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Saintly Statue: Lebanon’s Humble St. Charbel Now a Towering Presence
The National Catholic Register ^ | 9/21/17 | Doreen Abi Raad

Posted on 09/25/2017 8:16:58 PM PDT by marshmallow

Family donates monument to Maronite hermit in thanksgiving for miraculous healing.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s beloved St. Charbel now towers high on a mountain in the land of the cedars in the form of the world’s largest statue of the humble hermit.

Located in Faraya, a touristic area popular for skiing 27 miles north of Beirut, the monumental statue is 88.6 feet tall, 30 feet wide and weighs nearly 60 tons.

Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, consecrated the statue on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Sept. 14.

St. Charbel was born Joseph Antoun Makhlouf in the northern Lebanese village of Beqa-Kafra in 1828. The youngest of five children, his parents were simple Maronite farmers who were devout in their faith. The world held no interest for the future saint: His yearning was for holiness. Even as a young boy, he would go off alone to a grotto and pray.

At the age of 23, he quietly left his family, traveling more than a day on foot, until he reached Our Lady of Lebanon Monastery, where he began his novitiate. When he joined the order of Lebanese Maronite monks at the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, he chose the name Charbel, after a second-century martyr.

Charbel was beatified Dec. 5, 1965, and canonized Oct. 9, 1977 — Lebanon’s first saint. Blessed Pope Paul VI remarked at the beatification ceremony: “What a symbol of union between East and West! ... His whole existence was completely centered on the celebration of Mass, on silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and in the heroic practice of the virtues of obedience, poverty and chastity. … May he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance and asceticism.....

(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Prayer; Religion & Culture
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1 posted on 09/25/2017 8:16:58 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

It probably won’t be up for too long since it’s in a Muslim country.


2 posted on 09/25/2017 8:31:06 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Apparently I'm still living in your head rent free. At least now it isn't empty.)
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To: vladimir998

Lots of Christians in Lebanon-——always have been.

.


3 posted on 09/25/2017 9:12:10 PM PDT by Mears
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To: marshmallow

Plus that country has been at peace for the last few years now.


4 posted on 09/26/2017 2:23:02 PM PDT by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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