21 Facts About Charbel Makhlouf

Charbel Makhlouf is known among Lebanese Christians as the "Miracle Monk of Lebanon" because of the favours received through his intercession, especially after prayers are said at his tomb in the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, Lebanon.

Charbel Makhlouf was beatified in 1965 and canonized in 1977 by Pope Paul VI.

The Medal of Saint Charbel was created in his honor.

Youssef Antoun Charbel Makhlouf was born on May 8,1828, one of five children, in the mountain village of Bekaa Kafra, the highest by elevation in Lebanon.

Charbel Makhlouf's father, Antoun Zaarour Makhlouf, was a mule driver who died in August 1831 while returning from corvee for the Turkish army, leaving his wife Brigitta a widow to care for their children.

Charbel Makhlouf remarried a man who went on to Holy Orders and became the parish priest of Bekaa Kafra.

Charbel Makhlouf was raised in this pious home, and became drawn to the lives of the saints and the eremitical life practiced by two of his uncles.

Charbel Makhlouf would take the herd to a nearby grotto, where he had enshrined an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In 1851, Charbel Makhlouf left his family to begin training as a monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order at the Monastery of Our Lady in Mayfouq.

Charbel Makhlouf later transferred to the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, in the Byblos District near Beirut.

Charbel Makhlouf made his final religious profession in the Order on November 1,1853.

Charbel Makhlouf was ordained six years later, on July 23,1859, in Bkerke.

Charbel Makhlouf was then sent back to the Monastery of Saint Maron, where he lived a life of severe asceticism.

In 1875, Charbel Makhlouf was granted by the abbot of the monastery the privilege of living as a hermit at the Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul, a chapel under the care of the monastery.

Charbel Makhlouf spent the next 23 years living alone until his death from a stroke on December 24,1898.

Charbel Makhlouf was interred at the Monastery of Saint Maron on Christmas Day that year.

The cause for Charbel Makhlouf's beatification was formally opened on April 4,1929, and he was granted the title Servant of God.

On October 28,2017, a shrine dedicated to Charbel Makhlouf was inaugurated at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

Charbel Makhlouf tells that on the night of January 22,1993, she dreamt of two Maronite monks standing next to her bed.

Charbel Makhlouf was completely healed and recovered her ability to walk.

Charbel Makhlouf believed it was the saint who healed her, but did not recognize the other monk.