Saint Charbel Makhlouf

Saint Charbel Makhlouf

Born: May 8, 1828 in Bekaa Kafra, Lebanon

Died: December 24, 1898 (age 70) at the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, Lebanon

Beatified:  December 5, 1965, by Pope Paul VI

Canonized: October 9, 1977 by Pope Paul VI

Feast day: July 24

Saint Charbel Makhlouf, O.L.M. was a Maronite monk and priest from Lebanon who lived an austere life, known for his holiness. Many miracles have been attributed to the intercession of Saint Charbel.

He was born in 1828. In 1851 he entered the Lebanese Maronite Order at the Monastery of Our Lady in Mayfouq to begin studies as a monk. He made his final profession to become a monk in 1853 and took the name of Charbel, a 2nd-century martyr in Antioch.

He was ordained a priest in 1859 and was sent to the St. Maron Monastery, where he lived a life of severe asceticism. He was granted the privilege of living as a hermit in 1875 and lived as a solitary hermit in the chapel Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul until his death in December 1898.

His tomb was opened several times and, as late as 1965 every time the crypt was opened, his body was observed to be flexible and bleeding, as though it were alive. The next time the tomb was opened, in 1976, the body was completely decomposed, with only the skeleton remaining.

During the beatification of Charbel on December 5, 1965, Pope Paul VI commented that “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.”

He was canonized a saint by Pope Paul VI on October 9, 1977.