MARONITE PARISH OF VICTORIA

MARONITE SAINTS

SAINT CHARBEL Hermit of Lebanon

"From the top of the cedar, from the highest branch I will take a shoot and plant it myself on a very high mountain...this branch will bear fruit and become a noble cedar".
- Ezekiel 17:22-26 The Story of Charbel
On May 8, 1828 in a mountain village of Beka'kafra, the highest village in the near-east, Charbel was born to a poor Maronite family. From childhood his life revealed a calling to "bear fruit as a noble Cedar of Lebanon". Charbel "grew in age and wisdom before God and men". At 23 years old he entered the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk (north of Byblos) where he became a novice. After two years of novitiate, in 1853, he was sent to St. Maron monastery where he pronounced the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Charbel was then transferred to the monastery of Kfeifan where he studied philosophy and theology. His ordination to the priesthood took place in 1859, after which he was sent back to St. Maron monastery. His teachers provided him with good education and nurtured within him a deep love for monastic life.

During his 19 years at St. Maron monastery, Charbel performed his priestly ministry and his monastic duties in an edifying way. He totally dedicated himself to Christ with undivided heart to live in silence before Nameless One. In 1875 Charbel was granted permission to live as a hermit nearby the monastery at St. Peter and Paul hermitage. His 23 years of solitary life were lived in a spirit of total abandonment to God.
Charbel's companions in the hermitage were the Sons of God, as encountered in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, and the Blessed Mother. The Eucharist became the center of his life. He consumed the Bread of his Life and was consumed by it. Though this hermit did not have a place in the world, the world had a great place in his heart. Through prayer and penance he offered himself as a sacrifice so that the world would return to God. It is in this light that one sees the importance of the following Eucharistic prayer in his life:
"Father of Truth, behold Your Son a sacrifice pleasing to You, accept this offering of Him who died for me..."
On December 16, 1898 while reciting the "Father of Truth" prayer at the Holy Liturgy Charbel suffered a stroke. He died on Christmas Eve at the age of 70. Through faith this hermit received the Word of God and through love he continued the Ministry of Incarnation.
On the evening of his funeral, his superior wrote: "Because of what he will do after his death, I need not talk about his behavior". A few months after his death a bright light was seen surrounding his tomb. The superiors opened it to find his body still intact. Since that day ablood-like liquid flows from his body. Experts and doctors are unable to give medical explanations for the incorruptibility and flexibility. In the years 1950 and 1952 his tomb was opened and his body still had the appearance of a living one.
The spirit of Charbel still lives in many people. His miracles include numerous healings of the body and of the spirit. Thomas Merton, the American Hermit, wrote in his journal: "Charbel lived as a hermit in Lebanon---he was a Maronite. He died. Everyone forgot about him. Fifty years later, his body was discovered incorrupt and in short time he worked over 600 miracles. He is my newcompanion. My road has taken a new turning. It seems to me that I have been asleep for 9 years---and before that I was dead."
At the closing of the Second Vatican Council, on December 5, 1965 Charbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI who said: "...a hermit of the Lebanese mountain is inscribed in the number of the blessed...a new eminent member of monastic sanctity is enriching, by his example and his intercession, the entire Christian people...May he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance, and asceticism, to liberate the soul in its ascent to God..."
On October 9, 1977 during the World Synod of Bishops, Pope Paul VI canonized Blessed Charbel among the ranks of the Saints.
"The just will flourish like the palm tree, like the Cedar of Lebanon shall he grow."
- Psalm 92:13

Saint Maroun
Background
Saint Maroun, born in the middle of the 4th century was a priest who latter became a hermit, retiring to a mountain of Taurus near Antioch. His holiness and miracles attracted many followers, and drew attention throughout the empire. St John of Chrysostom sent him a letter around 405 AD expressing his great love and respect asking St Maroun to pray for him.
The Maronite Movement
St Maroun is considered the Father of the spiritual and monastic movement now called the Maronite Church. This movement had a profound influence on Northern Syria and Lebanon. Saint Maroun spent all of his life on a mountain in the region of Cyrrhus in Syria. It is believed that the place was called "Kefar-Nabo" on the mountain of Ol-Yambos, making it the cradle of the Maronite movement.

The Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St Maroun's first disciple Abraham of Cyrrhus who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realised that paganism was thriving in Lebanon, so he set out to convert the pagans to Christians by introducing them to the way of St Maroun. The followers of St Maroun, both monks and laity, always remained faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Spirituality
St Maroun's way was deeply monastic with emphasis on the spiritual and ascetic aspects of living. For Saint Maroun, all was connected to God and God was connected to all. He did not separate the physical and spiritual world and actually used the physical world to deepen his faith and spiritual experience with God.
St Maroun embraced the quiet solitude of the mountain life. He lived his life in open air exposed to the forces of nature such as sun, rain, hail and snow. His extraordinary desire to come to know Gods presence in all things, allowed St Maroun to transcend such forces and discover that intimate union with God. He was able to free himself from the physical world by his passion and fervour for prayer and enter into a mystical relationship of love with God.
Mission
St Maroun was a mystic who started this new ascetic-spiritual method that attracted many people in Syria and Lebanon to become his disciples. Accompanying his deeply spiritual and ascetic life, he was a zealous missionary with a passion to spread the message of Christ by preaching it to all he met. He sought not only to cure the physical ailments that people suffered, but had a great quest for nurturing and healing the "lost souls" of both pagans and Christians of his time.
This missionary work came to fruition when in the mountains of Syria, St Maroun was able to convert a pagan temple into a Christian Church. This was to be the beginning of the conversion of Paganism to Christianity in Syria which would then influence and spread to Lebanon. After his death in the year 410 AD, his spirit and teachings lived on through his disciples.

Blessed Rafqa
Bse Rafqa was born in a small villiage on the slopes of the Himalaya mountain of lebanon in 1832. At the age of 21, she entered an order of sisters which later dissolved in 1871. In that same year, she entered the Lebanese Maronite Order. For the next 26 years she lived and worked at the Convent of St Simon.

On the feast of the Holy Rosary in 1885, Rafqa prayed to our Lord that He might allow her to share in the suffering of his crucifixion. From that night on, her health began to deteriorate and soon she becme blind and crippled - yet she rejoiced in being made worthy to paricipate in the suffering of our Lord. She often begged her mother superior if she could (even when blind and weak) participate in the daily works of the other sisters. She refused to eat what was consider good but often prefered to eat the left overs, and she did not ever see herself worthy to dress in new clothes but would give them to the poor, whilst remaining in her old clothes. After years of great torment and agony, she died on March 23, 1914, at the Convent of St Joseph in Lebanon, and since then, many physical and spiritual healings have been attributed to her intercession. One such example was that of her mother superior who began to realise that she had a goul in her throat which didn't allow her to eat due to the pain. One night she heard a knock at her door and the person said "Go to Rafqa's grave - there you will be receive your healing". After inquiring if anyone had heard this voice she set out to Rafqa's grave in hope that it might be so. To her amazement, she was maraculously cured instantly. Rafqa was latter canonised as Blessed by Pope John Paul II.

Life of the Venerated Fr. Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini
On December 16, 1997, Fr. John Tabet, the Superior General of the Lebanese Maronite Order, held a press conference at the Catholic Center for Information in Lebanon to announce that His Holiness Pope John Paul II will beatify the Venerable Servant of God Nimatullah Hardini, professed priest of the Maronite Lebanese Order and the spiritual mentor of Saint Charbel. The Beatification is scheduled to take place at the Vatican in Rome on May 10, 1998, the first anniversary of the Pope's pastoral visit to Lebanon.

Joseph Kassab was born in the year 1808. His father was George Kassab and his mother Marium Raad. He entered the school of the monks of St. Anthony at Houb from 1816 to 1822. He entered the monastery of St. Anthony Ishaia and became a novice on November 1828. There he adopted the name Fr. Nimatullah Kassab Hardini, then he learned to bind books.
He professed his first vows on 14th of November 1830. After he finished his theological studies, he was ordained a priest under Bishop Seiman Zwain in the monastery at Kfifan on 25th of December 1833.
He became a member of the general council three times from 1845 to 1848, 1850 to 1853, 1856 to 1858. As a member of the council he continued to bind books. He taught in monastic schools, especially in Kfifan.
Father Nimatullah lived a very holy life. He was a man of prayer, totally "enraptured by God". He spent days and nights in meditation, prayer and adoration of the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary was his patron and Father Nimatullah prayed Her Rosary. He was also a very humble, sensitive and patient person who lived his monastic vows of "obedience, chastity and poverty" to perfection. His fellow brother Monks and the people who knew him called him "The Saint" while he was still alive. One of his students was Charbel Makhlouf (St. Charbel), 1853 to 1858.
Father Nimatullah Hardini died in the monastery of Kfifan on 14th December 1858. He passed away after struggling ten days with a high fever which he contracted from the cold winter wind characteristic of northern Lebanon. He was only then fifty years of age. He died holding a picture of the Virgin Mary, his last words being: "O Virgin Mary between your hands I submit my soul." People who were nearby at the moment of Father Nimatullah's death witnessed a heavenly light illuminating his room and an aromatic smell which remained in his room for a number of days afterwards. When the then Patriarch, Boulos Massad, heard of Father Nimatullah's death he commented: "Congratulations to this monk who knew how to benefit from his monastic life."
Some time later, the Monks opened Father Nimatullah's tomb and to their surprise they found his body had remained incorrupt. He was then removed and placed in a coffin near the church. After obtaining due permission from the local ecclesiastical authority, from 1864 visitors were allowed to see Father Neemtallah's intact body until 1927. In that same year the Committee of Inquiry set up to investigate the Cause of Father Nimatullah finalised its investigation. Father Nimatullah's body was then reburied in the curving wall of his monastic cell, before being transferred to a little Chapel where masses are celebrated for visitors.
Following the instructions given by the Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Cardinal Sfeir, the tomb was opened and the corpse was transferred to a new tomb on 18th May 1996. Through his intercession many humble cures occurred: blind, paralyzed in a chair, child raised from the dead, cure of another child, cure of nervous system, cure of cancer.

Mary in the Maronite Church
Mary, the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin, is especially loved in the Maronite Church. On all marian feasts, particularly the feast of the Assumption, Maronites throughout the world gather in prayer at Churches named in honour of Mary and at shrines to share their devotion to the patroness of Lebanon - Our Lady of Lebanon.
Mary has a prominent role in the Maronite Church and this is understandable in light of the Maronite theology of Salvation. Christ became human to make us divine, Christ became mortal to make us immortal, Christ has assumed what is ours to give us what is His. But for Christ to become human, he needed an earthly pole, and Mary was chosen, the blessed amongst all women to be the earthly pole. Mary assures us of the true humanity of Jesus, the Spirit assures us of his eternal divinity. Thus, Mary clearly shares in the salvific plan of God.

Mary, being perfectly redeemed, has already attained perfection of soul and body and her assumption into heaven assures us of our own bodily resurrection, our own journey of divinisation.
In the Maronite Church, Mary is also honoured as the new Eve. Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of Jesus as the new Adam. Because of Adam’s disobedience and sin, all of us were condemned as sinners. By Jesus’ obedient act of love by dying on the cross, we who are sinners are saved and made righteous. Adam was disobedient and sinned, receiving condemnation. Jesus was obedient and saved us, giving us eternal life. Jesus is truly the new Adam.
Likewise, death entered the world through Eve; life entered the world through Mary. Mary, through her obedience, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race - the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience. What Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.
Mary is truly blessed among women, because her ‘yes’ in faith, brought forth Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Thanks to Mary, the road towards Eden which had been closed because of Eve’s sin, is now opened for us because of Mary’s love, trust and obedience. Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father. Hail Mary, Mother of Jesus the Son. Hail Mary, Bride and Temple of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, Mother of the Church.

SAINT CHARBEL Hermit of Lebanon "From the top of the cedar, from the highest branch I will take a shoot and plant it myself on a very high mountain...this branch will bear fruit and become a noble cedar". - Ezekiel 17:22-26	The Story of Charbel On May 8, 1828 in a mountain village of Beka'kafra, the highest village in the near-east, Charbel was born to a poor Maronite family. From childhood his life revealed a calling to "bear fruit as a noble Cedar of Lebanon". Charbel "grew in age and wisdom before God and men". At 23 years old he entered the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk (north of Byblos) where he became a novice. After two years of novitiate, in 1853, he was sent to St. Maron monastery where he pronounced the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Charbel was then transferred to the monastery of Kfeifan where he studied philosophy and theology. His ordination to the priesthood took place in 1859, after which he was sent back to St. Maron monastery. His teachers provided him with good education and nurtured within him a deep love for monastic life.
During his 19 years at St. Maron monastery, Charbel performed his priestly ministry and his monastic duties in an edifying way. He totally dedicated himself to Christ with undivided heart to live in silence before Nameless One. In 1875 Charbel was granted permission to live as a hermit nearby the monastery at St. Peter and Paul hermitage. His 23 years of solitary life were lived in a spirit of total abandonment to God. Charbel's companions in the hermitage were the Sons of God, as encountered in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, and the Blessed Mother. The Eucharist became the center of his life. He consumed the Bread of his Life and was consumed by it. Though this hermit did not have a place in the world, the world had a great place in his heart. Through prayer and penance he offered himself as a sacrifice so that the world would return to God. It is in this light that one sees the importance of the following Eucharistic prayer in his life: "Father of Truth, behold Your Son a sacrifice pleasing to You, accept this offering of Him who died for me..." On December 16, 1898 while reciting the "Father of Truth" prayer at the Holy Liturgy Charbel suffered a stroke. He died on Christmas Eve at the age of 70. Through faith this hermit received the Word of God and through love he continued the Ministry of Incarnation. On the evening of his funeral, his superior wrote: "Because of what he will do after his death, I need not talk about his behavior". A few months after his death a bright light was seen surrounding his tomb. The superiors opened it to find his body still intact. Since that day ablood-like liquid flows from his body. Experts and doctors are unable to give medical explanations for the incorruptibility and flexibility. In the years 1950 and 1952 his tomb was opened and his body still had the appearance of a living one. The spirit of Charbel still lives in many people. His miracles include numerous healings of the body and of the spirit. Thomas Merton, the American Hermit, wrote in his journal: "Charbel lived as a hermit in Lebanon---he was a Maronite. He died. Everyone forgot about him. Fifty years later, his body was discovered incorrupt and in short time he worked over 600 miracles. He is my newcompanion. My road has taken a new turning. It seems to me that I have been asleep for 9 years---and before that I was dead." At the closing of the Second Vatican Council, on December 5, 1965 Charbel was beatified by Pope Paul VI who said: "...a hermit of the Lebanese mountain is inscribed in the number of the blessed...a new eminent member of monastic sanctity is enriching, by his example and his intercession, the entire Christian people...May he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance, and asceticism, to liberate the soul in its ascent to God..." On October 9, 1977 during the World Synod of Bishops, Pope Paul VI canonized Blessed Charbel among the ranks of the Saints. "The just will flourish like the palm tree, like the Cedar of Lebanon shall he grow." - Psalm 92:13
	Saint Maroun Background Saint Maroun, born in the middle of the 4th century was a priest who latter became a hermit, retiring to a mountain of Taurus near Antioch. His holiness and miracles attracted many followers, and drew attention throughout the empire. St John of Chrysostom sent him a letter around 405 AD expressing his great love and respect asking St Maroun to pray for him. The Maronite Movement St Maroun is considered the Father of the spiritual and monastic movement now called the Maronite Church. This movement had a profound influence on Northern Syria and Lebanon. Saint Maroun spent all of his life on a mountain in the region of Cyrrhus in Syria. It is believed that the place was called "Kefar-Nabo" on the mountain of Ol-Yambos, making it the cradle of the Maronite movement.
The Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St Maroun's first disciple Abraham of Cyrrhus who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realised that paganism was thriving in Lebanon, so he set out to convert the pagans to Christians by introducing them to the way of St Maroun. The followers of St Maroun, both monks and laity, always remained faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Spirituality St Maroun's way was deeply monastic with emphasis on the spiritual and ascetic aspects of living. For Saint Maroun, all was connected to God and God was connected to all. He did not separate the physical and spiritual world and actually used the physical world to deepen his faith and spiritual experience with God. St Maroun embraced the quiet solitude of the mountain life. He lived his life in open air exposed to the forces of nature such as sun, rain, hail and snow. His extraordinary desire to come to know Gods presence in all things, allowed St Maroun to transcend such forces and discover that intimate union with God. He was able to free himself from the physical world by his passion and fervour for prayer and enter into a mystical relationship of love with God. Mission St Maroun was a mystic who started this new ascetic-spiritual method that attracted many people in Syria and Lebanon to become his disciples. Accompanying his deeply spiritual and ascetic life, he was a zealous missionary with a passion to spread the message of Christ by preaching it to all he met. He sought not only to cure the physical ailments that people suffered, but had a great quest for nurturing and healing the "lost souls" of both pagans and Christians of his time. This missionary work came to fruition when in the mountains of Syria, St Maroun was able to convert a pagan temple into a Christian Church. This was to be the beginning of the conversion of Paganism to Christianity in Syria which would then influence and spread to Lebanon. After his death in the year 410 AD, his spirit and teachings lived on through his disciples.
	Blessed Rafqa Bse Rafqa was born in a small villiage on the slopes of the Himalaya mountain of lebanon in 1832. At the age of 21, she entered an order of sisters which later dissolved in 1871. In that same year, she entered the Lebanese Maronite Order. For the next 26 years she lived and worked at the Convent of St Simon.
On the feast of the Holy Rosary in 1885, Rafqa prayed to our Lord that He might allow her to share in the suffering of his crucifixion. From that night on, her health began to deteriorate and soon she becme blind and crippled - yet she rejoiced in being made worthy to paricipate in the suffering of our Lord. She often begged her mother superior if she could (even when blind and weak) participate in the daily works of the other sisters. She refused to eat what was consider good but often prefered to eat the left overs, and she did not ever see herself worthy to dress in new clothes but would give them to the poor, whilst remaining in her old clothes. After years of great torment and agony, she died on March 23, 1914, at the Convent of St Joseph in Lebanon, and since then, many physical and spiritual healings have been attributed to her intercession. One such example was that of her mother superior who began to realise that she had a goul in her throat which didn't allow her to eat due to the pain. One night she heard a knock at her door and the person said "Go to Rafqa's grave - there you will be receive your healing". After inquiring if anyone had heard this voice she set out to Rafqa's grave in hope that it might be so. To her amazement, she was maraculously cured instantly. Rafqa was latter canonised as Blessed by Pope John Paul II.
	Life of the Venerated Fr. Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini On December 16, 1997, Fr. John Tabet, the Superior General of the Lebanese Maronite Order, held a press conference at the Catholic Center for Information in Lebanon to announce that His Holiness Pope John Paul II will beatify the Venerable Servant of God Nimatullah Hardini, professed priest of the Maronite Lebanese Order and the spiritual mentor of Saint Charbel. The Beatification is scheduled to take place at the Vatican in Rome on May 10, 1998, the first anniversary of the Pope's pastoral visit to Lebanon.
Joseph Kassab was born in the year 1808. His father was George Kassab and his mother Marium Raad. He entered the school of the monks of St. Anthony at Houb from 1816 to 1822. He entered the monastery of St. Anthony Ishaia and became a novice on November 1828. There he adopted the name Fr. Nimatullah Kassab Hardini, then he learned to bind books. He professed his first vows on 14th of November 1830. After he finished his theological studies, he was ordained a priest under Bishop Seiman Zwain in the monastery at Kfifan on 25th of December 1833. He became a member of the general council three times from 1845 to 1848, 1850 to 1853, 1856 to 1858. As a member of the council he continued to bind books. He taught in monastic schools, especially in Kfifan. Father Nimatullah lived a very holy life. He was a man of prayer, totally "enraptured by God". He spent days and nights in meditation, prayer and adoration of the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary was his patron and Father Nimatullah prayed Her Rosary. He was also a very humble, sensitive and patient person who lived his monastic vows of "obedience, chastity and poverty" to perfection. His fellow brother Monks and the people who knew him called him "The Saint" while he was still alive. One of his students was Charbel Makhlouf (St. Charbel), 1853 to 1858. Father Nimatullah Hardini died in the monastery of Kfifan on 14th December 1858. He passed away after struggling ten days with a high fever which he contracted from the cold winter wind characteristic of northern Lebanon. He was only then fifty years of age. He died holding a picture of the Virgin Mary, his last words being: "O Virgin Mary between your hands I submit my soul." People who were nearby at the moment of Father Nimatullah's death witnessed a heavenly light illuminating his room and an aromatic smell which remained in his room for a number of days afterwards. When the then Patriarch, Boulos Massad, heard of Father Nimatullah's death he commented: "Congratulations to this monk who knew how to benefit from his monastic life." Some time later, the Monks opened Father Nimatullah's tomb and to their surprise they found his body had remained incorrupt. He was then removed and placed in a coffin near the church. After obtaining due permission from the local ecclesiastical authority, from 1864 visitors were allowed to see Father Neemtallah's intact body until 1927. In that same year the Committee of Inquiry set up to investigate the Cause of Father Nimatullah finalised its investigation. Father Nimatullah's body was then reburied in the curving wall of his monastic cell, before being transferred to a little Chapel where masses are celebrated for visitors. Following the instructions given by the Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Cardinal Sfeir, the tomb was opened and the corpse was transferred to a new tomb on 18th May 1996. Through his intercession many humble cures occurred: blind, paralyzed in a chair, child raised from the dead, cure of another child, cure of nervous system, cure of cancer.
	Mary in the Maronite Church Mary, the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin, is especially loved in the Maronite Church. On all marian feasts, particularly the feast of the Assumption, Maronites throughout the world gather in prayer at Churches named in honour of Mary and at shrines to share their devotion to the patroness of Lebanon - Our Lady of Lebanon. Mary has a prominent role in the Maronite Church and this is understandable in light of the Maronite theology of Salvation. Christ became human to make us divine, Christ became mortal to make us immortal, Christ has assumed what is ours to give us what is His. But for Christ to become human, he needed an earthly pole, and Mary was chosen, the blessed amongst all women to be the earthly pole. Mary assures us of the true humanity of Jesus, the Spirit assures us of his eternal divinity. Thus, Mary clearly shares in the salvific plan of God.
Mary, being perfectly redeemed, has already attained perfection of soul and body and her assumption into heaven assures us of our own bodily resurrection, our own journey of divinisation. In the Maronite Church, Mary is also honoured as the new Eve. Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of Jesus as the new Adam. Because of Adam’s disobedience and sin, all of us were condemned as sinners. By Jesus’ obedient act of love by dying on the cross, we who are sinners are saved and made righteous. Adam was disobedient and sinned, receiving condemnation. Jesus was obedient and saved us, giving us eternal life. Jesus is truly the new Adam. Likewise, death entered the world through Eve; life entered the world through Mary. Mary, through her obedience, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race - the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience. What Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith. Mary is truly blessed among women, because her ‘yes’ in faith, brought forth Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Thanks to Mary, the road towards Eden which had been closed because of Eve’s sin, is now opened for us because of Mary’s love, trust and obedience. Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father. Hail Mary, Mother of Jesus the Son. Hail Mary, Bride and Temple of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, Mother of the Church.