Who is Saint Charbel?
Saint Charbel is the first Confessor of the Eastern Church, known around the world for his love of God and his thousands of miracles.
Early Life
He was born on May 8, 1828 in the little village of Bqaa Kafra (بقاع كفرا) in the high mountains of Northern Lebanon from poor, but respectable and devout parents.
Priesthood
Saint Charbel spent sixteen years of severe ascetic life, always in prayer, mortification and self-denial in the Monastery of St. Maroun, a life which he had chosen to be able to come closer to God.
Sainthood
Saint Charbel was beatified on December 5, 1965, described by Pope Paul VI as “a new, eminent member of monastic sanctity.” He was then canonized on October 9, 1977.
Feast Day
Saint Charbel is celebrated every year at our parish with a special novena held nine days before the feast of his canonization on October 9th. His official Feast Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in July according to the Maronite Calendar, which we also celebrate with a novena nine days prior.
Who is Saint Charbel?
Vocation
Saint Charbel is the first Confessor of the Eastern Church raised to the glory of the altars in modern times. He was born on May 8, 1828 in the little village of Bqaa Kafra (بقاع كفرا) in the high mountains of Northern Lebanon from poor, but respectable and devout parents.
He was the last of five children; two brothers and two sisters were born before him into that blessed family. When he was baptized, he was given the name of Joseph. He learned a profound and sound piety from his parents and cultivated these seeds of sanctity with generous care, with continuous prayer and, since his adolescence, with a life inspired by detachment and denial of worldly vanities. He was always seeking interior and exterior solitude.
At the age of twenty-three he left his parent’s house to go as a novice to the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk in the North of Jbeil. Some time later he was transferred from the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk to the Monastery of St. Maroun in Annaya (the Lebanese Maronite Order).
In 1853, after the two prescribed years of novitiate, he pronounced the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, choosing the name of Charbel, an old Oriental martyr.
Humility, Poverty and Chastity
His mother and other members of his family, having found his shelter, reached him and begged him to return home, but it was useless, because he refused firmly and followed his vocation. He renounced the pleasure of seeing his home, his relations and even his mother for ever, having made up his mind and cut off all ties with the world in order to devote himself completely to God, without any reserve.
After pronouncing his solemn monastic vows, Saint Charbel was sent by his superiors to the Monastery of Kfifan to finish his religious studies. He was fortunate to meet two professors who were well known in the Maronite Order for their virtues and their theological and ascetical learning, namely the R.F.Nimatullah Al-Kafri and the R.F.Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini. Following the teaching and the example of these two outstanding Fathers, Blessed Charbel laid to heart the seeds of virtue and monastic perfection.
Saint Charbel was ordained priest in 1859 and then went back again to the Monastery of St. Maroun in Annaya. There he performed all his Holy services in a very edifying way, while carrying on every kind of manual work. He accomplished all the duties of monastic life with deep humility; perfect obedience, strict poverty and heroic chastity that made him resemble an angel.
Hermitage
Saint Charbel spent sixteen years of severe ascetic life, always in prayer, mortification and self-denial in the Monastery of St. Maroun, a life which he had chosen to be able to come closer to God. He was then permitted in 1875, by his superiors, to retire to the hermitage of St. Peter and St. Paul in Annaya, a property of the Monastery of St.Maroun.
The hermit does not live independently in the solitude of his hermitage, but remains at the disposal of his superiors, following a very severe and strict discipline. In the Eastern Church, Hermetic life is quite strict and belongs to the Constitutions of the Lebanese Maronite Order founded in Lebanon in 1695 and approved by Pope Clement XII in 1732.
Saint Charbel chose this solitude not to live according to his own mind, but to practice virtue and his religious vows in a heroic way. Contemplation, manual work, fasting, continuous prayer, short rest on a hard couch and much more. All these ascetic practices are part of his daily life. In such a way, for twenty-three years, from 1875 when he entered the hermitage to 1898 when he died, Blessed Charbel dedicated himself with all his strength to a solitary life of perfection, penance, and mortification.
First miracles and end of his worldly life
God wanted to reward Saint Charbel by allowing him to perform extraordinary deeds during his life. He carried out many miracles, once saved his brethren from a snake by asking the animal to go away; his lamp was lighted with water; he cured a mad person by saying a prayer and the imposition of his hands; while going to visit a sick person he was aware of his death before reaching his house, and he was able to free with holy water some fields invaded by grasshoppers.
On December 16, 1898, while he was celebrating Mass, at the Elevation of the Host, when – according to Maronite Liturgy – he was saying this prayer: «Father of Truth, here is Your Son, Victim of Expiation; here is the Blood which intercedes for me, it is my offering, accept it» he suffered an apoplectic stroke from which he never recovered. He remained between life and death for eight days, repeating the prayer mentioned above, and on the 24th of December, on Christmas Eve, at the age of seventy, he died and entered Heaven comforted by the Holy Sacraments of the Church.
He fought the good fight
Sixteen years at the Monastery and twenty-three at the hermitage were lived in a Holy way. His life was marked by a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the 39 years of his priestly life Blessed Charbel used to celebrate Holy Mass every day after a long preparation and he used to finish with a thanksgiving, which lasted not less than two hours. He went night and day to the chapel to visit the Blessed Sacrament and to say many rosaries before the picture of Our Lady. Therefore, prayers, fasting, mortification, penance for the love of God, all this made up his life and he could really say with S. Paul at the end of his life: «I have fought the good fight. Now I await the crown of justice from the Lord».
The fame of holiness, which surrounded Saint Charbel during his life, spread even more after his death. On the evening of his burial in the churchyard of St. Maroun Monastery, his superior Father Antonio El-Michmichani wrote in the Convent’s register: “0n the 24th of December 1898, he was called to God after receiving the Sacraments of the Church. The hermit Father Charbel Makhlouf of Bqaa Kafra was struck by paralysis. He was seventy. Because of what he will do after his death, I need not talk about his good behavior and, above all the observance of his vows, and we may truly say that his obedience was more angelic than human.”
These prophetic words have come true, because hundreds of miracles have been obtained through the intercession of Saint Charbel at Annaya near his tomb and all over the world.
During forty-five nights after his death an extraordinary brightness surrounded his tomb, according to many witnesses. The apparition of that light as well as the enthusiasm of the faithful who tried to steal the remains of this holy man, made the Ecclesiastical Authority to open the tomb four months afterwards. It was in the middle of winter and the body, because of the bad conditions of that place, was found floating on mud.
To everybody’s surprise, the body was in-corrupt as if it had been buried that same day. We must speak of a prodigy that happens even today: a blood-like liquid continues to drip all the time from his body, challenging the laws of nature. This liquid is taken devoutly in a cloth, which often gives relief to the sick, and sometimes it cures them.
In 1927 there was a new burial and his tomb was placed in the crypt of the Monastery. This happened again in 1950, 1952, and in 1955 and each time it has been noticed that his bleeding body still has its flexibility as if he were alive.
Since the opening of his tomb in 1950, the miracles attributed to Father Charbel have become more and more numerous, especially with regard to spiritual graces, conversions, and mystical fervor. Around his blessed tomb there is a sense of faith and piety, which attracts pilgrims from every place. Letters continue to flood from all over the world thanking him for his grace. All are kept in the archives of the convent. Every day, people from different countries come to venerate his tomb and there they receive the Sacraments to renew their spiritual life and to find solace around the tomb of Saint Charbel.
And the crippled shall walk
The two cures which have been acknowledged as miraculous by Pope Paul VI now reigning, and which are valid for the Beatification of Father Charbel Makhlouf, happened during the Holy Year 1950.
On the occasion of his beatification on December 5th 1965, the Eastern Catholic hermit was described by Pope Paul VI as “ a new, eminent member of monastic sanctity,” who “through his example and his intercession is enriching the entire Christian people.” He was then canonized October 9th 1977.
The first case is that of Sister Maria Abel Kamari S.S.C.G who suffered from sharp pains caused by a gastric ulcer. She had been operated on, but without success and she went on suffering for fourteen years, compelled to stay in bed, unable to take food, and three times she was so near to dying that she was given the last Sacraments. On July 12, 1950, she was taken to Father Charbel’s tomb in Annaya. She could not even walk to the tomb, but when she was there after long and fervent prayer she felt new strength in her body, and a few minutes later she got up without any help and started walking, followed by the people who cried that it was a miracle. Since then Sister Maria Abel Kamari had never had any trouble. She was perfectly well.
The second case is that of Mr. Alessandro Obeid. A branch of a tree had struck him on his right eye; this in the year 1937, and this caused a break of the retina causing him to lose his ability to see. Mr. Obeid visited many doctors, but it was useless until the year 1950, when suddenly the eye was cured after many prayers near the tomb of Father Charbel in Annaya.
Here is what his doctor had claimed: «According to science and conscience, we must say that an eye so ill and for so long was certainly lost for ever. Therefore, we cannot explain how it has been cured, certainly not through natural means. We need to consider this extraordinary fact with great humility, and to attribute it to an Almighty Will that operates only by divine grace. There is no other explanation, and it is certain that we have seriously sought an explanation without finding one».
The example Saint Charbel had set, as a monk living in complete solitude and prayer and his love of God, induces us in the midst of this restless and materialistic world, to be silent in order to meet God and to establish an interior desert in our souls and to listen to the appeals of His grace. This is a desert which does not make one poor; but rich, a solitude which does not cut us off from others, but which attracts souls to pray and which gives the world the graces necessary for salvation for the glory of God.
Each one of us will be able to follow St. Charbel according to his own measure, escaping from the world when it is an enemy to God and from sin. In fact, the Church presents the Hermit of Lebanon not only to our veneration, but also as a model to all Christians.
« Glory to the Father who crowns the struggles of the Saints, Glory to the Son who shows His power in their relics, Glory to the Holy Spirit who works through their mortal remains to give us a comfort in every sorrow».
(Maronite Divine Office)