Patrick's Story
In August of 2021, Patrick was admitted to the hospital with covid. He slowly got better, but then was transferred to a nursing home, contracted pneumonia, and was sent back to the hospital, where his condition worsened.
After a month in the hospital, Patrick was barely progressing.
“You’re going to be sent to another nursing home,” a social worker told him one day. “At the rate you’re progressing, you’ll likely be there for another three to four weeks.”
The only nursing home that had room for him was over an hour away. Patrick’s wife was already stressed beyond her limits, trying to help him while also learning how to do his job in addition to hers to keep their family’s business afloat.
It felt like an impossible situation. They needed a miracle.
Patrick—who happens to be the great-great nephew of St. Charbel—asked his friends to pray.
One of his friends, Samantha, was a deeply devout Catholic mother whose children often voluntarily joined her for her regular holy hour, which was every Friday morning from 2-3 a.m. In response to Patrick’s request for prayers, Samantha sent him Don Dolindo’s Rosary of Abandonment.
Patrick had never heard of Don Dolindo, so he looked him up and discovered that Padre Pio had called Don Dolindo a saint and said that “the whole of Paradise” was in his soul.
Over the past month in the hospital, Patrick had been growing closer to Padre Pio. The longer he was there, the harder it had become to pray on his own—he just felt too depleted. So, he had been using the internet to find sources to assist him in prayer. As he did this, a pattern began to emerge: Patrick would pray to his great-great uncle, St. Charbel, and then he’d go online, and videos about Padre Pio would pop up. It felt like St. Charbel was leading him to Padre Pio. Daily, he learned to love and trust the saint from Pietrelcina more and more.
And now, it felt like Padre Pio was leading him to Don Dolindo.
If he had heard about Don Dolindo in some other way, Patrick might not have trusted him right away. But Padre Pio’s endorsement felt like a personal introduction. It was more than a coincidence that the two saints were connected; it was Providence.
In his hospital room that day, Patrick said the Rosary of Abandonment and felt an immediate peace.
Afterward, he sent a text to Samantha asking for more about Don Dolindo. In response, she sent him the Surrender Novena.
Patrick said all nine days of the Surrender Novena at once. Then he slept like a baby.
The next morning, the social worker came into his room again. This time, it was with good news.
Miraculous news.
She told Patrick that he would go home that day or the next.
These days, Patrick keeps the perpetual adoration chapel at his parish stocked with Surrender Novena prayer cards. He has not forgotten the miracle he received through Don Dolindo—to whom he was sent by Padre Pio—to whom, in turn, he was sent by his great-great uncle, St. Charbel.
In order to obtain Patrick’s miracle, each saint had pointed to the next, in a succession of intercession that could only have been arranged in heaven.
Author’s Note: Patrick’s story is translated into Italian and French here.