St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest

St. Sharbel Makhluf is the first Maronite saint to be included in the Latin Church’s calendar. He was born, the youngest of five children, in the tiny mountain village of Bika’Kafra, Lebanon, on May 8, 1828. At his baptism, he was given the name Youssef (Joseph). His family was of peasant stock and were members of the Maronite Church. Young Youssef was brought up in a religiously devout family; his paternal uncle was a deacon in the parish church, and two of his maternal uncles were monks of the Lebanese Maronite Order. Youssef learned to read and write by attending classes held in the town square beneath the large church oak. When not in class, he helped in the fields or watched over the family’s small flock. As he grew older, he joined the church choir in singing the office and the liturgy. He made frequent visits to his uncles at the Monastery of St. Anthony at Qozhaya, and there he joined in singing the monastic office. In time, he too thought of becoming a monk, but his mother was of a different opinion. He was needed in the fields, and she did not want to lose her youngest child. But Youssef had a mind of his own and knew what he wanted in life, and thus he awaited his hour.

One Sunday morning in 1851—he was now twenty-three years of age—without revealing his plans to anyone, he rose early, and taking nothing with him quietly left home and walked all day to the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfuq. No one greeted him on his arrival; he had not notified them of his coming. When he did meet a monk, he merely informed him: “I would like to become a monk.” After a short interview, the superior accepted him as a postulant. Eight days later, he received the habit and changed his name to Sharbel, after an early martyr of Antioch. For his second year of noviceship, he was sent to the Monastery of St. Maron at Annaya, a four-hour walk away. There he pronounced his vows in 1853, and subsequently he was sent to study theology, in preparation for the priesthood, at the Monastery of St. Cyprian of Kfifan. There he spent six years and was fortunate in having Fr. Nehmetallah Kassab El Hardini (1808–58) as his spiritual director. Fr. El Hardini was not only an excellent spiritual guide but was also known for his holiness. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Sharbel was ordained on July 23, 1859, and shortly thereafter returned to the monastery at Annaya. He spent the next sixteen years there. When he was not working, he was praying; he kept prolonged fasts, ate but one meal a day, and preferred silence. He had two favorite books, the Bible and Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ. A desire gradually grew within him to give himself more completely to God, and thus he requested to live as a hermit. Permission was granted in 1875, and he moved into the Annaya hermitage, where he spent his remaining twenty-three years. He became a man of ceaseless prayer. He celebrated his last Mass on December 16, 1898, during which he felt a pain in his chest. When he completed the consecration, he suffered a stroke. He died on December 24. During his life, the local people looked upon him as a saint and in this they were not in error, for miracles soon began occurring at his tomb. His fame spread not only among Maronites, but throughout the entire Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1977.