Begin nothing on earth unless it has its ending in heaven; do not walk on a path that does not lead to heaven. – St. Charbel
It was as if someone had clearly spoken the word in my ear the second before I awoke from sleep and opened my eyes.
I didn’t just audibly hear charbel. Charbel was instantly impressed on my heart. Until this particular morning at the beginning of 2026, I had no memory of ever hearing the word or consciously associating it with any person, place or thing. Imagine my astonishment when I typed charbel in the search engine:
St. Charbel: The Saint with the Most Miracles Ever by Fr. Chris Alar; St. Charbel: The Hermit Whose Miracles Still Stun the World by Alex V (Catholicism Coffee); The Most Impressive Incorrupt Saint: St. Charbel Makhlouf by Fr. Mark Goring; The Miracles of St. Charbel Makhlouf by Fr. Dwight Longenecker; Charbel, the EWTN movie…
The pages and pages of hits on the world wide web seemed endless. Apparently – and I laugh when I think about this in hindsight – I must have been living under a rock and among a minority of the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world who didn’t know St. Charbel.
St. Charbel Makhlouf, a 19th century Lebanese Maronite hermit and priest, is known today as the Miracle Monk of Lebanon. He lived a remarkably unremarkable life silently punctuated by the unseen spiritual treasures of extreme poverty and the most radical asceticism.
He would only wear the torn and patched discarded habits of his fellow hermits. His sustenance typically consisted of potato peels, moldy bread, some occasional olives with lettuce and a little water drawn from the hermitage well. He slept year round, without a blanket, on a bed of oak leaves and tree bark covered with a goat hair mat. His pillow was a log rolled in an old black habit.
St. Charbel died on December 24, 1898.
The manner of St. Charbel’s burial is key to Heaven’s proclamation of his sanctity.
As is the Maronite hermit burial custom, in order to return to the earth as quickly as possible, St. Charbel was not artificially embalmed before being buried in a shallow underground pit beneath the chapel’s altar without a coffin.
Months later, his exhumation was prompted by a radiant light which was seen emanating from the grave. Despite St. Charbel’s body being directly exposed to the harsh winter elements of the flooded pit, he did not decompose.
He was found to be totally incorrupt with water and blood secreting from his body.
This phenomenon continued for more than 60 years from 1898 until sometime between his beatification December 5, 1965 and 1976 when his grave was opened once again to discover that only the bones remained.
He was canonized on October 9, 1977 by Pope Paul VI.
To date, there are more than 30,000 miracles attributed to the intercession of St. Charbel.
Countless miracles are directly associated with the prayerful anointing with the holy relic oil of St. Charbel.
The oil, originally sourced from the monastery in Lebanon, is produced by placing the purest olive oil in a barrel with the bones of St. Charbel. The oil is distributed around the world by apostolates associated with the Monastery.
I suffered pain in my left femur beginning in early 2025. By 2026, the pain progressed from tolerable to physically debilitating. It felt as though my bone would snap as I walked up the stairs. The appointment I scheduled with an orthopedic specialist was more than a month away. I obtained the relic oil with just days to spare before seeing the specialist.
I anointed my femur with the oil for several days and prayed for St. Charbel to intercede for the healing of the root cause of the pain.
I would explain to the orthopedic physician that the progressive pain I experienced for more than a year had completely gone by the evening prior to my appointment. His examination and X-rays revealed a healthy femur.
See Links 4U at the end of this blog to obtain the Relic Oil of St. Charbel.
The Maronite Catholic Church reserves the 22nd of each month with special devotion to St. Charbel. This tradition commemorates the 1993 miraculous healing of Nohad El Shami, whose left side was entirely paralyzed from hemiplegia.
St. Charbel appeared to Nohad in a dream and performed surgery on her neck. She awoke the following morning with the visible signs of the surgery and the miraculous restoration of movement to her paralyzed limbs. St. Charbel said to her in a dream the following night:
“I cut you by the power of God so they (the people) could see you, because some people have strayed away from praying, from attending church and from respecting the saints, and you cannot do anything to people! But whoever needs anything from me, I, Fr. Charbel, am always present in the hermitage. I ask you to visit the hermitage on the 22nd of each month and attend the Divine Liturgy, as long as you live.” – St. Charbel to Nohad El Shami
The Maronite Catholic Church is one of twenty one Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy Father in Rome. I participated in my first Maronite liturgy this past June 22. The Maronite Divine Liturgy is profoundly, beautifully, and distinctly mercy-centered.
As reported by Vatican News, On December 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV was the very first sitting pope in the history of the Church to visit and pray at the tomb of St. Charbel in Lebanon.
The Holy Spirit formed him so that he could teach those who live without God how to pray, those who live immersed in noise how to be silent, those who live ostentatiously how to be modest, and those who seek riches how to be poor… Sisters and brothers, today we entrust to Saint Charbel’s intercession the needs of the Church, Lebanon and the world… For the world, we ask for peace. We especially implore it for Lebanon and for the entire Levant. But we know well – and the saints remind us – that there is no peace without conversion of hearts. May Saint Charbel, therefore, help us to turn to God and ask for the gift of conversion for all of us. – Pope Leo XIV address to the faithful at the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya
I believe the Holy Father’s historic visit to the tomb of St. Charbel is a global introduction to the Miracle Monk of Lebanon. I believe Pope Leo XIV is inviting us to invoke St. Charbel’s patronage and implore his intercession for our heart, our home, our family, our country, and the world.
The feast day of St. Charbel in the Roman Catholic Church is celebrated on July 24. The Maronite Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Charbel on the third Sunday of July.
Make a point to celebrate this feast day on one or both of the dates in the Maronite or Roman Catholic Church.
Click here to search the Maronite Parish Directory of the USA. Click here to search the Maronite Foundation Directory for international locations, including South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Oh Lord, you inspired Saint Charbel to live and die in the path of Jesus Christ. You taught him how to live his monastic vows with perfection, in absolute silence, conforming his life to yours. Oh mighty God, you spread the power of St. Charbel’s intercession through his multiple miracles snd marvels. Grant us the grace to love and serve you as he did, and grant us, through his intercession, the petitions that we hold in the silence of our hearts. Amen.
© 2026 Brian Kravec
2 Responses
Good Morning Dear Brian! I believe St. Charbel gave me a nudge just now to read your latest posting and to rejoice with you and the countless others who honor and love this Great Saint.
Doesn’t matter if you were living under a rock all those years…..St. Charbel uncovered you and met you in your pain. How wonderful – how miraculous and how blessed for you to write and post this blog. God Bless you for bringing St. Charbel to meet and greet countless souls who are in need of his miraculous anointings in this holy month that we honor him.
Your sister in Christ, Anita
Praise be God, dear sister! May St. Charbel intercede for you in all your needs, body and soul!