SAINT OF THE DAY

MONDAY, 24 JULY, 2023

SAINT CHARBEL (SHARBEL) MAKHLOUF

PRIEST

(8 May 1828 – 24 December 1898)

Charbel Makhlouf was born on 8th May, 1828, in the small village of Biqa-Kafra in the high mountains of Northern Lebanon. His parents were poor but religious, and their fifth child was attracted at an early age to prayer and solitude. In spite of the opposition of his family, he left home at the age of twenty-three and entered the Monastery of St. Maroun at a place called Annaya. Ordained priest in 1859, he spent sixteen years there before receiving permission from his reluctant superiors to retire to the nearby hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul.

It had taken over seven years for his wish to be granted. Only exceptional monks were allowed such a privilege. A sign that he was ready to leave the secure environment of the monastery came about in a strange way. Given a request to prepare an urgent report, Charbel sat down at night to work on it. To his dismay he found his lamp had run out of oil. He asked one of the monastery's lay servants to fill it for him. By way of a joke the servant filled it with water, but was amazed to see that the lamp lit up immediately and continued to burn brightly. The Superior, when advised of this, removed the lamp to check it for himself. To his amazement he found it was indeed full of water. He took this as a sign from above that Charbel was ready to live the severe life of a hermit.

For the remaining twenty-three years of his existence Charbel lived an extemely hard life, one of severe mortification. He wore a hair shirt, slept on a straw mattress with a plank for a pillow, and for his one meal of the day was content to eat the meagre left-overs from the monastery,. He displayed a remarkable devotion to the Eucharist, spending hours in preparation for saying Mass and hours in thanksgiving afterwards.

THE MIRACULOUS LIGHT

In 1898 Charbel suffered a massive stroke while saying Mass and died just eight days later on Christmas Eve. He was seventy years old. After three days he was buried in the monastery cemetery, and as was the custom, without the benefit of a coffin. Like many a holy monk before him he would soon have been forgotten were it not for a very strange happening. For the next forty-five nights his tomb was surrounded by a dazzlingly bright light. This was witnessed by an increasingly large number of people, none of whom could provide an explanation. Permission was sought from the ecclesiastical authorities for the monk's body to be exhumed.

On the night he died the monks from the monastery nearby had rushed to the hermitage to kiss his hands and to be blessed by touching his body. Many spent the whole night kneeling in prayer beside him. The snow was falling heavily and it was extremely cold, which was not surprising since the hermitage was fourteen hundred metres above sea level. Those keeping vigil asked each other : ‘If we're suffering so much for only one night, how was Father Charbel able to live here for twenty-three years?'
They could see that he must have endured fatigue, hunger, poverty and cold with the courage of a martyr. The local villagers, many of whom had received communion over the years at his hands, recalled his holiness, his continuous prayer and hard work, his meekness and his prudent silence.

HIS HOLY REMAINS ARE FOUND INCORRUPT

Eventually permission for his exhumation was given and four months after Charbel's death a crowd gathered to witness it. To everyone's surprise his body was found to be perfectly preserved, in spite of the fact that the grave had been flooded by heavy rains, leaving the body floating on a sea of mud. Charbel was lifted out and given fresh clothing before being placed in a wooden coffin in a corner of the monastery's private chapel. However, it was found necessary to change his clothing twice per week because of a strange liquid exuding continually from the pores of the body. Described as a mixture of perspiration and blood, it just kept coming. Pieces of cloth soaked in this fluid were soon being distributed as relics and credited with effecting cures.

PRAYER: 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 (State your intention here...) through his intercession. Amen.

Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory Be...