Chárbel Makhlouf, was an ascetic and Maronite monk of Lebanese origin, who has become a popular figure in recent times, that image of an older man with a white beard and black robe in a position of prayer is the one that most we know, but we want to invite you to know here, everything about San Chárbel.
Who was Saint Charbel?
Chárbel Makhlouf, better known as Sarbelio or Saint Chárbel, was born in Annaya, Lebanon, on May 8, 1828 under the name of Youssef Antoun Makhlouf, he himself became an ascetic and Maronite monk. Lebanon is the main seat of all the Maronites, of the Patriarchs and is part of the Holy Land.
His family was a farmer, and he was the fifth child to be born from the union of Antun Makhlouf and Brigitte Chidiac, it is known that he lost his father when he was only 3 years old and it was his mother, Brigitte Chidiac, who took care of him and taught him to him and his brothers how to have a life with an example of virtue and faith. She married a second time to a good and devout man, who also became a Maronite monk, since in this religion a married man can have the opportunity to be ordained as a priest.
He completed his studies at the parish school and also assisted his stepfather during his priestly ministry. It was his stepfather who taught him to lead a life of prayer. At the age of 14, he was working as a shepherd. One day, he came across a cave and decided to go there every day, sitting in prayer very frequently and regularly. The other young men in the village made fun of Yousseff Makhlouf for his personality. He received a good example not only from his mother and stepfather, but also from his mother's brothers, who belonged to the Lebanese Maronite Order, with whom he frequently visited and spoke.
His years as a Maronite Monk
At 20 years old, Youssef Makhlouf was helping to support his family, and although he was already old enough to marry, he wanted to wait. At 23 years old, in 1851, Youssef Makhlouf made the decision to move to the town of Mayfoug, where he entered the Maronite Order as a novice at the Convent of Our Lady of Mayfouq. There, he took the name Friar Charbel. He later went to Kfifen, where he received many instructions and teachings from his later confessor, Saint Nimatullah Al-Hardini. He studied philosophy and theology at the Monastery of Saint Cyprian in Kfifen.
It was at the Annaya Monastery where he spent his entire life as a monk until his death. He took his vows in 1853 and became a priest in 1859. During his life as a monk he practiced and stood out for showing his love for Christ and the Virgin Mary and for leading a constant life of prayer, fasting and suffering. In addition, he also preached and had the gift of Thaumaturgy or healing the sick, which, according to many of his believers, he continued to do even after his death.
Example of Life Consecrated to the Priesthood
According to the information available about this saint, when he was 25 years old he dedicated his life to the Catholic liturgy. In 1853 he took the religious vows of obedience, poverty and chastity, and when he turned 31 he received full ordination by the imposition of hands of Monsignor Yusef El-Marid, on July 23, 1859, and was consecrated in the patriarchal seat of Bkerke.
Throughout his life as a priest, he only put into practice all the teachings he received from his spiritual guide and teacher in theology, today Blessed Nemtala El Hardini. He had told him that being a priest was like being another Christ, and to achieve this, one should follow the path of Calvary. He invited him to commit himself without letting himself be discouraged, since Christ himself would be the one to help him.
It was in this way that Saint Charbel decided to consecrate himself religiously and priestly, leading a life similar to that of Christ, sacrificing himself and preparing his mass in such a way that it would be the central point where he could lead the life of a hermit priest.
Saint Charbel saw that his mission as a priest should be as described in the Bible in Genesis 12,1:3-XNUMX, when God calls a priest as he did with Abraham he had to leave his land and his father's house and go to the country that Abraham would show him, in this way God would bless him making his name great and through him the peoples of the earth would also be blessed.
For this reason, at the age of 47, he left his home, his family, and his land to make his ministry his true monastic vocation. He asked permission to lead a hermit's life, living alone and praying at the Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul. By distancing himself from everything, he ate only one meal a day. He was so determined that he didn't even want to go to his village to celebrate Mass, knowing his mother would be there. The spirit that motivated him to make this decision was always part of his spiritual mysticism and what is called today the mystery of his holiness.
His Death and Canonization
Saint Chárbel died in the Maronite Monastery of Annaya, on December 24, 1898, at the age of 70, due to an illness that left him paralyzed, his mortal remains remain there incorrupt. Many of the faithful have said that a liquid similar to blood can be seen coming out of his tomb, in what has been called liquefaction of the blood or liquefied blood, which has also been seen in the bodies of San Jenaro of Naples, San Nicolás de Tolentino and San Pantaleón, which is located in the Monastery of the Incarnation in Madrid.
In fact, it has also been established that his body does not have the rigidity of death and that he has the temperature of a living person. In 1950 a canvas was placed on his face, when it was removed his face was marked as in the canvas of the Shroud of Turin. That same year oil stains began to be seen on the coffin, which was declared miraculous and healing, and even the Catholic Church presents it as a relic of this saint.
His beatification took place in 1965, and it was not until 1977 when he was canonized by Pope Paul VI, that year his tomb was opened again and his decomposed body was found, there were only a few months left for the canonization, but even so he remains the first Catholic saint that Lebanon has, he was even named a saint before his teacher, Saint Nematalá Hardini.
Miracles of Saint Charbel
Popularly many miracles have been attributed to him, the people who are his devotees believe that it was God who gave him this power, both in life and after his death. After his death several testimonies were given that from his tomb, for forty-five days a light with an intense brightness could be seen, already for the people he was a saint, but it was not accepted that he be given such a cult until the church will not approve.
At the insistence of his followers and because of everything that was happening, his body was exhumed four months after his death, to see what was happening in the tomb. His body was buried without a coffin, according to what was established by the order to which it belonged. Upon entering, they expressed astonishment to see that his body was floating in the mud that was in the tomb, which had been flooded with water a short time ago.
His body is just as it was the day he died, and remains so today, and it exuded a form of red liquid like blood. On the day of his canonization, it was said that a kind of perfume came from his body that could be perceived from a certain distance. This perfume was attributed to an oil that has been called prodigious.
His devotion began to spread rapidly, due to miracles attributed to his intercession. Mexico was the first Latin American country to begin venerating him, following a Maronite migration that began in the late 19th century. For many, God has used this saint to maintain harmony between East and West.
More than 20 thousand miracles have been attributed to him, which have been the object of investigation and registration by the Catholic Church. These miracles are found around the world, among them are the countries of Lebanon, Iraq, Brazil, Egypt, France, the United States, Australia, Argentina, Russia, among others. The most interesting miracles we have of him are the following:
Nouhad El-Chami: a 55-year-old woman with 12 children, was diagnosed on January 9, 1993, with left-sided hemiplegia affecting her leg, arm, and mouth. She experienced severe pain and was unable to move. On January 22, she prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Charbel. She says that he appeared to her that night in her bed, placed his hand on her neck, and told her he would perform an operation to heal her.
She stated that at two in the morning she was able to get out of bed and went to the bathroom. In the mirror she could see two cuts on her neck, each about 12 centimeters in size. Then she went to the room where her husband was sleeping and woke him up. Frightened, he asked her how she had gotten there alone, since she could have fallen and hurt herself, which would have been fatal for her. However, she told him what had happened with Saint Charbel.
Later she went to the hermitage with her whole family to thank the saint, back home the rest of the family was waiting for her, since the news of her healing had spread through the town, more visitors from all over the world began to arrive. Lebanon and after other countries. There were so many people who wanted to see her that her father of her religion told her to get away from everything so that she could rest.
But that same night she dreamed that Saint Charbel appeared to her and asked her not to leave, that just as he had cured her, he wanted her to be the testimony so that people would return to the church and to the faith, that he was always in his hermitage and that he would never leave, and that she should go to his hermitage on the 22nd of each month and listen to mass, a promise that she has fully fulfilled until now.
Iskandar Obeid was at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Beirut when he was discharged to go home, rest, and prepare for surgery. Thirteen years earlier, he had lost sight in one eye due to a terrible accident, which caused him severe headaches, and he was also suffering from a severe infection in his other eye. In fact, they were scheduling the removal of his blind eye.
One night he had a dream where he saw himself standing in front of a monastery, where a monk appeared to him and asked him what was wrong, he told him that his eye hurt. In the dream the monk put a powder in his eye, and told him that it was going to hurt and that the eye would swell, but that it would heal, he told him not to be afraid. He put an eye patch on her and then disappeared.
When he woke up he called his wife and asked her to look for the image of Saint Chárbel that they had kept, he covered his healthy eye and was able to see the image of the saint with the eye that was going to be removed, he made the sign of the cross and told her to her that he could see since he had been cured by Saint Charbel. The doctors certified that the iris of his eye had suffered severe damage in the accident, which is why he had been blinded, but that after the last evaluations they did at the hospital, the iris was completely normal.
Sister Maria Abel Kamary: a sister of the convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, where she entered in 1929, became ill in 1936 with severe stomach pains and vomiting. Several tests were performed on her, revealing that she had a gastric ulcer that had caused severe damage to her liver, gallbladder, and kidneys.
He underwent two operations without any results and his pain continued for 14 years, with the presence of constant vomiting, bone pain, paralysis of the right hand and severe irritation in his teeth. She was taken one day to the tomb of St. Charbel, which she touched, and at that moment she felt as if a current of fresh air passed all over her back.
She prayed at the grave, looked at it and noticed that on the slab with her name of Saint Charbel there were many shiny drops, as if they were dew, which she dried with her veil and then passed it over the area where she had the severe pain, suddenly she was able to get up without anyone's help, with great joy and happiness to the amazement of all the people who were with her.
Dafne Gutiérrez , a Hispanic mother living in Phoenix, went blind from a rare disease. Doctors told her she would never see again. For several months she lived in darkness, during which time she attended Saint Joseph Church in Phoenix. Father Wissam Akiki spoke to her about the power of faith and the miraculous nature of Saint Charbel. He told her to close her eyes so he could anoint them with oil from Charbel's tomb, which had been brought from Lebanon, and that while doing so she should ask God to heal her through the intercession of Saint Charbel.
She asked with great faith for a miracle of healing to Saint Charbel and to God, two days later she got up at dawn, telling her husband that her eyes hurt, and that she felt something was burning, he told her that they smelled like burned meat When she was finally able to open them, she told her husband that she could see him.
The truth is that due to the large number of miracles that occurred and were investigated at the time by the Catholic Church, it was determined that he should be declared a saint.
Ribbons of Miracles to San Chárbel
People usually write petitions to Saint Chárbel on ribbons, take them to their images, which are found in various churches, and present it to them with great faith. This tradition began in Mexico, and is done by people who know that they cannot go to the place where his grave is located, to ask for the miracle of healing, today we can see in the images of San Chárbel hundreds of ribbons that they are left behind by his devotees, many of whom have stated that they have received healings and miracles from the saint.
We recommend you also read these other articles that could be of interest to you:
