Prayer to Saint Charbel: 'intercessor of miracles' for physical and spiritual healing

Saint Charbel, you who spent your life in solitude and prayer in a humble and hidden hermitage, renouncing the world and its vain pleasures, performing miracles for those who came to you in need, increase our love for God and neighbor. Help us to pray with faith and perseverance, to abandon evil and choose good. Defend us from enemies seen and unseen, and assist us throughout our lives.

To you, who work great miracles, we too approach with confidence: obtain from God peace in the Middle East, the strength of faith for our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters, divine consolation for those humiliated by violence and evil, the grace of forgiveness for those whose hearts are closed and wounded.

Thank you, O Saint Charbel, humble on earth but great in heaven, for all that you will do for all our suffering Christian brothers and sisters.

*Prayer taken from Comunità Cenacolo*

Joseph Antoun Makhlouf, better known as Saint Charbel, was born in 1828 in the village of Beqa-Kafra, located in Lebanon, where he lived part of his life with his brothers and his parents, who were devout Maronite farmers.

His childhood was always guided by his desire to achieve holiness, so every day without fail the little boy escaped to a natural grotto to pray peacefully and dedicate his time alone to God.

When he turned 23, the young man decided to leave his family home to go to the Monastery of Our Lady of Lebanon, where he began his novitiate. However, in order to fulfill his purpose , Joseph had to walk for a whole day , since he did not have the means to transport himself.

After completing his training in the order, he joined the Maronite monks at the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, where he eventually chose to be called Charbel , in homage to a 2nd-century martyr who constantly inspired him in his career.

Although for nearly two decades he dedicated himself exclusively to prayer, community service, and silence, he was recognized by many for his close relationship with God, so much so that, in 1965, Pope Saint Paul VI beatified him, and two years later he was canonized as Lebanon's first saint.

From that moment on, the hermit priest and monk became a symbol for both Catholic and Muslim parishioners , thus representing the union between the world's cultures and religions.

At the age of 70, Charbel died on Christmas Eve 1898 , after several days battling hemiplegia, a paralysis that affects only one side of the body, including the arm and leg, due to a brain injury.

After his death, this saint became famous for the number of miracles attributed to him, being the intercessor between God and humanity when it comes to requests. There are those who believe that he is responsible for granting physical and spiritual healing.

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