Saint Charbel Makhlouf is known in Lebanon for the miraculous healings of those who visit his tomb to ask for his intercession, whether they are Christian or Muslim.
“Saint Charbel has no geographical or confessional limits. Nothing is impossible for his intercession, and when people ask for something, he answers,” Father Louis Matar, coordinator of the Sanctuary of Saint Charbel in Annaya, Lebanon, told CNA.
Speaking in Arabic with the help of an interpreter, Father Matar indicated that the sanctuary, which encompasses the monastery where the Maronite Catholic priest, monk, and hermit lived for nearly 20 years, receives about 4 million visitors per year, among them Christians and Muslims.
Father Matar, who is responsible for archiving the thousands of medically verified healings attributed to the intercession of the Maronite monk-priest, said that many miraculous healings have been obtained by Muslims.
Since 1950, the year the monastery began officially recording miraculous healings, it has archived more than 29,000 miracles, Father Matar said. Before 1950, miracles were verified only by the testimony of a priest. Today, thanks to more advanced medical technology, alleged miracles require medical documents demonstrating the person's initial illness and, subsequently, their inexplicable good health.
One of the miracles documented by Father Matar at the end of December 2018 is that of a 45-year-old Italian woman. Suffering from a neurological illness, she was hospitalized after it was discovered she had attempted suicide by consuming acid.
At the hospital, doctors found the damage to her esophagus and intestines was so severe that “the last possible way to heal her was to believe in God and pray,” commented Father Matar.
The young woman's parents began to pray, inviting others to pray with them. A nun of the Maronite rite heard about their prayer request and gave them holy oil of Saint Charbel. After spreading the oil on the suffering woman's stomach, chest, and head, she was healed.
This is just one of seven miracles archived that month, said Father Matar, who described each of them as a “phenomenon.”
“Saint Charbel is a tool to reach God,” he said.
The Sanctuary of Saint Charbel consists of the Monastery of Saint Maron, where the saint lived for 19 years with great devotion to prayer, manual labor, and contemplative silence, and the neighboring hermitage where he lived a rigorous ascetic life and a profound union with God for the last 23 years of his life.
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At the monastery, pilgrims can visit a church built in 1840, a small museum with objects and relics of the saint, and the site of his first tomb. The tomb of Saint Charbel, since 1952, is located in a special chapel, similar to a cave, built on the property.
During his lifetime, Charbel's superiors observed the “supernatural power” of God at work in his life, and even some Muslims considered him a miracle worker.
Deeply attached to the Eucharistic presence of God, he suffered a stroke while celebrating the Divine Liturgy of the Maronite Catholic Church on December 16, 1898, and died on Christmas Eve of the same year. He was canonized in 1977 by Pope Paul VI.
This article was originally published by the National Catholic Register (Article Link). It is republished and translated with the author's permission.