The Story of a Great Saint of the Near East, Saint Charbel, Whose Catholic Feast Day (in the Roman Calendar) Is Wednesday, July 24, in 2019

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This is part of a longer article at Catholic Exchange" on this Catholic Maronite monk, an article provided at St. Charbel Makhlouf Wants to Pray for You

His Mystical Life of Suffering

St. Charbel’s name means “God’s good news” in Aramaic. He was certainly a clandestine harbinger of such holiness. Immediately after his novitiate began, he donned the habit that included a black robe, symbolizing death to himself; a black-tasseled belt, which reminded him of the scourge of Jesus. Every time it is touched, the monk prays, “With your pain, O Jesus Christ.”

St. Charbel wanted to be given the most onerous and humiliating work while at the monastery, which was granted to him. Yet, as he harvested crops, the monks in his community observed the level of sacred care with which he did so. It was said that the degree of his poverty, chastity, and obedience and the humility with which he exemplified his vows is “unsurpassed.”

The day after he died, Christmas Day, a small group of monks at the hermitage noticed a brilliant glow emanating from his coffin shortly before interment. The light shone continually for four months until permission was granted to open his casket. Once this was done, the light revealed a perfectly incorrupt body of the saintly man, and the cause for his canonization began shortly thereafter. It was determined by medical professionals that there was no scientific explanation for the glow or his incorrupt body.

His life and death were explained to be “more angelic than human.”

Monasticim, Both Ancient and New

St. Charbel was a Maronite monk who lived as a hermit in Lebanon during the late nineteenth century.

St. Paul VI said of St. Charbel as he closed the Second Vatican Council on December 5, 1965, “Great is the gladness in heaven and earth today for the beatification of Charbel 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 blooming on the stem of the ancient monastic traditions of the East, and venerated today by the Church of Rome…. The holy monk of Annaya is presented as one who reminds us of the indispensable role of prayer, hidden virtues and penance…”

Thousands of recorded miracles have been attributed to St. Charbel’s intercession throughout the years, especially by pilgrims who travel to North Lebanon in gratitude for unexplained physical healings in particular. People with diseases of the eye, spinal malformations, and other physical ailments have received dramatic reversals of their conditions and instantaneous, total healings.
 
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Lord, infinitely Holy and Glorified in Your Saints,
You have inspired Charbel, the saint monk,
to lead the perfect life of a hermit.
We thank You for granting him the blessing
and the strength to detach himself from the world
so that the heroism of the monastic virtues of poverty,
obedience, and chastity,
could triumph in his hermitage.
We beseech You to grant us
the grace of loving and serving You,
following his example.
Almighty God, Who has manifested
the power of St. Charbel’s intercession
through his countless miracles and favours,
grant us peace. Amen
 
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