Charbel Makhlouf
| Saint Charbel Makhlouf, O.L.M. | |
|---|---|
The Wonderworker
|
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| Monk, priest, and hermit | |
| Born |
May 8, 1828 Bekaa Kafra, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon |
| Died | December 24, 1898 (aged 70) Monastery of St. Maron Annaya, Jbeil District, Lebanon |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church Eastern Catholic Churches |
| Beatified | 5 December 1965, Vatican City by Pope Paul VI |
| Canonized | 9 October 1977, Vatican City by Pope Paul VI |
| Major shrine | Monastery of St. Maron Annaya, Jbeil District, Lebanon |
| Feast | 3rd Sunday in July (Maronite Calendar) July 24 (Roman Calendar) |
Saint Charbel Makhlouf, O.L.M. (or Sharbel Maklouf), (Arabic: مار شربل, May 8, 1828 – December 24, 1898) was a Maronite monk and priest from Lebanon. During his life he obtained a wide reputation for holiness and he has been canonized by the Catholic Church. Many Maronite Christians have prayer cloths blessed and then place them on the sick, praying to God through the intercession of Saint Charbel, for healing.
Youssef Antoun Makhlouf was born on May 8, 1828, one of five children born to Antoun Zaarour Makhlouf and Brigitta Chidiac. They lived in the village of Bekaa Kafra, possibly the highest in the Lebanese mountains. His father, a mule driver, died in August 1831, returning from corvée for the Turkish army, leaving his wife a widow to care for their children. Later she remarried a man who went on to seek Holy Orders and became the parish priest of the village.
The young Youssef was raised in a pious home and quickly became drawn to the lives of the saints and to the hermit life, as was practiced by two of his uncles. As a young boy, he was responsible for caring for the family's small flock. He would take the flock to a grotto nearby, where he had installed an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He would spend the day in prayer.
In 1851, Youssef left his family and entered the Lebanese Maronite Order at the Monastery of Our Lady in Mayfouq to begin his training as a monk, later transferring to the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, located in the Jbeil District near Beirut. Here he received the religious habit of a monk and took the name Charbel, after a Christian martyr in Antioch from the 2nd century. He made his final religious profession in the Order on November 1, 1853.
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