Prayer to Saint Charbel (Padre Pio of Lebanon) to ask for a grace

O great thaumaturge Saint Charbel, who spent your life in solitude in a humble and hidden hermitage, renouncing the world and its vain pleasures, and now reign in the glory of the Saints, in the splendor of the Holy Trinity, intercede for us.

Enlighten us mind and heart, increase our faith and strengthen our will.

Increase our love for God and neighbor.

Help us do good and avoid evil.

Defend us from visible and invisible enemies and help us throughout our lives.

You who do wonders for those who invoke you and obtain the healing of innumerable evils and the solution of problems without human hope, look at us with pity and, if it conforms to the divine will and to our greatest good, obtain for us from God the grace that we implore ..., but above all help us to imitate your holy and virtuous life. Amen. Pater, Ave, Gloria

 

Charbel, aka Youssef, Makhluf, was born in Beqaa-Kafra (Lebanon) on May 8, 1828. Fifth son of Antun and Brigitte Chidiac, both farmers, from an early age he seemed to show great spirituality. At 3 he was fatherless and his mother remarried with a very religious man who subsequently received the ministry of the diaconate.

At the age of 14 he dedicated himself to caring for a flock of sheep near his father's house and, in this period, he began his first and authentic experiences regarding prayer: he constantly retired to a cave he had discovered near the pastures (today it is called "the cave of the saint"). Aside from his stepfather (deacon), Youssef had two maternal uncles who were hermits and belonged to the Lebanese Maronite Order. He ran frequently from them, spending many hours in conversations concerning the religious vocation and the monk, which each time becomes more significant for him.

At the age of 23, Youssef listened to the voice of God "Leave everything, come and follow me", he decides, and then, without saying goodbye to anyone, not even his mother, one morning in the year 1851, he goes to the convent of Our Lady of Mayfouq, where he will be received first as a postulant and then as a novice, making an exemplary life from the first moment, especially with regard to obedience. Here Youssef took the novice habit and chose the name Charbel, a martyr from Edessa who lived in the second century.
After some time he was transferred to the convent of Annaya, where he professed perpetual vows as a monk in 1853. Immediately afterwards, obedience took him to the monastery of St. Cyprian of Kfifen (name of the village), where he carried out his studies of philosophy and theology, making an exemplary life especially in observance of the Rule of his Order.

He was ordained a priest on 23 July 1859 and, after a short time, he returned to the monastery of Annaya by order of his superiors. There he spent long years, always as an example for all his confreres, in the various activities that involved him: the apostolate, the care of the sick, care of souls and manual work (the more humble the better).

On February 13, 1875, at his request he obtained from the Superior to become a hermit in the nearby hermitage located at 1400 m. above sea level, where he underwent the most severe mortifications.
On 16 December 1898, while celebrating the Holy Mass in the Syro-Maronite rite, an apoplectic stroke struck him; transported to his room he spent eight days of suffering and agony until December 24 he left this world.

Extraordinary phenomena occurred on his grave starting a few months after his death. This was opened and the body was found intact and soft; put back in another chest, he was placed in a specially prepared chapel, and since his body emitted reddish sweat, the clothes were changed twice a week.
Over time, and in view of the miracles that Charbel was doing and the cult of which he was the object, Fr Superior General Ignacio Dagher went to Rome, in 1925, to solicit the opening of the beatification process.
In 1927 the coffin was again buried. In February 1950 monks and believers saw that a slimy liquid was emanating from the wall of the sepulcher, and, assuming an infiltration of water, the sepulcher was reopened in front of the whole monastic community: the coffin was intact, the body was still soft and it kept the temperature of living bodies. The superior with an amice wiped the reddish sweat from Charbel's face and the face remained imprinted on the cloth.
Also in 1950, in April, the higher religious authorities, with a special commission of three well-known doctors, reopened the case and established that the liquid emanated from the body was the same as that analyzed in 1899 and 1927. Outside the crowd pleaded with prayers the healing of the sick brought there by relatives and faithful and in fact many instantaneous healings took place on that occasion. People could hear people shouting: “Miracle! Miracle!" Among the crowd there were those who asked for grace even though they were not Christians.

During the closure of Vatican II, on 5 December 1965, SS Paolo VI (Giovanni Battista Montini, 1963-1978) beatified him and added: "a hermit from the Lebanese mountain is registered in the number of Venerables ... a new member of monastic holiness enriches with his example and his intercession the whole Christian people. He can make us understand, in a world fascinated by comfort and wealth, the great value of poverty, penance and asceticism, to free the soul in its ascension to God ".

On October 9, 1977, the Pope himself, Blessed Paul VI, officially proclaimed Charbel during the ceremony celebrated in St. Peter's.

In love with the Eucharist and the Holy Virgin Mary, St. Charbel, model and example of consecrated life, is considered the last of the Great Hermits. His miracles are manifold and those who rely on his intercession are not disappointed, always receiving the benefit of Grace and the healing of body and soul.
"The righteous will flourish, like a palm tree, will rise up like a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord." Sal.91 (92) 13-14.