St. Charbel
I have a special affinity for and devotion to St. Charbel, through a chance encounter an old friend who carried his image with a small relic. This was years ago, and after a good conversation, the friend pulled the image and relic out of his prayer book and handed it to me as a gift. “You should know him,” he said, sort of in the way a teacher ‘exhorts’ a student to get familiar with some particular study material, or mentor.
My life has intersected St. Charbel’s followers and legends ever since. On the recent visit to Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica in Mexico City, I was amazed that all the places selling religious items and images had Charbel’s statues prominently displayed. We attended Mass at one of the city’s churches and found a large portrait on a side wall surrounded by a shrine devoted to him. He was considered to be a very humble, simple, holy man.
The spirit of Charbel still lives in many people. His miracles include numerous healings of the body and of the spirit. Thomas Merton, the American Hermit, wrote in his journal: “Charbel lived as a hermit in Lebanon—he was a Maronite. He died. Everyone forgot about him. Fifty years later, his body was discovered incorrupt and in short time he worked over 600 miracles. He is my new companion. My road has taken a new turning. It seems to me that I have been asleep for 9 years—and before that I was dead.”
At the closing of the Second Vatican Council, on December 5, 1965 Charbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI who said:
“…a hermit of the Lebanese mountain is inscribed in the number of the blessed…a new eminent member of monastic sanctity is enriching, by his example and his intercession, the entire Christian people… 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…”
Today is his feast day.