Manouchak, operated on by Saint Charbel

Summary:

Father Luis Matar, archivist of Saint Charbel's miracles throughout the world, preserves and passes on this testimony. Father Luis is the only living monk to have seen the "great exhumation" in 1950, the second official opening of the saint's coffin, with a view to his beatification, even though the cause had been submitted to Rome since 1927.

As a child, alongside his father and all the official representatives, civil and military, from Lebanon and Rome, he will never forget the emotion and fervour that surrounded the remains of the monk, dead and buried since 1998, but still intact in his monastic habit. A pinkish ooze, already noted in 1927, continued to spread until it filled the bottom of the coffin. The body was intact, the muscles supple, and the face covered by a veil that let it show through like the Shroud of Turin.

It was this unique moment that decided Father Luis' vocation. In 1966, at the end of Vatican II, after a process that had lasted forty years, Pope Paul VI proclaimed the beatification of the "servant of God" in the following terms: "From now on, we give permission for the title of Blessed to be given to the Venerable Charbel Makhlouf." The joy was immense throughout Lebanon and Christianity in the Middle East.

Father Luis was in the seminary at the time. He would wait another twelve years to see his model of Eastern sanctity canonised by a Roman Catholic Church that was rediscovering the saints of the desert and hoping for a the renewal of eremitism. Saint Charbel became forever the representative of the Eastern Churches and of their high and beautiful monastic tradition. This is what Father Luis Matar tirelessly reminds us of and testifies to when we come to meet him in his monastery in Annaya. In his small office in the monastery, where thousands of miraculous people have humbly come to talk about their sufferings and testify to the graces they have received, Father Luis listens and shares. Nothing surprises him any more.

When Manouchak came to submit her file and certificates, Father Luis simply said to her what he says to every beneficiary of a miracle from Saint Charbel: "You believed, so you were 'gratified'. You have no initial merit, but you followed the right path. You trusted in the truth of Jesus and his Gospel, and even if you do not understand all these truths of faith, you accepted their mysteries.

For the mysteries are not truths that go against reason, but truths that go beyond reason. The true believer is one who is open to all possibilities, ready for all surprises, and surrenders to them. Saint Charbel offered the world to God. Like Saint Paul, he completed in his flesh what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ. He contemplated the crucified and realised, as they say in the East, that the cross was his throne, the nails his ornament, the thorns his crown. But Jesus proved that after the crucifixion came the resurrection.

Manouchak, you were crucified in your flesh and your soul, but your resurrection is there to bear witness to the love of God that Saint Charbel prayed for you and with you."

Father Luis added that the apparition of Saint Rafka was not a regular occurrence. If Manouchak saw her in a dream leading her to Saint Charbel, who was waiting for her, it may be because Saint Rafka made her solemn profession in the same Lebanese Maronite order and was canonised by the Church to highlight the mystery of love given and accepted for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. But it is above all because Saint Rafka protects and watches over those who experience suffering - all suffering - because she was not spared suffering in her monastic life. "It's a great grace to be supported by the two greatest Lebanese saints" Father Luis concludes with a smile.

At the age of sixteen, in 1844, the young Youssef Makhlouf, the future Saint Charbel, a shepherd in the mountains of North Lebanon, had a mysterious encounter with a hermit between two cedar trees at an elevation of 1,600 metres: the hermit appeared unexpectedly and said to him: "When the peace of Christ descends upon you and takes root, you will bring it to others - his peace; you will heal them of their suffering, their anguish of living and their doubts. The power of ardent prayer is much stronger than human remedies and earthly forces. Go, my son, and think about what I've come to tell you!"

Going further:

Lamp of Eternal Lights: The Biography of Saint Charbel Makhlouf (1828-1898) by Elias Turk, Independently published (November 1, 2016)

More information:

• Love is a Radiant Light: The Life & Words of Saint Charbel by Saint Charbel (Author), Hanna Skandar (Author),  Angelico Press (February 15, 2019)