Saint of the Day

01 · Read · A life to discover

St. Charbel Makhlouf

Charbel was a Maronite monk who joined the Lebanese Maronite Order in 1851, made his vows in 1853, and was ordained a priest in 1859. After years in community at Annaya, he became a hermit, devoting the remainder of his life to prayer, work, and ascetic discipline.

His hermit life followed years of ordinary monastic formation and shared worship. The Maronite setting is essential: his religious practice belonged to an Eastern Catholic tradition with its own liturgical and ascetic heritage. He did not begin as an isolated figure detached from a community.

Annaya became a pilgrimage destination through the reports associated with his tomb. The monastery describes visitors from several religious backgrounds, showing the breadth of his later reception in Lebanon. Those testimonies should be attributed as reports of intercession rather than presented as independently established medical conclusions.

He died on Christmas Eve in 1898. Reports of extraordinary events and healings associated with his tomb contributed to the growth of pilgrimage there. Paul VI beatified him in 1965 and canonized him in 1977. His Roman-calendar memorial is July 24. Charbel and Sharbel are spellings of the same name, not two different saints.

This saint is included on this recurring date in the U.S. Roman Rite calendar published by the USCCB. This reading guide gives U.S. calendar saints priority; the Mass celebrated on a particular year’s date can differ because of Sundays, seasons or higher-ranking celebrations.