Saint Sharbel 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 village of Bkaakafra 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, his life was inspired by detachment and denial of worldly vanities, always seeking interior and exterior solitude. At the age of twenty-three, he left home and became a novice at the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouq, north of Jebeil.

Some time later he was transferred to the Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya. In 1853, after the two prescribed years of novitiate, he pronounced the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, choosing the name of Sharbel who was 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 go back home. It was useless as he refused firmly and persisted with his vocation. He renounced the pleasure of seeing his home, his relations and even his mother forever. He made up his mind to die to the world and to cut off all ties with it in order to devote himself completely to God, without any reserve.

After pronouncing his solemn monastic vows, the Father Sharbel was sent by his superiors to the Monastery of Cyprian and Justina at Kfifan to finish his religious studies. He was lucky to find two professors who were well known in the Order for their virtues and their theological and ascetical learning, namely the Reverend Father Nimatallah Al-Kafri and the Reverend Father Nimatallah Kassab Al-Hardini, (who is now counted amongst the Blessed.) Following the teaching and the example of these two outstanding Fathers, Saint Sharbel laid in his heart the seeds of virtue and monastic perfection.

Saint Sharbel was ordained priest on 23 July 1859 at Bkerké. He then was sent back again to the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya where 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.

Saint Sharbel had spent sixteen years of severe ascetic life always in prayer, mortification and self-denial. In 1875 his superiors permitted him to retire to the hermitage of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Annaya, which was two kilometers away from the Monastery of Saint Maron.

As a hermit, he did not live independently in the solitude of his hermitage, but remained at the disposal of his superiors, following very severe and strict discipline.

Saint Sharbel chose this solitude to practice virtue and his religious vows in a heroic way. Contemplation, manual work, fasting, continuous prayer, rest on a hard couch, hair shirt... all these ascetic practices were the program of his daily life. He lived this way of life for twenty-three years, from 1875 when he entered the hermitage to 1898 when he died. Saint Sharbel dedicated himself with all his strength to a solitary life of perfection, penance, and mortification.

First Miracles and End of Worldly Life

God wanted to reward this soul purified by His love allowing Saint Sharbel to perform extraordinary deeds during his life. Once he set his brethren free from a snake by asking the animal to go away. While saying his Breviary, his lamp was lit with water. He cured a mad person by saying a prayer and with the imposition of hands. While going to visit a sick person he was aware of his death before reaching his house. Obeying his superiors, 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 a stroke from which he never recovered. He remained between life and death for eight days, repeating the prayer mentioned above. On 24 December 1898 at the age of seventy he passed away and entered Heaven comforted by the Holy Sacraments of the Church.

He Fought a Good Fight

Sixteen years at the Monastery and twenty-three at the hermitage were lived in this 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 Saint Sharbel used to celebrate the 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 image of Our Lady. Prayers, fasting, mortification and penance for the love of God made up his life, and he could really say with Saint Paul at the end of his life:

'I have fought the good fight. Now I await the crown of justice from the Lord.'(Tim.4)

The fame of holiness which surrounded Saint Sharbel during his life spread even more after his death. On the evening of his burial in the churchyard of Saint Maron Monastery, his Superior, Father Antonio El-Michmichani wrote in the Convent's register:

These prophetic words have prodigiously come true, because hundreds of miracles have been obtained through the intercession of Saint Sharbel at Annaya near his tomb and all over the world.

Non-decaying Remains

During the 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 open the tomb four months afterwards.

It was the middle of winter, and his body was found floating on mud, due to extreme conditions. To everybody's surprise, the body was still incorrupt as if it had been buried that same day.

We speak of a prodigy which happened for many years. A bloodlike liquid was dripping from his body all the time, challenging the laws of nature. This liquid was taken devoutly in a cloth, which often gave relief to the sick, and sometimes cured them.

In 1927 a new burial took place, and his tomb was placed in the crypt of the Monastery. His tomb was opened again in 1950, 1952 and in 1955. Each time it had been noticed that his bleeding body still had its flexibility, as if he were still alive.

Since the opening of his tomb in 1950 the miracles attributed to Saint Sharbel had become more and more numerous, especially with regard to spiritual graces, conversions, and mystical fervor.

Around Saint Sharbel's tomb there was a sense of faith and piety, which attracted pilgrims from everywhere. Thousands of letters arrived at the Monastery, asking favor from this Saint. They are now kept in the archives of the convent. Every day, people from all over the world come to venerate his tomb and there they receive the Sacraments to renew their spiritual life and to find solace around the tomb of this hermit of the 19th century.

The Crippled Shall Walk

The two cures which had been acknowledged as miraculous by Pope Paul VI validated the path for the Beatification of Saint Sharbel Makhlouf. This happened during the Holy Year 1950.

The first case is that of Sister Maria Abel Kamari S. S.C.C who suffered from sharp pains caused by a gastric ulcer. She had been operated on, but without success. She went on suffering for fourteen years, compelled to stay in bed, unable to take food. Three times she was so near to dying that she was given the last Sacraments.

On 12 July 1950 she was taken on pilgrimage to Saint Sharbel's tomb in Annaya. She could not even walk. She was there in long and fervent prayer when she felt new strength in her body. 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 that day, Sister Maria Abel Kamari never had any problems with her previous condition.

The second case is that of Mr. Alessandro Obeid. He had been struck by a branch of a tree on his right eye his in 1937, which caused a break of the retina, and he lost his sight.

Mr. Obeid visited many doctors, but all efforts were deemed useless. Near the end of 1950 he was cured after many prayers near the tomb of Father Sharbel in Annaya. This is what the doctor charged to examine this fact wrote:

"...According to science and conscience, we must say that an eye so ill and for so long was certainly lost forever. Therefore, we cannot explain how it has been cured, certainly not through natural means. We need to consider this extra-ordinary fact with great humility, and to attribute it to an Almighty will, which operates only by divine grace. There is no other explanation, and it is certain that we have seriously sought an explanation without finding one..."

He Opened The Way

The example of Saint Sharbel, a monk with a solitary for the 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 grace. This 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 Saint Sharbel according to his own measure, escaping from the world when it is an enemy to God and from sin, which kills the life of our soul. In fact, the Church presents the Hermit of Lebanon not only to our veneration but also as a model to all Christians.

His Beatification

"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)

Beatification of Father Sharbel's solemn ceremony at Saint Peter's, 5 December 1965. Below is the address of the Patriarch Paul Peter Cardinal:
(Translation of the original French - in principal parts)

"Most Holy Father, Sharbel Makhlouf, the Lebanese Maronite Monk, whom you have inscribed today among the Blessed, is indeed for our world shaken by indifference, superficiality and atheism, the witness of penance and silent prayer. At the summit of a Lebanese Mountain, in a poor hermitage, deprived of everything, he resolved, attracted by the life of the Savior, to follow the sorrowful way of His Cross. He decided, likewise, through mortification's, penances and great austerities, to offer thus give the example of a contrite heart and real return to God.

Penitence is nevertheless insufficient virtue without prayer. So the hermit Sharbel used to pass long hours of the day and night in silent adoration and supplication. Combining with the contemplative life and manual labor he was reviving in himself the purest traditions of Oriental Monachism. By so doing, he was preaching to our unfortunate and confused world the message of truth and the right answer to the solution of its problems, namely, the practice of penance prayer and works.

It is indeed my privilege to express today to you, most Holy Father, my gratitude and that of our Maronite Church. I would like also to be the interpreter of all your children of Lebanon, as well as all those who of any race or religion have benefited by the intercession of this man of God.

I thank Your Holiness for inscribing the name of Father Sharbel Makhlouf among the Blessed of the Church and for consecrating, at the same time, in the eyes of the Church and of humanity, his virtues so needed in our modern times.

May Saint Sharbel and all those whom you inscribed or will inscribe among the Saints and the Blessed intercede for you before Christ the Lord. May you, likewise, reach through their intercession in your guiding role, your apostolic goal so clearly proclaimed before the whole world: recognition of the spiritual values of man created in the image of God. Peace in justice and the return of humanity to Christ, center of everything for all, sole Light and Salvation of mankind.

The Address of the Pope Paul VI

Great today, is the gladness in heaven and earth for the Beatification of Sharbel Makhlouf, Monk and Hermit of the Lebanese Maronite Order. Great is the joy of the East and West for this son of Lebanon, admirable flower of sanctity blowing on the stem of the ancient, monastic traditions of the East, and venerated today by the Church of Rome.

How can this joy but overflow first of all in the hearts of the sons of Saint Maroun? This is what is forcibly asserted by our venerable Brother, Cardinal Patriarch Paul Peter Meouchi, in profound words which we deeply appreciate. For the Maronite Order and for the Lebanese Catholics, this is indeed a great day. Likewise we are happy to greet at the same time the members of the delegation graciously representing the Lebanese Government on this occasion, as well as the other delegations. We are deeply moved by this delicate gesture and the presence of these personalities recalls vividly to our mind the warm welcome extended to us by the entire Lebanon. Without distinction of race or religion, at our stop in Beirut, on our way to Bombay. To all we extend our heartfelt thanks.

The large gathering of sons and daughters of the noble Lebanon - privileged "carrefour" and place of traditional encounters between Africa, Asia and Europe - near the glorious Tomb of Peter, underlines the importance of the act accomplished today by the Church. To the apostolic work, the Church must add centers of contemplative life where praise and intercession ascend to God in a perfumed fragrance.

These are, finally, the lessons derived from this ceremony for all. May Saint Sharbel draw us after him along the path of sanctity, where silent prayer in the presence of God has its own particular place. May he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance and asceticism, to liberate

the soul in its ascent to God. The practice of these virtues is indeed different according to the various states of life and responsibilities of people. But no Christian can ignore them if he wants to follow Our Lord.

These are the noble lessons which Sharbel Makhlouf so timely gives us. That they may be well understood and practiced. We implore upon all, through the intercession of this new Blessed. Already so venerated, an abundant effusion of graces; and paternally we bless you.

Saint Sharbel's Moral Message

Great are the beneficial effects produced by Father Sharbel's intercession for the relief of human suffering, cures of the sick, and other temporal favors. How much greater and more admirable is his influence in the spiritual domain?

While this transformation in the world of souls is not apparent to the senses, there is no reason to minimize its real value to the glory of God and His Church. From the obscure crypt of Saint Maroun Annaya there radiates a splendid ray of light enkindling the faith in souls grown cold by the errors of materialism and atheism. From this tomb emanates a supernatural power that is sweeping throughout the East and awakening the dormant energies of many hearts.

This scene of numerous miracles reflects a profound atmosphere of piety and religion. The sick, absorbed in prayer, seem to forget their suffering. Even non-Catholics, non-Christians join in the public acts of devotion and, when the priest blesses the faithful, the non-Christians refuse to be deprived of Father Sharbel's intercession. The religious favor reaches its climax when the crowed witnesses a miraculous cure. Then resounds the cry Miracle! Miracle! The person favored is lifted up and carried aloft; the bells of the monastery ring forth echoing the joyful news; the crowd follows the monks in praising and thanking God and proceeds to solemn devotion and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Moral transformation, the conversion of humanity, is without doubt the primary purpose of God's favors. As at Caphamaum, our Savior, before ordering the paralytic to stand and walk, first absolved him saying:

'Thy sins are forgiven thee, my son. So here at Saint Maroun Annaya, God seems to have chosen a humble monk to exhort the people to do penance. It has been reported that Father Sharbel appeared to some who were praying and begging for a miracle of healing, and he commanded them: Go first to the confessional cleanse your soul. The cure of the body followed the spiritual recovery.'

In confirmation of this spiritual message, we refer to the eminent voice of the Patriarch, Cardinal Paul P. Meouchi, when he says in his address at the Beatification:

'By his life, Saint Sharbel is preaching to our unfortunate and confused world the message of truth and virtue, and he is going the right answer for the solution of its problems, namely, in the practice of penance, prayer and work.'

What better testimonial can we bring to the spiritual contribution of Saint Sharbel in the restoration of the kingdom of Christ within the souls, than the magisterial word of the Supreme Pontiff? On that Sunday, 5 December, in the Basilica of Peter and from his throne, before the Fathers of the Ecumenical Council, and representations and Delegations of the whole world, he opens his address by this acclamation:

'Great is today the gladness in heaven and earth, for the Beatification of Father Sharbel Makhlouf. Great is the joy of the East and West, for this son of Lebanon!'

Paul VI who ordered the Beatification to coincide with the closing of the Council, has in mind to propose the holy Hermit Sharbel as a providential man bearing to our modern world a message of deep spirituality of an ecumenical character.

'At the closing of the Council, when many souls are inquiring about the proper measures to be used by the Church to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of Christ, how appropriately the Saint of Annaya is reminding us about the indispensable role of prayer, of hidden virtues, of mortification.'

'The just shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like the Cedar of Lebanon' (Ps. xci, 13).

His Canonization

Grace of the third case was the miracle of Miriam Awad of Hammana. She suffered from throat cancer which doctors declared incurable. She prayed to Saint Sharbel and was healed through his intervention in 1967. It was this third miracle that opened the path for Sharbel to finally become counted amongst the Saints.

In 1976, Pope Paul VI signed the decision of the process for the canonization of Saint Sharbel, to be solemnly proclaimed in a Pontifical Mass on 9 October 1977.

Saint Sharbel, a Lebanese Saint

The canonization of a Lebanese monk is undeniably a historic event, and a new expression of the ecumenical movement in the church.

Saint Sharbel is the heir to an oriental spiritual heritage rich in its variety and its harmony, which has flourished in Lebanon throughout the centuries. He is a true witness to the nobility of hidden virtue and to the triumph of the spirit. He sums up the various religious traditions- not only Christian but Sunnite, Shiite, Druze, and all the other beliefs in that mosaic of faiths which go to make up the great family of Lebanon. Each one can find his own features in the face of Saint Sharbel.

With one of her sons honored in the highest degree of holiness, Lebanon is today secure in her glory- the glory of people who have endeavored throughout the centuries of history to endure as a stronghold of the values of the spirit.