s ordination, that would plunge his life into chaos.

Many onlookers thought that Padre Pio was simply a fake or a lunatic. He had garnered much attention due to his rising popularity among the faithful, a popularity that was resented by local clergy and Church leadership. To quell the public hysteria surrounding Pio, the Vatican prohibited his public celebration of the sacraments from 1921–1922 and again from 1931-1934.

It is this period of physical and spiritual solitude where Padre Pio’s life offers light for our own day. Pio, a priest of the Lord, was fully oriented to the public celebration of the Mass and Reconciliation, the very services to God and the faithful that he was no longer allowed to celebrate. Ponder this and then remember that Padre Pio never uttered one word of disobedience against the Church leaders or his superiors who placed him in isolation.

We are in the midst of our own isolation. We can feel the fear in the air: fear for our families’ health and well-being, fear for our country, fear for ourselves. And yet, the Lord knows our fears and asks us to trust him. “Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you” (Isa 41:10). Padre Pio, learning from his own time of seclusion, recommends, “every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, pray.”

Those words are so simple! But it’s true: no matter what our struggles are, we must continue to pray. Padre Pio was known for praying the rosary constantly. He would say, “In all the free time you have, once you have finished your duties of state, you should kneel down and pray the Rosary. Pray the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament or before a crucifix.” This is advice we could all stand to hear. St. Louis de Montfort suggests, “Whenever you say your rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace” (The Secret of the Rosary, 44th Rose). Perhaps we might ask for comfort in our time of loneliness and seclusion.

We look to Padre Pio as someone who graciously lived through an arduous isolation that stripped him of his public ministry. By maintaining his trust in God and his assiduous prayer life he laid his suffering at the foot of the Cross and, in 1934, reentered the public life of the Church. Reflecting on his life, he said, “What does it matter to you whether Jesus wishes to guide you to Heaven by way of the desert or by the meadow, so long as he is always with you and you arrive at the possession of a blessed eternity?” May these words resonate with us as we seek meaning in this time of turmoil and ask God’s blessing through the intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina.

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Image: Photo by gnuckx on Flickr