St. Sharbel Makhlouf

Youssef Antoun Makhlouf was born in 1828 in Bekaa Kafra, a small mountain village in northern Lebanon, into a devout Maronite Catholic family. Orphaned as a child, he was raised by his uncle and grew up tending sheep, a life that nurtured his quiet and prayerful temperament. In keeping with the custom of the time, his family arranged for him to marry — but the young Youssef felt drawn to monastic life and instead entered the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouq in 1851, taking the religious name Sharbel (Charbel). His vocation took deeper root when he later joined the even stricter Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, where he was ordained a priest in 1859.

Although his years at the monastery were marked by long periods of manual labor, prayer, and physical austerity, Sharbel is best remembered for the final 23 years of his life as a hermit. In 1875, with the permission of his abbot, he withdrew to a small cave chapel dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul near the monastery, living in poverty, near-silence, and continual Eucharistic adoration. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy daily, fasted strictly, and slept little. Visitors who came to him reported a luminous spiritual presence; he became known locally for offering counsel and, in some accounts, for healings attributed to his prayers, though the records of specific miracles come mostly from later testimony given during his cause for canonization.

Sharbel died on December 24, 1898, Christmas Eve, after suffering a stroke while celebrating the Mass. He was buried in the monastery cemetery at Annaya, and within months of his burial strange reports began to circulate: a bright light was seen above his grave, and his tomb was exhumed on several occasions. On at least one of these openings, his body was found floating in a reddish, mud-like liquid yet showed no signs of decomposition, a phenomenon that reportedly persisted for decades and drew pilgrims from across Lebanon. News of these events quickly spread beyond the Maronite community and brought him a popular reputation as a holy man of healing.

Sharbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1965 and canonized by the same pope in 1977, becoming one of the first Maronite saints to be formally recognized by Rome in modern times. His incorrupt body, now partially preserved at the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, remains a focus of devotion; in Maronite tradition the anniversary of the finding of his body is observed as a distinct feast separate from the December 24 commemoration of his death. He is honored as a patron of Lebanon and is widely invoked by the faithful for healing and interior peace, in keeping with the testimony left by those who knew him in life.

The simple spirituality of Sharbel — a priest who sought silence, celebrated the Eucharist, and lived the gospel without ambition — has made him a figure of particular resonance in a Lebanon marked by division. In 2024, Pope Francis added his name to the Roman Calendar with an optional memorial on July 24 in certain regions, a mark of how far his reputation has traveled beyond the Maronite Church. Devotion to him now extends to the Americas, Europe, and Australia, and pilgrims still travel to Annaya each year to pray at his tomb, especially around the dates associated with his death and the opening of his grave.