Youssef
Antoun Makhlouf was born in the village of Bekka Kafra in Lebanon on
May 8, 1828 and was one of five children born to Antoun Zarrour Makhlouf
and Brigitta Chidiac. His father was a mule driver who died when
Youssef was only three years old, leaving his widow to bring up their
children alone.
Although Brigitta was left nearly destitute, she
reserved a profoundly religious atmosphere in their home and instilled
in her children a deep spirit of piety. Because of this fidelity,
Youssef became unusually devoted and inclined to prayer and solitude at a
very young age. He was greatly attracted to the life and spirituality
of hermits; and as a young boy tending his family’s small flock, he
would often go to a nearby grotto where he had erected a little shrine
to the Holy Mother of God and would spend his whole day there in prayer.
When
he was twenty-three years old, Youssef, feeling the call to the
religious life, left his home and family to join the Lebanese Maronite
Order at the Monastery of Our Lady in Marfouq. Here he began his
formation as a monk before later being transferred to the Monastery of
St. Maron near Beirut. There he received the religious habit of the
Maronite monk and took the name Charbel. He made his final profession as
a religious brother on November 1, 1853 – he was twenty-five years old.
Brother
Charbel immediately began his studies for the priesthood under the
instruction of Father Nimattullah Kassab, who was also later declared a
saint by the Church. Charbel was ordained on July 23, 1859, following
which he returned to the Monastery of St. Maron where he lived a life of
great austerity. In 1875, he was granted permission by his superiors to
live a solitary life in the Hermitage of Sts. Peter and Paul, which was
under the jurisdiction of the monastery; and there he resided for the
remaining twenty-three years of his life until his death on Christmas
Eve, 1898.
St. Charbel is renowned for his many miracles both
during his life and after his death. His most famous miracle – which was
also his first – occurred when, multiple times, he successfully lit an
oil lamp which was filled with water. He is also credited with many
healing miracles.
After his death, he was interned at the
Monastery of St. Maron, now a famous pilgrimage site. His tomb was often
witnessed surrounded by a dazzling light, and to this day his remains
are incorrupt and an unexplainable blood-like fluid flows from his body.
He was canonized on December 9, 1977, by Pope Paul VI, who held him up
as an example to help 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.”
Saturday, July 24, 2021
St. Charbel Makhlouf
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