Welcome to this new video. This week I am going to tell you about a very great Saint, it is Charbel Makhlouf. You will discover his exemplary life and the countless miracles that will occur not only during his lifetime but also after his death. All this is so extraordinary that many will say that it is false. But the evidence is there. Proofs which will always be unsatisfactory for a materialist and always useless for a being of faith. At the end of the video I will also present you a valley in France where a great tribute is paid to the saints and you will see the link with the great Saint Charbel so stay to discover this extraordinary place, you will not regret it. Youssef Makhlouf was born on May 8, 1828 in the Maronite village of Bekaakafra, the highest village in Lebanon, at 1800 meters above sea level. His family is very modest but deeply Christian. When he was only 3 years old his father died. But his mother will raise him in a deep faith. He will also be influenced by his two maternal uncles who are hermits. And in order to follow the path of holiness, he will enter the Lebanese Maronite order at the age of 23. From the beginning he will impress with his devotion , generosity and assiduity. He never balks when he is entrusted with difficult or thankless tasks. Youssef will take the name of Charbel in reference to an illustrious martyr of the Church of Antioch. At the age of 25, after two years of novitiate, Brother Charbel pronounced his vows at the monastery of St Maroun in Annaya and left to study theology at the convent of Saint Cyprien in Kfifan. He was ordained a priest in 1859 in Bkerke, Charbel then spent 16 years in the Saint Maroun d'Annaya monastery. At the age of 47, he learns that a place has become available in the hermitage of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Annaya. He wishes to become a hermit in order to get even closer to God. You have to understand that you don't become a hermit just like that. It is in a way a promotion that is only granted to the privileged few. Because not everyone is able to follow this life of sacrifice. So you have to have proven yourself and show yourself worthy. But everyone recognizes Charbel as a great religious. He lived an exemplary community life. The superior of the order examines his request. Give me a full report by tomorrow, I authorize you to watch. Charbel accepts the task with the greatest humility. If he has to write late he will need light. he therefore leaves to fill his oil lamp which is empty. The brother who takes care of this work tells him to leave his lamp and that he will bring it to him presently. But he decides to play a prank on Charbel and fills his lamp with water. He goes to drop her off, closes the door and waits a few moments, already laughing at her joke. But to his amazement he sees light appear under the door. How is it possible ? He opens the door and discovers Charbel quietly working, illuminated by the lamp full of water. Seeing the spectacle the brother rushes to alert the superior father. My father my father "To tease Father Charbel, I filled his lamp with water instead of pouring oil into it. But my father, that's not all, this lamp lit when it was contains only water". Charbel has lit it and it lights up so intensely! The Superior then rushes to check what has just been announced to him. He discovers Charbel working , lit by his lamp which contains only water. He then understands that it is a sign from heaven for Charbel to become a hermit. "There is no longer any need to fill in this file, tomorrow you will go and take possession of the hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul and you will serve God until the end of your life". For 23 years, until his death, he led a life of prayer and penance. Every day, he went to the chapel and remained hours in adoration, almost continuously on his knees, he was absorbed in deep meditation. He watched long nights to pray, he fasted very often, even worked sick and refused medication. He only spoke when commanded and always in a low voice, his eyes downcast and his hood covering his gaze. He only went out on orders from his superior. Mass was at the heart of his life, he prepared for it at length and made long thanksgivings. He only ate one meal a day. These deprivations are often male understood by the majority who denigrate these sacrifices. By wondering why inflict this on yourself and deprive yourself of the pleasures of life. But for a true hermit, these sacrifices are not deprivations but on the contrary the door to access such intense joys. By refusing certain pleasures they end up opening a path to God and communing so intensely with HIM. They then feel such deep emotions that their deprivations seem to them quite ridiculous in the face of all the Love they experience. He had achieved great fame during his lifetime and many came to him for advice. He was asked to bless the fields, the flocks, the sick, and graces rained down. Several times the blessed fields were the only ones preserved from the invasions of locusts. The saint had the gift of reading souls and knowing things from a distance. On December 16, 1898 during mass, Charbel was paralyzed. His agony lasts eight days, during which time he continually repeats the words of the mass. Charbel dies on December 24, during the Christmas vigil. The monks carry his body to the vault of the convent. Wrapped in his homespun robe, he is lowered to the bottom of this dark and damp pit in which the dead of the abbey are buried. You probably tell yourself that the story ends here. That he was a great man who performed some wonders. Well you are wrong. On the contrary, it is from there that everything will accelerate. To begin with, the death of Saint Charbel was surrounded by extraordinary phenomena. The first days, we saw every evening a bright light above the cemetery of the monks. Many witnesses, both Christians and Muslims, who lived in the neighboring village contemplated this gleam which seemed alive to them. It rose and fell in the night. This glow continued to manifest itself during the winter. The news spread throughout Lebanon so that every evening a considerable crowd of curious people gathered to contemplate what everyone considered a sign from heaven designating the man buried there as a saint. Faced with all this the superiors of the monastery discussed. Something has to be done. Yes but what ? We decide to proceed with the exhumation of Father Charbel. We will see what it will give. We are waiting for the snow to melt, which has covered the whole region. The Father Superior, surrounded by several monks, carries out the exhumation on April 15, 1899. The earth covering the tombs is waterlogged. When you lift the slabs of the vault, you realize that the thaw has flooded the graves mixing the bones. Only the body of Father Charbel emerges from this quagmire, but it is covered with a thick layer of mold. By seizing it, the monks note with amazement that it has retained all its flexibility. They transport him to an oratory, clean him, discover that his face, his hands resting on the crucifix are intact. The flesh is tender and endowed with the flexibility of a living being. More curiously still, a pinkish sweat oozes from the pores of his skin. But the monks are only at the beginning of their amazing findings. From a wound on the right side flows a very red fresh blood mixed with water which is reminiscent of that of Christ on the cross described in the Gospel according to Saint John. After performing a funeral toilet, the body is wrapped in clean linen and then placed in a coffin with a glass lid. The next day, the following days, the linen, the clothes of Father Charbel are again moistened with this blood and this water which ooze from the corpse. For years the monks went twice a week to wash the dead man and change the clothes they had put on him. No doctor consulted can give an explanation for this phenomenon. However, an expert advises the monks to deprive the corpse of its viscera and thus this will definitely stop the seepage. This painful operation is therefore put in place. But nothing changes, the blood continues to flow just as regularly. Another idea arises. Why not expose the body of Father Charbel on a terrace of the monastery. The body will thus be exposed to the sun and the wind. That should surely dry it out. For several months we wait for the seepage to stop. But there too in vain. Pilgrims will multiply to witness the phenomenon. On November 19, 1921, 23 years after the death of Father Charbel, Doctor Elias Elonaissi , who was asked to render an expertise on the body, made the following statement. Approaching the body, I smelled an odor similar to that which emanates naturally from living bodies. This is a very difficult fact to explain. Having carefully observed this corpse, I noticed that the pores of the skin give way to a substance that looks like sweat, a strange and inexplicable thing according to the laws of nature for this body which has been inanimate for so many years. I have many times had the opportunity to renew the same examination at different times and to observe the same phenomenon. More and more pilgrims come. And we are talking about miracles. Some begin to take pieces of the coffin and the monks fear that it will degenerate . They therefore decide to proceed with a new burial of Father Charbel while awaiting his beatification, which is being studied in the Vatican. On July 24, 1927 his body was placed in a double coffin of zinc and cedar which was placed on two stones arranged so that the exuded liquid flowed towards the feet. The coffin is locked in a metal cylinder containing the medical report drawn up by Professor Armand Jouffroy of the French Faculty of Medicine in Beirut and Doctor Balthazar Malkonien. This report certifies the good state of conservation of the body. A vault is dug in the foundations of the church and then walled up. For 23 years the vault remains intact and relative peace allows the monastery to return to the normal rhythm of its activities. But on February 25, 1950, a monk is sweeping the crypt of the church. He suddenly notices with amazement that at the base of the wall under Father Charbel's funerary plaque a pink liquid is oozing from the sealed stones that block the entrance to the vault. Great excitement in the abbey. The stones are unsealed, the double coffin of cedar and zinc is opened in front of three doctors appointed for an expertise. Doctors Chekri Bellan director of the health and assistance service near the Lebanese government Joseph Hitti deputy for Mount Lebanon in Parliament and Théophile Maroul professor of pathological anatomy at the French faculty of medicine in Beirut. In front of the monks, these doctors carry out a thorough examination of the body which has just been exhumed. They write a report of their findings. Here is an excerpt: All the clothes were literally soaked in serous fluid and here and there stained with blood, especially at dawn. The white liquid spread all over the body had coagulated as solidified in places. However, the body retained all its flexibility and you could bend your arms and legs. The veil that covered Father Charbel's face and hands bears his imprint as the shroud of Turin bears those of Christ. On August 4, 1950, before the highest religious authorities in Lebanon, the body of Father Charbel was once again exposed during a ceremony attended by a huge and collected crowd. From this exhibition, conversions and miracles multiplied. The body was placed back in the vault and exhumed once again in order to satisfy the requirements of the canonization investigation. One of the witnesses Father Joseph Mahfouz will say: I personally touched his body in August 1952. It has already happened that a corpse is preserved it is not unique but that a mortal remains remains flexible, tender and flexible and of more than she perspires incessantly it is a unique case of its kind. The town of Annaya where the monastery of Saint Maroun is located, which shelters Saint Charbel , then becomes a high place of pilgrimage. Men of all religions come to meditate day and night. There is an extraordinary atmosphere in these places. Unfortunately, as always, merchants come to invade the place to sell souvenirs, drinks and snacks. And unfortunately also false relics. Father Charbel was beatified on December 5, 1965 and canonized on October 9, 1977. Extraordinary events, prodigies and miracles, truly innumerable, are attributed to his intercession. Everything is kept in the special register of the convent of Annaya, where the body of the saint rests. These pages contain hundreds of stories, as well as thousands of letters from all over the world, attesting to miraculous healings through the intercession of this Saint. So you understand that I can't describe them all to you, but I can't resist sharing two that are emblematic. The first healing was retained by the ecclesiastical authorities for the beatification process. In 1937, Iskandar Obeid lost sight in his left eye as a result of the tearing of the retina caused by the impact of a fir branch on his eye. In 1950 he began to pray to Saint Charbel and went to the monastery of Annaya, as soon as he arrived, he had terrible pain in his eye and saw Saint Charbel in a dream. When he woke up, he looked at the image of Saint Charbel with his sick eye and saw it perfectly. The doctors noted the inexplicable phenomenon, the iris had returned to normal. And here is another miracle recognized for canonization Mariam Assaf Awad, a woman of Syrian origin living in Lebanon, underwent three operations between 1963 and 1965 to treat cancerous tumors in the stomach, intestines, and neck. Faced with the seriousness of her condition, she began to pray to the blessed Charbel , refusing at the same time all the treatments. In her prayer Mariam asked either for healing or for the strength to resist illness. One evening she pronounced this invocation: " Please, O Saint Charbel, you who healed the blind and crippled, heal me of this disease, and once cured I will thank you in your sanctuary". When she woke up the tumor had shrunk, for four days she repeated the invocation until the tumor had completely disappeared. But beyond the tens of thousands of healings there are also extraordinary phenomena such as apparitions of the Saint. On May 8, 1950, four Maronite Catholic priests from Scranton, America, came on a pilgrimage to the monastery of St Maroun in Annaya, to visit the tomb of St Charbel. Father George Webby, a Maronite Catholic priest, took a photo of the four Maronite Catholic priests and the guard on duty outside the monastery. That's his statement on May 9, we developed the film. We then realized that there was one more person in the photo who was not present when it was taken. It was St Charbel. He was identified by those who knew him. You could see his head, his white beard , his hood, his right hand. He had a transparent body, dressed in a black monastic tunic like all Lebanese monks. Behind him, stones and grass on the ground appeared through his body as if he had been made of glass." There have been many testimonies of people who say they saw him after his death. He would have appeared to advise and even heal some people. How to explain all this? You just have to see the great quality of his life. He gave everything for God. And God was able to establish his dwelling place in him. His life, so pure and so intense, enabled him to do things that we can not even suspect. If the majority of young people had such magnificent Saints as models, then the face of the world would be very different. But nowadays the models are quite different, the youth admire the unscrupulous businessmen, stars with chaotic lives, instagramers with oversized egos. It is important to keep hope because there are always solutions to all problems for those who know how to connect with the divine. And you will discover that the aura of Saint Charbel exceeded the borders of Lebanon since a tribute is paid to him in France in the form of a very beautiful granite sculpture which will be inaugurated at the end of November 2022 in the Valley of the Saints. Maybe you don't know the Valley of the Saints. So let me introduce it to you in a few words. This place is located near Carhaix in the Côtes d'Armor in Brittany, the Valley of the Saints is a Breton collective project its purpose is "The safeguard, the discovery and the promotion of Breton popular culture linked to the Saints Bretons in the form of creation artistic”. This project is recent since its creation dates from July 2008. The founders are Philippe Abjean, Sébastien Minguy and Philippe Hajas, As you can see in these images this place is magnificent and you will find there many statues of saints carved in granite by talented sculptors. I will not go into the details of how it works, I rather invite you to discover their site https://www.lavalleedessaints.com , of which I leave you the link in the description. Know that the visit of this superb place is completely free. It is of course possible to support the association by going through the shop and buying some souvenirs. But nothing is obligatory, it is up to everyone to act according to their principles. It's very inspiring to see that we can combine art, spirituality and harmony while having a well thought out and constructed project. And so the last sculpture to be inaugurated precisely concerns St Charbel. It allows a link between Lebanon and France showing that the Love of God unites us all and goes beyond all borders. So do not hesitate to visit this valley of the saints. I hope you liked this video that Saint Charbel inspires you. I wish you the best.
