Saint Charbel Makhlouf (born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf, in Arabic مار شربل; Bkaakafra, May 8, 1828 – Annaya, December 24, 1898) was a Lebanese Maronite priest and monk belonging to the Lebanese Maronite Order (OLM). Proclaimed a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1977, he is considered the “Padre Pio of Lebanon” and is venerated worldwide as one of the greatest hermits and miracle workers of the Middle East.
The liturgical feast of Saint Charbel Makhlouf is on July 24.
In his honor, on September 14, 2017, a statue 27 meters high and weighing 40 tons was inaugurated in Lebanon. He was the fifth child of farmers Antoun Makhlouf and Brigitta Al-Chidiac, who named him Youssef Antoun (Joseph Anthony). Born on May 8, 1828, in the village of Beqaa Kafra (the highest in Lebanon, at 1,600 meters above sea level), he was orphaned at just three years old. His mother remarried two years later to a deeply religious man (who later became a deacon) who guided him towards daily prayer. Furthermore, his two hermit uncles in the Valley of the Saints served as strong role models for him.
As a boy, he began tending the family flock and showed an intense inclination towards the contemplative life: already at the age of 14, every day after grazing, he would retreat to pray for hours on his knees before an image of the Holy Virgin in a cave (now known as “the Saint’s cave”). He once told his cow: “Wait until I finish praying, because I cannot talk to you and to God at the same time. He has priority.”
At 23, he ran away from home without saying goodbye to anyone and began his novitiate in the Lebanese Maronite Order (the oldest in the Maronite Catholic Church) at the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouq, choosing the name Charbel (which in Syriac means “story of God” or “tale of God”), in honor of an Antiochene martyr. He moved to the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, where he took his perpetual vows in 1853, and then moved to the Monastery of Saint Cyprian of Kfifen, where he studied philosophy and theology under the learned guidance of Nimatullah Youssef Kassab Al-Hardini (also canonized, in 2004).
He was ordained a priest on July 23, 1859. He then returned to the Monastery of Annaya (at 1,200 meters altitude in the mountains inland from Byblos), where he lived for 15 years in total obedience to his superiors, caring for the poor, the sick, and working in the fields. His daily life was extraordinary: he fasted and kept constant vigils, kneeling for hours before the Blessed Sacrament. Mass was the heart of his day, and he prepared for it with great care. He only left the monastery by order of his superiors to visit the sick or administer sacraments. He left nothing in writing; the phrases attributed to him have been passed down solely through oral tradition.
Marian Devotion
The Lebanese monk never parted with the image of the Queen of the Rosary, keeping a picture of her on the altar and one in his cell. Father Milad Tarabay, the Order’s procurator in Rome, explained: “It was his theology teacher, Saint Nimatullah, who instilled in Saint Charbel a love for the Madonna. Both Saint Charbel and Saint Nimatullah used to say that whoever entrusts themselves completely to Mary will never know hell.” In Saint Charbel’s rosary, composed of five groups of beads, there are indeed blue beads symbolizing his deep devotion to the Virgin.
The Miracle of the Lamp
One evening, Father Charbel returned late from working in the fields and was unaware of the order not to light lanterns, imposed that evening by the superior as a sign of poverty. Driven by the desire to pray, he asked a servant to put oil in his lamp. The servant, as a joke, poured water into it, but the lamp lit up anyway. The superior, seeing the light filtering from the cell, became angry; however, upon discovering that water had been poured in, he knelt before the saint to ask for forgiveness.
The Last Years and Death
Feeling the need for greater communion with God, on February 13, 1875, he obtained permission to retire to the hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul, belonging to the Monastery of Annaya. There he spent the last 24 years of his earthly life, working, praying, and observing penance and silence according to the Rule of the Maronite hermits.
While celebrating Mass, at the moment of the elevation of the consecrated Host and chalice, he was struck by a stroke. He died on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1898, after eight days of agony during which he refused more nutritious food to continue observing the Rule and was heard praying incessantly by his confreres.
The Light, the Tomb, and the Miraculous Transudation
From the grave where he was buried, an intense light soon began to appear at night, visible throughout the valley. Fearing that the body would be stolen, the monks transferred it to a chapel within the monastery. It was then that it was observed that the body was still intact, soft, retained the temperature of living bodies, and exuded a viscous reddish liquid (similar to blood mixed with water).
In 1925, Pius XI initiated the cause for beatification. In 1950, the tomb was reopened in front of a commission of three doctors because the monks had noticed that the liquid was seeping to the outer walls of the crypt; the exhumation attracted a multitude of pilgrims, including non-Christians. The transudation continued for 79 years, ceasing in 1977. Dr. Georges Chokrallah, among the witnesses at the canonical process, stated: “Driven by scientific curiosity, I sought to discover the secret of that body and that liquid. After examining them for about 17 years, two or three times a year, my personal opinion, based on study and experience, is that they were imbued with a mysterious supernatural force.”
Coinciding with the opening of the tomb in 1950, there was a surge in healings. Monsignor Nasri Rizcallah wrote about it: “I have been told of cases of blind people healed, hunchbacks straightened, and paralyzed people regaining the use of their limbs by coming to pray in the crypt. Even more remarkable: the miracle recipients are not only Christians but also Muslims. And because of this, the word spread throughout Islam, and the sick flock from all over to pray in Annaya. The spectacle is extraordinary.”
Beatification and Canonization
As early as 1954, Pius XII had signed the decree for beatification, which was then celebrated on December 5, 1965, by Paul VI at the closing of the Second Vatican Council. On October 9, 1977, Paul VI officially proclaimed him a saint in St. Peter’s.
In his canonization homily, the Pope emphasized: “The spirit of the eremitical vocation that manifests itself in the new Saint, far from belonging to a bygone era, appears very important to us, for our world, as for the life of the Church. Today’s social life is often marked by exuberance, excitement, the insatiable pursuit of comfort and pleasure, combined with a growing weakness of will: it will not regain its balance except with an increase of self-control, asceticism, poverty, peace, simplicity, interiority, silence […]. To save the world, to conquer it spiritually, it is necessary, as Christ wishes, to be in the world, but not to belong to all that in the world distances us from God. The hermit of Annaya reminds us of this today with incomparable strength.”
Famous Miraculous Healings
Thousands of healing cases are attributed to Saint Charbel, some of which were examined for the cause of beatification and then canonization.
Sister Mary Abel Kamari: healed from an ulcer on July 12, 1950, before the tomb.
Iskandar Naim Obeid of Baabdat: blind in one eye since 1937, regained sight in 1950 after visiting the tomb.
Mariam Awad of Hammana: healed from throat cancer.
Nouhad Al-Chami (January 22, 1993): suffering from hemiplegia with double carotid artery obstruction and deemed inoperable. After her son prayed in Annaya, the woman dreamed of two Maronite monks; one of them (Saint Charbel) operated on her neck with the help of Saint Maron. Waking up with two 12 cm scars, she was found completely healed by doctors in Beirut. Saint Charbel reappeared to her in a dream, saying: “I operated on you so that everyone can see you and people return to the faith. I ask you to attend Mass at the Hermitage of Annaya on the 22nd of each month; your wounds will bleed on the first Friday and the 22nd of each month.”
Dafné Gutierrez (Phoenix, Arizona, January 2016): suffering from Arnold-Chiari malformation and had become completely blind due to papilledema. After the Maronite pastor Wissam Akiki prayed over her, placing the saint’s relic on her, the woman regained her sight, an event confirmed by doctors with no scientific explanation.
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