Father Charbel, a Lebanese Saint Biography
Miracles of Saint Charbel
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Solemn ceremony at St. Peter's
Dec. 5th 1965
Address of the Patriarch Paul Peter Cardinal
Meouchi, at the Beatification of Father
Charbel, December 5th. 1965
(Translated from the original French - in principal parts')
Most Holy Father :
Charbel Makhlouf, the Lebanese Maronite Monk, whom you have inscribed to-day among the Blessed, is indeed for our world shaken by indifference, superficiality and atheism, the witness of penance and silent prayer. At the summit of a Lebanese Mountain, in a poor hermitage, deprived of every- thing, he resolved, attracted by the life of the Savior, to follow the sorrowful way of His Cross. He decided, likewise, through mortifications, penances and great austerities, to offer thus give the example of a contrite heart and real return to God.
Penitence is nevertheless insufficient virtue without prayer. So the hermit Charbel used to pass long hours of the day and night in silent adoration and supplication. Combining with the contemplative life, manual labor, he was reviving in himself the purest traditions of Oriental Monarchism. By so doing, he was preaching to our unfortunate and confused world the message of truth and the right answer to the solution of its problems, namely, the practice of penance prayer and work.
It is indeed my privilege to express to day to you, Most Holy Father, my gratitude and that of our Maronite Church. I would like also to be the interpreter of all your children of Lebanon, as well as all those who, of any race or religion have benefited by the intercession of this man of God.
I thank Your Holiness for inscribing the name of Father Charbel Makhlouf among the Blessed of the Church, and for consecrating, at the same time, in the eyes of the Church and of humanity, his virtues so needed in our modern times.
May the St-Charbel and all those whom you inscribed or will inscribe among the St-s and the Blessed intercede for you before Christ the Lord. May you, likewise, reach through their intercession, in your guiding role, your apostolic goal so clearly proclaimed before the whole world: recognition of, the spiritual values of man created in the image of God, peace in justice and the return of humanity to Christ, Center of everything for all, sole Light and Salvation of mankind.
Address of the Pope Paul VI at the Beatification
ceremony of Father Charbel Makhlouf,
December 5th. 1965
(Translated from the original French) Great to day is the gladness in heaven and earth for the Beatification of Charbel Makhlouf, Monk and Hermit of the Lebanese Maronite Order. Great is the joy of the East and West for this son of Lebanon, admirable flower of sanctity blowing on the stem of the ancient, monastic traditions of the East, and venerated to day by the Church of Rome. How cans this joy but overflow first of all in the hearts of the sons of St-Maron? This is what our venerable Brother, Cardinal Patriarch Paul Peter Meouchi, forcibly asserts in profound words that we deeply appreciate. For the Maronite Order and for the Lebanese Catholics, this is indeed a great day. Likewise we are happy to greet at the same time the members of the Delegation graciously representing the Lebanese Government on this occasion, as well as the other Delegations. We are deeply moved by this delicate gesture; and the presence of these personalities recalls vividly to our mind the warm welcome extended to us by the entire Lebanon, without distinction of race or religion, at our stop in Beirut, on our way to Bombay. To all we extend our heartfelt thanks.
The large gathering of sons and daughters of the noble Lebanon - privileged «Carr four» and place of traditional encounters between Africa, Asia and Europe - near the glorious Tomb of Peter, underlines the importance of the act accomplished to-day by the Church. At the closing of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, a Hermit of the Lebanese Mountain is inscribed in the number of the Blessed, first Confessor of the East raised to the Altars according to the actual procedure of the Catholic Church. What a symbol of union between East and West! What a sign of Church brotherhood between Christians of the whole world! What an honor also joyfully bestowed by the Church of Rome upon the Maronite Church, and through it, upon the Eastern Churches. A new eminent member of monastic sanctity is enriching by his example and his intercession the entire Christian people.
His example and intercession are needed now more than ever. St-Charbel, one of a large family was left an orphan at an early age. After he had spent the first years of his life at home in his native town, he felt the urgent call of the Lord. One night he left his family and entered the monastery of Maifouk, and subsequently that of Annaya.
After twenty years of progressive practice of virtue in the monastic life, he dedicated himself, under the direction of his superiors, to the hermitical life. During this time of his religious life, his whole existence was completely centered on the celebration of Mass, on silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and in the heroic practice of the virtues of Obedience, Poverty and Chastity.
We are happy, after the recent Beatification of Jacques Berthieu, Jesuit Missionary and Martyr, to preside to day at the Beatification of a monk entirely dedicated to contemplation. At the closing of the Council, when so many faithful are rightly concerned about the measures to be taken by the Church to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of Christ, how fitting the St- Monk of Annaya is proposed to remind us of the indispensable role of prayer, of hidden virtues, of mortification. To the apostolic work, the Church must add centers of contemplative life whence praise and intercession ascend to God in a perfumed fragrance.
These are, finally, the lessons derived from this ceremony for all. May the St- Sharable draw us after him along the path of sanctity, where silent prayer in the presence of God has its own particular place? 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? The practice of these virtues is indeed different according to the various states of life and responsibilities of people. But no Christian can ignore them he wants to follow Our Lord. These arc the noble lessons, which Charbel Makhlouf so timely gives us. That they may be well understood and practiced, We implore upon all, through the intercession of this new Blessed, already so venerated, an abundant effusion of graces; and paternally we bless you.
St-Charbel's moral message
GREAT are the beneficial effects produced by Father Charbel's intercession for the relief of human suffering, cures of the sick, and other temporal favors. How much greater and more admirable is his influence in the spiritual domain! While this transformation in the world of souls is not apparent to the senses, there is no reason to minimize its real value to the glory of God and His Church. From the obscure crypt of St. Maroun Annaya there radiates a splendid ray of light enkindling the faith in souls grown cold by the errors of materialism and atheism. From this tomb emanates a supernatural power that is sweeping throughout the East and awakening the dormant energies of many hearts. This scene of numerous miracles reflects at profound atmosphere of piety and religion. The sick, absorbed in prayer, seem to forget their suffering. Even non-Catholics, non-Christians, join in the public acts of devotion and, when the priest blesses the faithful, the non-Christians refuse to be deprived of Father Charbel's intercession. The religious fervor reaches its climax when the crowed witnesses a miraculous cure. Then resounds the cry Miracle! Miracle! The person favored is lifted up and carried aloft; the bells of the monastery ring forth echoing the joyful news; the crowd follows the monks in praising and thanking God and proceeds to solemn devotion and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Moral transformation, the conversion of humanity, is without doubt the primary purpose of God's favors. As at Caphamaum, our Savior, before ordering the paralytic to stand and walk, first absolved him saying, Thy sins are forgiven thee, my son», so here at St-Maroun Annaya, God seems to have chosen a humble monk to exhort the people to do penance. It has been reported that Father Charbel appeared to some who were praying and begging for a miracle of healing, and he commended them: «Go first to the confessional cleanse your soul*. The cure of the body followed the spiritual recovery.
In confirmation of this spiritual message, we refer to the eminent voice of the Patriarch, Card. Paul P. Meouchi, when he says in his address at the Beatification (reproduced in this section): “By his life, Saint Charbel is preaching to our unfortunate and confused world the message of truth and virtue, and he is going the right answer for the solution of its problems, namely, in the practice of penance, prayer and wors”
What better testimonial can we bring to the spiritual contribution of St-Charbel in the restoration of the kingdom of Christ within the souls, than the magisterial word of the Supreme Pontiff? - On that Sunday, Dec. 5th, in the Basilica of Peter and from his throne, before the Fathers of the Ecumenical Council, and representations and Delegations of the whole world, he opens his address by this acclamation: “Great is today the gladness in heaven and earth, for the Beatification of Father Charbel Makhlouf. Great is the joy of the East and West, for this son of Lebanon!”
Paul VI who ordered the Beatification to coincide with the closing of the Council, has in mind to propse the holy Hermit Charbel as a providential man bearing to our modern world a message of dep spirituality of an ecumenical character”. “At the closing of the Council, says the Pope, when many souls are inquiring about the proper measures to be used by the Church to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of Christ, h ow appropriately the Saint Monk of Annaya is reminding us about the indispensable role of prayer, of hidden virtues, of mortification”.
<The just shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like the Cedar of Lebanon> (Ps. Xci, 13).
CANONIZATION OF SAINT CHARBEL In 1976, Pope Paul VI signed the decision of the process for the canonization of Blessed Charbel, to be solemnly proclaimed in a pontifical mass on October 9th 1977. Grace of the third case, the miracle of Miriam Aoudad of Humana suffered from cancer of the throat, which the doctors declared incurable. She prayed to the Blessed Charbel and was healed through his intervention in 1967.
This third last miracle confirmed the Blessed Charbel a Saint.
The canonization of a Lebanese monk is undeniably a historic event and a new expression of the ecumenical movement in the Church.
St-Charbel is the heir to an oriental spiritual heritage rich in its variety and its harmony which has nourished in Lebanon throughout the centuries; he is a true witness to the nobility of hidden virtue and to the triumph of the spirit. He sums up the various religious traditions - Christian, Sunnite, Chiite, Druze and all the other beliefs in that mosaic of faiths, which go to make up the great family of Lebanon. Each one can find his own features in the face of St-Charbel.
With one of his sons honored in the highest degree of holiness Lebanon today is secure in his glory - the glory of people who have endeavored throughout history to endure as a stronghold of the values of the spirit. Top |
