The Sacred Scriptures are full of stories of amazing things, some of which we tend to dismiss as probable embellishments of ancient authors. But then you read the story of St. Charbel Makhlouf, and we’re reminded that the promise that Jesus made was that we would see miracles in our days.
Youssef Antoun Mahlouf was born on May 8, 1828 in Lebanon. He never really knew his father, who died two years after Youssef was born. His mother remarried a pious man who would eventually become a priest of the Maronite Rite. By many accounts, theirs was a devout household. Two of his uncles were monks, and young Youssef showed signs of a deep faith early on.
In 1851, at the age of 24, he set off to become a monk, eventually taking the religious name Charbel, after St. Charbel of Edessa who was a martyr in the year 107. He studied for a time and lived a strict monastic life in the Monastery of St. Maron. In 1875, Father Charbel requested and was granted permission to live as a hermit, near the monastery. This meant that he would live apart from the other monks and so the whole world. His only companion would be the Lord. He would maintain his prayer life and live off of the meager food provided to him from the Monastery. The abbot would check in on him, but other than that, there was little to no contact. His hermitage continued for twenty-three years until he died of a stroke on Christmas Eve 1898.
Pretty unremarkable, one supposes. Good man becomes monk and dies. But right away things got interesting.
It was snowing heavily the day he died. When his brother monks found his body and tried to transport it to back to the Monastery they thought they’d have to wait until some later date. But the moment they began to move his body, the skies brightened and the snow ceased. After the funeral rites and now buried in a tomb but in the ground with no coffin, one of the brothers that night noticed lights appearing outside the tomb. The lights surrounded the tomb for forty-five days. Some locals started to notice. The monks became concerned as the locals tried to start taking parts of the tomb as a kind of relic, so the abbot decided to open the tomb.
When they did so they found a body to be totally incorrupt, without even any sort of rigor mortis, and the body was oozing a blood-like substance. They placed the body in a coffin at that point. Between 1898 and 1955 the tomb was opened four times, and each time they found the same situation: incorrupt, no rigor mortis, oozing a substance. In 1976, one year before he was to be canonized, they opened the tomb once more and found the body completely decomposed, leaving only a skeleton.
The miracles associated with St. Charbel started almost at once. There really are too many to mention, so I’ll highlight the one that I first heard in relation to St. Charbel Makhlouf.
In 1999, Dafne Gutierrez of Phoenix, Arizona was diagnosed at thirteen years old with idiopathic intracranial hypertension. She experienced gradual loss of her eyesight as the vessels that surrounded her optic nerves would swell increasing pressure on the nerves, pinching them, and so doing irreparable damage. In 2014, at the age of 28, she had lost sight in her left eye despite the efforts of medical science. By, 2015 she lost sight in her other eye. Now totally blind she also experience excruciating headaches, seizures, tinnitus, vomiting, and dizziness. The next year, no longer able to take care of herself or her three young children, it was decided that she would live in a home.
It was now January 2016, and arrangements were underway to get her admitted. But at that same time she heard on Catholic radio that the relics of St. Charbel Makhlouf were going to be in Phoenix. She didn’t know who this was, and so didn’t think much of it; but her sister-in-law thought it was important and asked if she could take Dafne to the Church to be blessed by the relic. On the way to the Church, Dafne was not hopeful. She was at the end of her rope. She said she gave everything over to God.
Fr. Wissam Akiki, the pastor of the Maronite parish there in Phoenix, celebrated Mass, and then offered to bless individuals with oils touched to a first-class relic of St. Charbel. A blessing was given to Dafne by Fr. Akiki with this oil, and that was it. Dafne came back the next day, Sunday, and attended Mass again, praying to St. Charbel. Pretty unremarkable, until…
It was 4 am, Monday morning, just two days after her anointing with the oil. She was woken up by a burning in her eyes. She woke up her husband who was confused because, without the optic nerve she shouldn’t be able to feel anything in her eyes. He put his hands on them and noticed a heat was emanating and there was a smell of something burning. Then, Dafne noticed that she could see, she could see vaguely at first, but then, yes, she could see. Within three days, her sight was tested, and she had 20/20 vision in both eyes.
What happened to Dafne was physically impossible. And the medical community agreed that there was no medical explanation.
Miracles do happen. Sometimes they are amazing and defy all that we know about the physical universe. They remind us that with God “all things are possible.” So, on this Memorial of St. Charbel Makhlouf, remember not to settle for little things. Ask for the big things you need, give everything over to God, and ask for the intercession of St. Charbel the unremarkable saint who does remarkable things.
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