Pope Leo XIV visited the tomb of Saint Charbel Makhlouf at the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, Lebanon, on December 1, 2025, as part of his first apostolic journey abroad.
During his visit, he prayed at the tomb, entrusted Lebanon to Saint Charbel’s intercession, and presented a votive lamp to honour the saint.
He also spoke about Saint Charbel’s life of silence, humility, and poverty as a counter-cultural example for modern life. Pope Leo visited the Monastery of Saint Maron and spent time in silent prayer before the tomb and offered a lit lamp as a sign of entrusting Lebanon to the saint.
The Pope spoke about the “radical” qualities of Saint Charbel, noting his silence, humility, and poverty, which he contrasted with modern life. He also delivered a prayer asking for faith, healing, and renewal for the Lebanese people.
This visit was a significant spiritual moment for Lebanon and highlights Saint Charbel’s veneration by both Christians and Muslims. Saint Charbel, a 19th-century hermit, is known for miraculous healings, and his tomb is a major pilgrimage site.
Saint Charbel Makhlouf, born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf on May 8, 1828, in the remote mountain village of Biqa-Kafra in northern Lebanon, grew up in a humble Maronite Christian family of modest means.
He was the fifth and youngest son of Antoun Zaarour Makhlouf and Brigitta Chidiac. Orphaned at a young age after losing his father, young Youssef helped tend the family’s small herd of cows while developing a deep devotion to prayer and the saints.
From childhood, he was drawn to the eremitical life, inspired by two of his maternal uncles who were monks. He often retreated to a nearby grotto with an icon of the Virgin Mary for solitary prayer, revealing an early calling to religious life.
At the age of 23, in 1851, Youssef left his family and village to join the Lebanese Maronite Order. He began his novitiate at the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk, where he took the religious name Charbel (or Sharbel), after a 2nd-century Christian martyr.
He professed his solemn vows on November 1, 1853, committing to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Charbel then pursued studies in philosophy and theology at the Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Kfifan, under the guidance of professors including the future saint Nimatullah Kassab.
On July 23, 1859, at the age of 31, he was ordained a priest in Bkerke, the patriarchal seat of the Maronite Church. He was assigned to the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, where he lived for 16 years (1859–1875).
There, he embraced severe asceticism, working diligently in the fields and vineyards alongside his brother monks, while excelling in obedience, humility, and contemplation. His superiors noted his angelic fidelity to monastic vows, describing him as “inebriated with God” due to his profound union with the divine through the Eucharist and Scripture.
Seeking even greater solitude, Charbel received permission on February 15, 1875, to enter the nearby hermitage of St. Maron in Annaya, where he lived as a hermit for the final 23 years of his life.
In this isolated cell, his existence revolved around ceaseless prayer, manual labour, and total detachment from the world. He fasted rigorously, slept on a bed of rough stones, and spent hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
Despite his reclusive life, Charbel’s holiness drew people seeking counsel; he performed healings for physical and spiritual ailments, including casting out demons, though he always attributed miracles to God.
Charbel embodied the Maronite tradition of asceticism rooted in St. Maron, a 4th-century mystic who lived exposed to the elements in prayer. His life reflected a mystical relationship with Christ and the Virgin Mary, prioritizing the Eucharist as the centre of his existence.
On December 16, 1898, while celebrating the Divine Liturgy at the hermitage altar, Charbel suffered a massive stroke. He endured eight days of excruciating pain in silence and prayer, refusing all comfort, and died on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1898, at age 70. His final words were reportedly a prayer of surrender to God.
Buried simply near the monastery, extraordinary phenomena soon followed. For 45 days, a brilliant light emanated from his tomb, witnessed by villagers and monks.
When exhumed months later, his body was found incorrupt and flexible, exuding a blood-like liquid with a sweet fragrance—phenomena that persist today and defy medical explanation. His tomb became a pilgrimage site, with reports of healings from cancer, paralysis, and other afflictions attributed to his intercession.
The cause for Charbel’s beatification began in 1925. He was beatified by Pope Paul VI on December 5, 1965, during the Second Vatican Council, and canonized as a saint on October 9, 1977—the first Maronite saint from Lebanon.
His feast day is July 9 (formerly December 24), and he is invoked as the “Miracle Worker of Lebanon.” Devotion to St. Charbel transcends faiths, uniting Christians, Muslims, and Druze, with shrines worldwide and monthly prayer gatherings at his hermitage on the 22nd of each month.
St. Charbel’s legacy endures as a testament to humble surrender, inspiring millions through his “three lights from the East”: the light of faith, prayer, and miracles.
As one biographer noted, though he never ventured far from his mountain home, his influence has spread globally, like the cedars of Lebanon bearing noble fruit. During his first papal visit to the Lebanon Pope Leo invoked the Lord, to inspire us all, to be bridge builders and agents for peace and reconciliation.
As we move closer to Christmas may the Christ-child whose birth we soon celebrate be a source of peace for all humanity across the world.
Miraculous prayer to Saint Charbel
O God infinitely Holy and glorified in Your saints, who inspired the monk and hermit St. Charbel to live and die in a perfect likeness to JESUS, giving him the strength to detach from the world in order to live fully, in his hermitage, the monastic virtues of poverty, obedience and chastity, we beg You to grant us the grace to love You and serve You as he did.
Lord Almighty, who has demonstrated the power of the intercession of St. Charbel by many miracles and favours, grant our volunteers the grace of living a beautiful mission and returning home firm in faith, filled with fiery charity. We beseech You by his intercession.
O Charbel, Saint of Great Wonders, from whose miraculous body emanates the fragrance of heaven, come to my assistance and, if it be for the glory of God and the good of my soul, obtain from God for me the grace of which I am in need… (state your intention). Amen.
Saint Charbel Makhlouf, pray for us!
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