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Histoires providentielles
n°271

Lebanon and France

1975-1994

God protects a secret agent

The Lebanese civil war broke out in April 1975. The Lebanese army and armed militias from several communities clashed, killing between 150,000 and 250,000 people and driving many into exile. Elias Maalouf was an officer in the Lebanese army at the time. He remained in active duty for almost ten years, before being appointed to the secret service in the Ministry of Defence. He escaped death many times and believes that each instance was a miracle of God's protection: "I' should have died dozens of times, but Jesus saved me. You can trust him."

Shutterstock/Andrey Zhar
Shutterstock/Andrey Zhar

Les raisons d'y croire :

  • Elias Maalouf, in one instance, managed to get out of an ambush alive, thirty against a thousand, by negotiating with the opposing camp. This idea came to him while he was praying. It seemed to him that his actions and the words he spoke did not come from him, but that he was "inspired" : "It was the Lord acting in me, not me."

  • On another occasion, a piece of shrapnel hit his skull, but Elias did not die. The day before, he had gone to the shrine of Saint Elijah and the rector had told him: "I'm putting a ribbon soaked in the oil of Saint Elijah in your right pocket; if you get hit tomorrow, you won't die."

  • While one officer after another was hunted down and murdered by the militia, and there was a price on his head, Elias still managed to reach safe territory. With his family, he passed through a dozen roadblocks controlled by the armed militia. While all the others were arrested and interrogated, the Maalouf family was strangely "invisible": nobody paid any attention to them and they went through unnoticed!
  • A political refugee in France in 1991, Elias was hit by a car a few years later, in May 1994. Convinced that he would not survive, the doctors at first did not bother to repair his knee. But Elias came out of the coma. Even though his knee operation should have left him in a wheelchair, Elias regained full mobility of his legs. On seeing this, the doctor exclaimed to his wife: "Mrs Maalouf, really, I'm an atheist, but your husband's recovery is a miracle!"

  • A few years later, at a place of pilgrimage, Elias saw the Virgin Mary and heard the Lord calling him to become a priest for his country, Lebanon: "Elias, you are mine now, you must be a priest".

Synthèse :

During the Lebanese war, which broke out in April 1975, Elias Maalouf was an officer in the army. He had around fifty soldiers under his command and stayed in the combat zone for more than ten years. "God protected me many times during that war" he says. In 1986, he was appointed to the Ministry of Defence, in the secret services. At the time, officers like him were being sought by militias to be eliminated. That is why he hid with his family for twenty days in a convent of cloistered nuns.

One morning, the Mother Prioress came to fetch them, saying: "My children, today is the day you must leave us. We have prayed and the Lord has shown us that you must leave today and rejoin your families in the south, in Beirut.But to reach Beirut, they had to cross several roadblocks on foot, at least ten of them, each one manned by armed militias. The journey seems impossible.

The Maalouf family - the two parents and their three children - set off anyway, dressed in civilian clothes: "We were really scared. I could hear the screams and cries of people trying to cross the roadblocks." The militias checked anyone who wanted to cross: "Where are you from? Where are you going?" However, when it was their turn, the whole Maalouf family managed to get through, as if nothing had happened, as if they were invisible. No one questioned their presence or paid any attention to them. From roadblock to roadblock, rosary in hand, reciting Hail Marys, the Maalouf family crossed without being stopped, without even being looked at. After each crossing, Elias Maalouf exclaimed: "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus!"

On the other side, the roadblock was manned by the Lebanese army. There, Elias Maalouf recognised a friend who was an officer. "It's me," he told him. The officer friend was really surprised to see them coming from that side: "Are you crazy? How could you cross this way? It's very dangerous!" He told them that the day before, the militia had killed one of their fellow officers. Elias didn't know how to explain the miracle: "It wasn't me, it's a heavenly force that brought us here." At that moment, the Maalouf family understood that "the Lord really can do all things, and nothing is impossible for him".

The Mother Prioress explained why she had asked the Maalouf family to leave on that very day: "My sisters and I began praying, as we do every day, by opening the Gospel. That day, we came across the passage of Saint Peter in prison. The angel of the Lord said to him, 'Wake up. Get dressed and go." And Saint Peter went through four squads of four soldiers, and no one said anything to him." Exactly the same thing happened to the Maalouf family. They went through the roadblocks and nobody said a word because, by an unexpected heavenly grace, Jesus went with them.

In 1991, the Maalouf family arrived in France as political refugees. On Friday 20 May 1994, Elias was the victim of a serious accident: a car hit him on the sidewalk at a speed of seventy kilometres an hour, without braking. Elias's head hit the windscreen of the car, which was shattered by the force of the impact. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, on the brink of death.

The medical team told Elias's wife that her husband was in a very serious condition. The neurosurgeon explained: "I'm going to operate on a dead man". She felt her heart revolt inwardly, and begged the Lord, saying: "No, Lord, I can't have my husband dying here like this, after he survived the war. He can't have gone through the whole Lebanese war just to be mowed down by a car!"

After the operation, Elias remained in a coma and hemiplegic (paralysed on his right side). A few days later, his wife was at his bedside, holding his hand. She asked Saint Thérèse to give her a sign: if there was any hope of her husband coming back to life, let the hand she was holding clasp hers! And she felt her husband's thumb pressing against her hand. "Am I dreaming? I can feel the pressure of his hand... Did Thérèse give me the sign? Am I crazy?"Another sign was needed: "Please, Lord, let him move his eyes!"As she spoke, Elias moved his eyes and his wife understood that she would soon be reunited with her husband.

A few days later, Elias Maalouf came out of his coma. He recognised his family and reacted well. A knee operation was planned, as the ligaments had been crushed. The operation had not been planned before because the doctors saw no point in it, convinced that the patient was going to die... Seven screws were then inserted into Elias's knee, and the doctor explained to Mrs Maalouf: "Your husband will remain in a wheelchair." She replied: "I don't mind, as long as he can talk to us."

The operation was a success, Elias went to rehab sessions, and the Maalouf family resumed their normal lives. After just a few sessions, Elias had a check-up with the doctor. He arrived walking with just the help of a cane. The doctor was so shocked that he came out of his office to tell Elias's wife: "Mrs Maalouf, really, I'm an atheist, but your husbands recovery is a miracle!"Today, Elias Maalouf is in perfect heatlh. He walks normally, he can run, and he is physically active!

Father Elias Maalouf, a former officer in the Lebanese army and now a priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, gave his testimony on the NDML YouTube channel. He is now a parish priest in a town close to the Syrian border.


Aller plus loin :

Only snippets of Elias Maalouf's life are recounted here. To hear his full testimony and that of his wife, listen to the video on the NDML YouTube channel (in French).


En savoir plus :

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