SHARBEL MAKHLOUF, ST.

Maronite hermit (see maronites); b. in the mountain village of Biqa-Kafra, Lebanon, May 8, 1828; d. Dec. 24, 1898. The youngest of five children born to a poor Maronite family, he was christened Joseph. At the age of 23 he entered the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk (north of Byblos). After two years of novitiate, in 1853, he was sent to St. Maron monastery in Annaya where he pronounced the monastic vows and took on the name of an early Eastern martyr, Sharbel. He then studied philosophy and theology in the monastery of Kfifan where his teachers, one of whom was Bl. Neemtallah El Hardini (1808–1858), nurtured within him a deep love for monastic life. After he was ordained to the priesthood in 1859, Sharbel was sent back to the St. Maron monastery where he lived for the next 16 years.

In 1875 Sharbel asked for and was granted permission to take up residence in St. Peter and Paul hermitage, located on a hill near the monastery. He lived there for the last 23 years of his life. Although he did not leave behind any writings, his life and love for God became an open book read by many people, and God granted him the gift of performing miracles even during his lifetime. He suffered a stroke during the Holy Liturgy, Dec. 18, 1898, and died a week later at the age of 70. His tomb in the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, Lebanon, is a place of pilgrimage.

On the evening of St. Sharbel's funeral, his superior wrote, "Because of what he will do after his death, I need not talk about his behavior." A few months after his death a bright light was seen surrounding his tomb. When his superiors opened it, they found his body still intact. Pope Paul VI beatified Sharbel at the closing of the Second Vatican Council, Dec. 5, 1965, and on Oct. 9, 1977 he canonized him.

Feast: Dec. 24.

Bibliography: p. daher, A Miraculous Star in the East, Charbel Makhlouf (Beirut 1952). j. eid, The Hermit of Lebanon (New York 1955). j. p. haddad, Charbel un saint du liban (ed. Maisonneuve 1978).

[d. ashkar]