Saint Charbel Makhlouf

Who is Saint Charbel Makhlouf?

Saint Charbel Makhlouf, born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf in the village of Beqaa-Kafra in Mount Lebanon, was a Maronite Catholic monk and hermit whose life of extreme asceticism made him one of the most venerated saints of the Eastern Christian world. He entered the Lebanese Maronite Order at the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouq and later moved to the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya, where he was ordained a priest in 1859. In 1875 he withdrew to the nearby Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul, spending the last twenty-three years of his life in solitary prayer, fasting, and manual labor, following a strict monastic rule. He died in December 1898. In the years after his death, his body was reported to remain incorrupt, and numerous pilgrims documented healings attributed to his intercession, prompting a formal canonical investigation. Pope Paul VI beatified him in 1965 and canonized him a saint of the Catholic Church in 1977, making him one of the most widely venerated Lebanese religious figures. His hermitage and tomb at Annaya remain a major site of pilgrimage, drawing visitors of multiple faiths from Lebanon and abroad each year.

Sources: Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, canonization records (1977) · Order of Lebanese Maronite Monks, Annaya monastery archives · Paul Daher, Saint Charbel: Life and Miracles