St. Charbel

Today is the optional feast day of St. Charbel, and I wanted to post a tiny bit on him, because noone really seems to know him.

He is a Lebanese Saint, of the Maronite Rite (...that means he is Catholic, but an Eastern Rite Catholic, and not Latin Rite) (...note: the 'Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church' isn't the same as the 'Orthodox Church', which broke away from the Catholic Church in 1056).


St, Charbel was a hermit, and lived in a little monestary in the mountains of Lebanon. He lived a life of pure and total obedience to his superiors, with burning love for material poverty, and penance, making up to God the love that is lacking in the world.

After he died his tomb emited a bright unexplainable light, and when it was opened a few months later, his body was found to be incorrupt (as it is still now-a-days, over 160 yrs after his death).

He skin also permeates a fluid-like substances, which smells of roses, and has been known to cause many healings and miracles.

I love Saints like St. Charbel because they are such a witness to what is truely important in God's eyes; think about it....he was basically a noone to the world. A Lebanese hermit hidden away in a random monestary in Lebanon in the 1800s.
and yet he was HOLY, and desired above everything else to love God more and more with every breath...and now he is now a canonized Saint, venerated by thousands, and interceeding for us. That is the Holy Spirit at work!
I think it's such a testiment to the Love and Glory of God!

At the closing of the Second Vatican Council, on December 5, 1965 St. Charbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI who said: "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..."

how beautiful!

At Mass this morning we especially prayed that St. Charbel would interceed for Lebanon and help establish peace.


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