Healed by St Charbel Makhlouf, her scars bleed each month for the benefit of unbelievers

Summary:

In the words of Saint John Paul II, Lebanon is "more than a nation, it is a message to the world". The message is inseparable from that hermit, Saint Charbel (1828 - 1898), who was "inebriated with God". From the Qadisha (the holy valley of the Christians), where he was born, to the Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul (a chapel under the care of the monastery of St Maron), where he lived and returned to the bosom of God on Christmas night, Saint Charbel met Christ and followed him fully, in solitude, silence, prayer and penitential practices.

After Father Charbel's earthly death, what God accomplished through his intercession revealed and confirmed the holiness of his life than all the eulogies praising his fidelity to the monastic vows. God continues to grant all the prayers of this saint who tirelessly intercedes to obtain graces of healing.

According to the biographies of Father Charbel, tens of thousands of extraordinary cases, graces, healings, exudations of oil and inexplicable scientific facts have occurred from 1898 to the present day. At the Annaya monastery today, archivist Father Luis Matar is in charge of receiving and recording the numerous letters that arrive from the four corners of the world - letters of request, gratitude and thanks for miraculous spiritual interventions, healings and graces obtained through the intercession of Saint Charbel. God decided that the saintly hermit who lived in absolute poverty, total discretion and complete silence to work the wonders of the Spirit of God every day in the life of those who suffer.

The healing of Nohad El Chami through the intercession of Saint Charbel, reported here, is the best known worldwide, because it is attested to by all investigations, verified, and can still be observed today. It took place on 22 January 1993, and since then, the surgical wounds are miraculously reopened on the 22nd of every month, as a divine sign, "so that the world may believe".

Born into a poor Syrian-Lebanese family, Nohad's simplicity, modesty and devotion drew her to Saint Charbel, and she prayed to him fervently as a child. At the age of sixteen, she married Samaan, a bricklayer, with whom she had twelve children, seven boys and five girls, all raised in the Eastern Christian faith. They settled in a small village (Zweribe) in the Lebanese mountains, and were so well liked that Samaan was elected mayor by both Christians and Muslims, who represented the majority in their town. To send their growing children to school, they moved to the coast at Halât, half an hour from Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

In January 1993, Nohad was 55 years old. Nine of her children had gone to university and left home, but three still needed her. On the evening of 9 January 1993, she suffered a stroke and was taken to emergency at Notre-Dame-Maritime hospital in Jbeil (Byblos), in the cardiovascular department of Dr Joseph Chami (no relation to Nohad). Bilateral arteriosclerosis (80% on the left and 70% on the right) was diagnosed. Placed in intensive care, her condition was stable. Nine days later, the surgeon advised her to go home, saying: "Operating on you right away could put your life in danger." She was now hemiplegic.

Her eldest son went to the hermit's tomb in Annaya and brought back holy oil and earth from the saint's tomb. He asked his sister to give a long massage to their mother's inert limbs, trusting in God's will. Nohad returned home. She was suffering, impotent and totally dependent on those around her, who had organised her home care. One night, she dreamt that she was climbing the stairs leading to Saint Charbel's hermitage, that she was attending mass and that Saint Charbel himself was administering Holy Communion to her.

On Thursday 22 January, she was overcome by a terrible pain. She addressed a prayer of supplication to the venerated Saint Charbel: "But what have I done to be in this state? Have I committed a fault, I who have brought up twelve children with so much effort, prayer, patience and perseverance! May the Lord heal me or let me die!" But she regretted her words and told Jesus: "Forgive me Lord, my life belongs to you. I have no right to ask you to let me die. Thy will be done!"

In the middle of the night, drowsily, Nohad dreamt of a ray of light filtering into her room. Two monks detached themselves from it and appeared. A hand came to rest on her neck and a voice said: "Nohad, I'm here to operate on you." Intense light radiated from the figure's eyes and body. Dazzled, Nohad couldn't make out his face. She replies: "Why do you want to operate on me? The doctors strongly advised against it!" "I am Father Charbel," replied the vision, "and I'm going to operate on you myself."Panicked, Nohad turned her gaze to the statue of the Virgin Mary on the bedside table. It was permanently lit by a candle, as electricity cuts are frequent in Lebanon: "Ya Adra, Ichfayinni, Kif bedonne yehmoulou al-amalyé bedoune binge!" ("O Virgin, have mercy on me, how are they going to operate on me without anaesthetic?") At that moment, she saw the Virgin standing between the two monks. One of the monks put his hand on her neck and, according to her own testimony, she experienced a sharp, searing pain. The second monk then sat her down, propping the pillow against her back, and taking a glass of water, put his hand on the back of her head and asked her to drink. Nohad was afraid of a false start and refused, telling him that she could not and should not drink without a straw! The monk then said to her: "We've operated on you. You can drink and walk now, without fear...".

Nohad recounts: "I woke up sitting up in bed with a glass of water in my hand and the statue of the Virgin Mary in its place on the bedside table. I instinctively put my left hand to my neck, because an intense, burning pain was awakening. I got up normally and knelt down to pray intensely before the Virgin and the image of Saint Charbel on the wall. Without waking my daughter, who was dozing in a small bed that had been placed next to me, I went to the bathroom mirror where, stunned, I saw two bloody wounds measuring ten to twelve centimetres on either side of my neck! I put my arms up and down and went through the motions I would normally do. Then I rushed over to wake up my husband. He shouted: "Nohad, what are you doing, you're going to fall! He had been carrying me for days, as I was paralysed. "Samaan, don't worry, Saint Charbel just operated on me, I'm cured!"

It was two o'clock in the morning. They told the whole family, because we wanted to go to the hermitage of the revered saint, above the monastery of Annaya, before dawn, to give thanks. I made some coffee, then we all set off, and, barefoot in the snow, we made the usual pilgrimage."

The news spread like wildfire and Halat's little house filled with visitors. People came from everyhwere, morning, noon and night, to see, pray to, honour and touch the one who was the object of so many graces. After a week, Nohad and her family were exhausted. They called her doctor, who recommended that she go to the mountains to get away from the crowds. That very night, Saint Charbel reappeared and said to her: "Nohad, Nohad, if the Lord has allowed me to heal you, it is not so that you can go and rest! So that the world may believe, your wounds will open on the day of your healing, that is, the 22nd of every month, and you will go and give thanks."

For thirty years, Nohad has kept her promise: on the 22nd of every month, after attending mass at the hermitage, a long procession follows her back down to the monastery of Annaya to the saint's tomb, where the celebrations continue. Pilgrims come in their tens of thousands, Christians and Muslims from all over Lebanon, the Near and Middle East and the rest of the world, to join the procession. Her husband (now deceased) and her family march at the head of the procession, behind a mobile canopy of red silk with four poles that houses a statue; a hooded monk, carries the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance - lifted up for all to see - through a crowd of faithful who, rosary in hand, unite their prayers with those of the huge procession winding its way along the road from the hermitage to the monastery. A whole people on their feet, sometimes on their knees, giving thanks and praying for the world to believe!

In 1996, three years after this event, Nohad travelled to the Vatican with her whole family, at the invitation of the Holy Father John Paul II: "I had been preparing for this meeting for a long time, and I was waiting in the Vatican when suddenly blood started to flow profusely from my wounds. Father Yaacoub, my spiritual director, who was next to me, advised me to cover them well, so that I wouldn't go to meet the Pope in such a state. I told him that it must be God's will. The Holy Father took his time questioning me, very attentive to my answers; and when I spoke about my twelve children, he replied with humour: "Seven boys like the seven mysteries, five girls like the five sorrows of the Church!" And the blood continued to flow without either him or me taking any notice!"

For 2,000 years, God has been pleased to accompany his work with signs and wonders, such as the healing of Nohad, while leaving part of it in the shadow in order to - as the French philosopher Pascal remarked - give enough light to those who want to believe and a little darkness to those who don't.

Ten years after the event, a CT scan and Doppler ultrasound confirmed that an endarterectomy had been performed on the carotid arteries, from the inside, to remove the two atheromatous plaques. Surgeons have said that this operation had not been performed by human hands.

Nohad continues her mission in Lebanon, the Middle East and the rest of the world. In these troubled times, when Christians in the land of the cedars are living with the dreaded fear of not being able to stay in their own land, Saint Charbel is a beacon of faith for all the communities that are the repositories of a history that the West seems to have lost. He continues to shower the world with signs (one miracle a day, according to the daily testimonies pouring in!) from this holy land, chosen by God since the time of the patriarchs and prophets, for the incarnation of the Messiah and the spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Beyond reasons to believe:

I saw Nohad El Chami again on 2 November 2023 in Halât. One of the reasons I came to see her was to write this article for "1000 Reasons to Believe". Nohad answered my questions and spoke about her most recent trips: to Mexico, where 40,000 faithful came to listen with confidence to her testimony, and to Togo, where a two-year-old girl with inoperable brain cancer was cured by the intercession of St Charbel.

Going further:

Geneviève and Jean-Claude Antakli, Dieu existe. Ses merveilles étincellent sous nos yeux, Éditions du Parvis, 2020.

More information:

• Jean-Claude Antakli, Le Silence de Dieu, Éditions du Parvis, 2012
• The video on the NDML Youtube channel: " Le plus grand miracle de Saint Charbel "
• The  1000 Reasons to Believe articles: "Saint Charbel Maklouf's 29 349 miracles"