Saint
Maron
Feast Day –
February 9
The
spiritual founder of our Maronite Church was a monk and priest who
lived in
the
late fourth and early fifth centuries. This monk or hermit, Father
Maron, spent years living in solitude at the top of a mountain near
Apamea in Syria. There, he transformed a former non-Christian temple
into a Church for the one true God.
Only a
few facts are known about the life of this holy hermit. Maron lived
in strict asceticism, living outdoors most of the time. Whatever
food he ate was either donated to him by passing travelers or grown
by him in his own garden.
Word
about Maron’s holiness eventually spread throughout the region. He
also gained a reputation for working miracles, especially curing all
sorts of sickness and driving out demons. Eventually, people came to
live near Maron to learn from him.
Maron
was a very simple man. When he taught his disciples about the
spiritual life, he compared it to his own garden of vegetables. As
Maron saw it, the point of the Christian life is to root out
vices (weeds) and to nourish virtues (plants good for
eating).
After
Maron died in A.D. 410, his disciples continued together in his way,
forming the nucleus of the Maronite Church. They raised in his honor
another church and a monastery that would bear the name Bet Moroon,
meaning “the house of Maron.” The monastery that was situated in the
valley of the Orontes River in Syria soon flourished. It became a
place of prayer and pilgrimage. Today Maronites honor Saint Maron on
February 9, his feast day.
Our Prayer
The
primary goal of Maron’s life was to root out evil and to nourish
virtue. We express Maron’s desire to follow Jesus perfectly in the
last prayer of the Hoosoyo at every Divine Service.
O
holy and immortal Lord, sanctify our minds and purify our
consciences
that
we may praise You with pure hearts and listen to Your Holy
Scriptures.
To
You be glory, forever.
As
Saint Maron knew from his own experience, growing in the spiritual
life involves a lifetime of hard work. Just as a garden constantly
needs to be weeded, hoed, and cultivated, so our growth in holiness
depends on the choices we make daily.
Praise, glory and honor to the Lord, Who in His goodness called
Maron to the monastic life,
Who
rendered him perfect through the divine virtues,
and
enabled him to live in the garden of light and life.
Lord, we beseech You, to grant us victory over evil.
Through the intercession of Maron, protect Your small flock from
every error and failing.
Watch over its shepherds, priests, monks and religious, with the
teaching
that
has been transmitted to them by our father, Maron, the holy hermit.
Through the intercession of Your Mother and Your saints, may we give
You glory,
now
and forever. Amen
St. Maron
Father of
the Maronite Rite
Who can
describe how God arrayed our Father Maron with the choicest
blessings of creation and with a holy life of service?
He followed the way of Christ, abandoning all else for the one Pearl
of Great Price. His days and nights were filled with prayer and
penance. In humility, he carried his cross, in dedication, he became
a hermit in the world and in simplicity he praised his God on the
mountaintops.
The holy hermit took the words of Christ to heart: “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for the reign of God is theirs.” In this way, his
life became a living sacrifice, breathing life upon his followers,
seeking first the Kingdom of God and its truth.
Because
God graced our Father Maron with power over body and soul, many came
to follow him and to be led by his pastor’s staff.
He
was anointed as the Father of great people, a nation gathered from
nations.
He
was his Master’s plow in the garden of life, preparing hearts for
the seed of truth.
Praise
and thanksgiving to the One Who chose him, now and forever. Amen
Fenqitho:
Sedro, Liturgy for Saint Maron
Saint
Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini
“Saint of
Kfifan”
Blessed Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini rightfully recognized as a
Saint on May 16, 2004.
What
a tremendous blessing for the Maronite Church and the nation of
Lebanon to have one of its own honored worldwide, along with St.
Maron, St. Sharbel, and St. Rafka. Who was he and why will he be
proclaimed a Saint?
Kassab Al-Hardini
was born in 1808 in Hardin, a Maronite village in the Lebanese
Mountains, in the district of Batrun in Northern Lebanon. He was the
son of parents who came from deeply Christian families, and were
themselves devoted to their faith and traditions and passed that
devotion on to their children. Out of those seven children, came
three priests, Nimatullah being one, and a sister who became a nun.
When
he was baptized, he received the name of his grandfather, Yussef
(Joseph). “From a tender age, he was inclined to devotion and to
assist at Mass. He was very bashful and fled the company of others.”
While at school, one of his chores was to watch the cows, which
provided milk for the children. He arranged for other children to
cover for him during that time, so that he could go to a cave nearby
where he set up an altar, dedicated to St. John, to pray and worship
alone. Such was his hunger for God as a small child, evidence of the
call of God on his life, which “little Joseph” sensed from an early
age. “Various factors helped him to become conscious of the call
from God to which he would respond. One was the example of his
parents and brothers who strove to ‘live in the fear of God.’
Another was the life of the monks of the monastery of St. Anthony of
Hub. A third was the determination of his brother, Fr. Eliseu, in
pursuing the way of perfection since he was seventeen. All these
factors had a great impact on him so that the more he grew the more
the voice of the Lord became louder.”
At
the age of twenty, Joseph Kassab Al-Hardini left his beloved parents
and home in 1828, to consecrate his life to monastic service. “He
was received as a novice in the monastery of St. Anthony of Qozhaya
in the beginning of November in 1828 and took the name of ‘Brother
Nimatullah’ (grace of God)…He received the monastic habit and made
solemn profession on November 14, 1830, when he consecrated himself
totally and definitely to God…He was sent to the monastery of St.
Cyprian of Kfifan” There, in the Scholasticate of the Maronite
Lebanese Order, he threw himself into his studies, so that he might
better prepare himself and bring himself closer to the Lord. He is
quoted as having been a model student and monk.
Fr.
Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini served humbly in every capacity of his
monastic life. Young monks were greatly influence by his exemplary
life. Fr. Nimatullah served as a teacher, director of young monks
and professor of theology, but he also worked at the skill of tailor
at one point. He did any work requested of him, but, having become
adept at bookbinding, he happily busied himself at that trade
throughout his years of service until the end, although he held
higher positions during that time. “In summary, he never knew what
slothfulness was. His daily life was divided between prayer and
work-intellectual, manual or religious.” He exemplified the motto,
ora et labora, pray and work.
Several times
Fr. Nimatullah received an appointment from the Holy See as
assistant to the General, which meant he was required to live in the
Monastery of Our Lady of Tamish, but he went often to the Monastery
of St. Cyprian to do his book-binding or to teach the young monks.
On one such occasion, in the winter of 1858, he contracted pleurisy
to such a degree that no medication could quell it. After ten days
of illness, he died on December 14, 1858 at age 58. It is
said that he never feared death; he was prepared and hungry to be
with the Lord. “Before giving up his soul, he sat down and, with
deep breaths, he threw himself at the statue of the Holy Virgin,
which he grasped with his hands, saying, ‘O, Mary, I confide my soul
to you.’
He lived as a
man of prayer and died as a man of prayer. When the Maronite
Patriarch, Paul Mas’ad heard the news, he said …’This priest knew
how to make the most of his religious life.’ He was buried in the
monastery of St. Cyprian of Kfifan and his body remained intact.”
What virtues or
miracles can be attributed to Fr. Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini?
Definitely he was known as a man of prayer, praying the rosary daily
in his devotion to the Blessed Holy Virgin, Mother of God. All who
worked with him and knew him spoke of his determined obedience,
exemplary chastity, strong, unbending faith, true and constant
charity. Fr. Nimatullah was the ultimate role model for the
priesthood and also for all Christians. “In fact, someone invented
the word ‘hardana’ in Arabic to say something is according to the
manner of Father Al-Hardini.” His influence moved others, such as
St. Sharbel and St. Rafka to greater service.
“Fr. Nimatullah
promoted the cultural rebirth of the Maronite Lebanese Order. Even
though he was an ascetic and austere monk, he showed himself very
open to science and every kind of culture. “ The University of the
Holy Spirit in Kaslik and the Catholic University are benefits to
the Order, left by this monk’s wise leadership.
Miracles
happened during the life of Fr. Al-Hardini and afterwards. One story
told how the grain supply was low until Fr. Nimatullah came,
sprinkled holy water on the pantry then left. When the cellarer went
to look, the grain box was overflowing! After his death, a sterile
Druze woman promised the Lord that if she had a son she would take
him to be baptized and to visit the tomb of the “Saint of Kfifan.”
On the way, her baby died, but she went on anyway, placing the dead
child by the tomb of Fr. Al-Hardini. As she walked away, a monk
called, “Come get your baby; he’s crying!” She became so ecstatic
that all around her heard the story. Her Druze husband gave no
resistance to the baptism of his son. A Greek Orthodox blind man
came to the tomb to spend some time and received his sight. Some
were healed after drinking water mixed with some of the dirt from
the monk’s grave.
On Sept. 8,
1989, Pope John Paul II recognized Fr. Al-Hardini as “venerable.” On
May 10, 1998, he was proclaimed, “Blessed,” by Pope John Paul II.
On May 16, 2004,
the world joined the many Lebanese faithful in recognizing the
sainthood of this devout monk, Blessed Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini,
who through his exemplary life in Christ, dedicated to work and
prayer, not only changed lives of the faithful, he changed the
hearts of those opposed to the Church, caused the cultural rebirth
of his Order and is now honored as Lebanon’s newest Saint.
Saint Charbel
The Hermit of
Lebanon
The
Saint Charbel is the first Confessor of the Eastern Church raised to
the glory of the altars in modern times. He was born on 8 May 1828,
in the village of Bkaakafra in the high mountains of Northern
Lebanon from poor, but respectable and devout parents. He was the
last of five children. Two brothers and two sisters were born before
him into that blessed family. When he was baptized, he was given the
name of Joseph.
He learned a
profound and sound piety from his parents and cultivated these seeds
of sanctity with generous care. With continuous prayer, his life was
inspired by detachment and denial of worldly vanities, always
seeking interior and exterior solitude. At the age of twenty-three,
he left home and became a novice at the Monastery of Our Lady of
Mayfouq, north of Jbeil.
Some time later he
was transferred to the Monastery of Saint Maroun at Annaya. In 1853,
after the two prescribed years of noviciate, he pronounced the vows
of poverty, chastity and obedience, choosing the name of Charbel who
was an old Oriental martyr.
Humility, Poverty and Chastity
|
His mother and other
members of his family, having found his shelter, reached him and
begged him to go back home. It was useless as he refused firmly and
persisted with his vocation. He renounced the pleasure of seeing his
home, his relations and even his mother forever. He made up his mind
to die to the world and to cut off all ties with it in order to
devote himself completely to God, without any reserve.
After pronouncing
his solemn monastic vows, the Father Charbel was sent by his
superiors to the Monastery of Cyprian and Justina at Kfifan to
finish his religious studies. He was lucky to find two professors
who were well known in the Order for their virtues and their
theological and ascetical learning, namely the Reverend Father
Nimitallah Al-Kafri and the Reverend Father Nimitallah Kassab Al-Hardini,
(who is now counted amongst the Blessed.) Following the teaching and
the example of these two outstanding Fathers, Saint Charbel laid in
his heart the seeds of virtue and monastic perfection.
Saint Charbel was
ordained priest on 23 July 1859 at Bkerke. He then was sent back
again to the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya where he performed
all his holy services in a very edifying way, while carrying on
every kind of manual work. He accomplished all the duties of
monastic life with deep humility, perfect obedience, strict poverty
and heroic chastity that made him resemble an angel.
Saint Charbel had
spent sixteen years of severe ascetic life always in prayer,
mortification and self-denial. In 1875 his superiors permitted him
to retire to the hermitage of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Annaya,
which was two kilometers away from the Monastery of Saint Maroun.
As a hermit, he did
not live independently in the solitude of his hermitage, but
remained at the disposal of his superiors, following very severe and
strict discipline.
Saint Charbel chose
this solitude to practice virtue and his religious vows in a heroic
way. Contemplation, manual work, fasting, continuous prayer, rest on
a hard couch, hair shirt... all these ascetic practices were the
program of his daily life. He lived this way of life for
twenty-three years, from 1875 when he entered the hermitage to 1898
when he died. Saint Charbel dedicated himself with all his strength
to a solitary life of perfection, penance, and mortification.
Sixteen years at the
Monastery and twenty-three at the hermitage were lived in this holy
way. His life was marked by a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist
and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the 39 years of his priestly
life Saint Charbel used to celebrate the Holy Mass every day after a
long preparation and he used to finish with a thanksgiving, which
lasted not less than two hours.
He went night and
day to the chapel to visit the Blessed Sacrament and to say many
Rosaries before the image of Our Lady. Prayers, fasting,
mortification and penance for the love of God made up his life, and
he could really say with Saint Paul at the end of his life:
'I have fought the
good fight. Now I await the crown of justice from the Lord.'(Tim.4)
The fame of
holiness, which surrounded Saint Charbel during his life, spread
even more after his death. On the evening of his burial in the
churchyard of Saint Maroun Monastery, his Superior, Father Antonio
El-Michmichani wrote in the Convent's register:
'...On 24 December 1898, receiving the Sacraments of the Church, the
hermit Father Charbel Makhlouf of Bkkakafra was, struck by
paralysis. He was seventy. Because of what he will do after his
death, I need not talk about his good behavior and, above all, the
observance of his vows, and we may truly say that his obedience was
more angelic than human...'
These prophetic
words have prodigiously come true, because hundreds of miracles have
been obtained through the intercession of Saint Charbel at Annaya
near his tomb and all over the world.
From St. Charbel’s
Parish, Sydney, Austrailia
St. Sharbel
One of the
best-known Maronites in recent history is a monk called Charbel (or
Sharbel) Makhlouf, who lived in the late 1800s in Lebanon. He was
honored there by people of all faiths, especially by those who
understood the beauty of a dedicated life, the goodness and value of
men and women who give themselves to God.
Fr. Charbel
was a hermit in the true sense of the word. Hermits are men or
women who live away from other people. They don’t move away because
they are angry or sickened by what they see around them. Hermits
live in isolated or lonely places, sometimes in huts, in order to be
alone with God, to spend their nights and days in prayer and to
avoid wasting precious time—the “now.” These are men or women who
understand that the past is gone forever…the future may or may not
come, which leaves them with “now.”
As a hermit,
Fr. Charbel had a small house with a chapel, and he lived alone
there, praying and talking to God. Now, conversations between
friends can go on forever…the saints are called “the Friends of
God,” which means that most of them carried on conversations with
God and they never ran out of things to say. Fr. Charbel was one of
those people. He prayed night and day, endlessly, and he gave praise
to God on behalf of all the people in the world, who have forgotten
that God exists. When he was not praying, Fr. Charbel did not say
anything at all—not one word.
Silence is
part of a hermit’s life; penance is also. Fr. Charbel slept on a
goatskin, rather than a bed. He ate no meat or fruit as a sacrifice,
probably because he liked the taste of them, and he lived this way
for 23 years. Silence, fasting, prayer, and penance were the
hallmarks (defining signs) of his life as a monk.
Now this did
not mean that Fr. Charbel grew insensitive to what was going on
around him; he just had a different way of looking at life. He also
seemed to know things that others did not, having a special link to
eternity.
One day a
messenger came to tell Fr. Charbel that a good friend, another
hermit, lay dying in another settlement. Fr. Charbel started out
with the messenger, walking quickly…so he could be by his friend’s
side during the last moments of the man’s life. Suddenly the monk
stopped in the middle of the road…Fr. Charbel quietly stated that
there was no need for him to go to see the man any longer…the hermit
turned on his heel and [the messenger] was left standing alone in
the road. Thinking Fr. Charbel was crazy, the messenger ran…to the
other priest…to tell him. He arrived to hear that the priest had
died…at the very moment that Fr. Charbel stopped in the middle of
the road. He had known that there was no need for him to rush to the
bed of a man already dead and gone. It was too late for consolations
or kind words. He and his priest friend would meet only at the
Throne of God in eternity. Fr. Charbel understood that death holds
no terrors for men and women like him. Dying is only the putting
aside of flesh and bones, a doorway to eternal life with God.
Fr. Charbel
Makhlouf, Lebanon’s beloved Maronite hermit, put aside his own
prayers, penance and silence on Christmas Eve, 1898. After his
death, he amazed and thrilled his own people and others by working
miracles…His canonization, recognized by the entire Catholic Church
brings honor not only to Fr. Charbel, but to an entire group of
devout Catholics who have maintained their own ways and traditions
in the Maronite Rite through the ages. His feast day is December 24th.
From Lives of the Saints You Should Know by Margaret and
Matthew Bunso
Three Massabki
Brothers
In
the course of the fighting in Syria and Lebanon in 1860, a great
number of Christians died for their faith. Among them were the
Franciscan Fathers and the Massabki brothers, who were all martyred
at Damascus in Syria. The Franciscan Fathers were all murdered
during the night of July 10th.
Among the
thousands of lay Christians who shed their blood for Christ were the
Massabki brothers. On that same night they fled to the Church for
safety, but their assailants were able to enter and demanded them to
abandon their religion. In the name of all, one of the brothers,
Francis, refused their demand and said:
“We
do not fear the one who kills the body…
a
crown is prepared for us in heaven.
We
have our souls…and we do not wish
to
lose them. We are Christians and
we wish to die
as Christians.”
They were
martyred in the Church before the altar and their bodies were buried
in the Maronite Church of Damascus. Pope Pius XI declared them
blessed on October 10, 1926:
“By the power
of these lines are named Most Blessed Martyrs the servants of God,
Francis, Abdel Mohti and Raphael Massabki, Maronites of Damascus…and
we hereby permit the display of their relics before all the devout,
and the celebration, on their day of remembrance, of the Liturgy of
the Martyrs.” May their prayers be with us. Ame
350 Maronite Martyrs
Retrieved from
www.stmaron.org
In a
letter addressed to Pope Hormisdas in 517, monks of St. Maron
addressed the Pope as the one occupying the Chair of St. Peter, and
informed him that they were patiently undergoing much suffering and
many attacks. They singled out Antiochian Patriarchs Severus and
Peter, who, they said, anathematize the Council of Chalcedon and
Pope Leo, whose formula the Council had adopted. The Maronites were
mocked for their support of the Council and were suffering
affliction. The Emperor Anastasius had sent an army that had marched
through the district of Apamea, closing monasteries and expelling
the monks. Some had been beaten and others had been thrown into
prison. While on the way to St. Simon Stylite, the Maronites had
been ambushed and 350 monks had been killed, even though some of
them had taken refuge at the altar. The monastery was burned. The
Maronites appealed to the Emperor in Constantinople, but to no
avail. Now, they were appealing to the Pope for deliverance from the
enemies of the Fathers and the Council.
They exclaimed, “Do not therefore look down on us, Your Holiness, we
who are daily attacked by ferocious beasts….We anathamatize
Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, Peter of Alexandria and Peter the
Fuller of Antioch, and all their followers and those who support
their heresies.”
The letter was signed first by Alexander, priest and archimandrite
of St. Maron. Over 200 other signatures of other archimandrites,
priests and deacons followed. The importance of the Monastery of Bet
Maroun was evidenced by Alexander’s name, which lead the list of
delegates.
Pope Hormisdas, in a letter dated February 10, 518, told the
archimandrites, priests and deacons of the region of Apamea that he
had read their letter describing their persecution from the
heretics. He consoled them in their sufferings and told them not to
despair for they were gaining eternal life through it. The Emperor
Justinian restored the walls of the principal monastery of St. Maron.
St. Thecla –
First Woman Evangelist
Feast Day – September 24
Thecla, a
Greek woman born into a wealthy, noble pagan family from Iconium,
was well educated in pagan philosophy and poetry. When St. Paul left
Antioch and came to evangelize in Iconium, Thecla came to listen to
his teachings. She was converted to Christianity and became one of
his first students and also the first woman evangelist in the
Church.
At the age of
18 her father arranged an engagement between Thecla and Thamyris, a
pagan prince. When Thecla’s family and fiancé discovered that she
had converted to Christianity and had dedicated her life as a virgin
for Christ, renouncing marriage, they reported her to the governor,
who ordered that she be burned at the stake. After the fire was lit,
Thecla bravely walked toward it, making the sign of the Cross.
Suddenly a strong wind came, blowing heavy rain, and extinguished
the fire. People were frightened and ran home. Thecla was not
harmed.
Since that
failed, Thecla was sent to Antioch, where the Roman judge ordered
that she be thrown to the lions. When she was brought into the arena
before the throng of people watching, she made the sign of the Cross
and offered her spirit to the Lord. As the gates opened, the lions
charged her, but as they approached, they calmed down and began
licking her feet, so the judge ordered that she be imprisoned. Other
miraculous interventions happened for Thecla. The soldiers tied a
bull on each of Thecla’s arms, and then they began branding the
bulls with red-hot irons, thinking the animals would tear her apart,
but the bulls didn’t move and remained calm. Later she was thrown
into a valley full of poisonous snakes. A fire began which destroyed
the snakes but Thecla was saved.
After
all those incidents, the judge asked Thecla, “Who ARE you, that you
are always saved?” Her answer was, “I am a daughter of Christ, Son
of the living God. He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; He
is the one who protects me. To Him be glory and power forever and
ever.” Then the judge set her free, and many people came to believe
in Christ. The queen, Tryphaena, in Antioch gave her money to care
for the poor and to find St. Paul.
Thecla later
met St. Paul again in Miralikia, and told him everything. He
encouraged her to continue her mission of preaching the Word. She
then returned to her hometown to evangelize the people there,
especially her mother. Her fiancé had died by that time.
From Iconium,
she went to Seleucia of Isauria and spent the rest of her life there
helping the poor and caring for the sick. She died in Seleucia at
the age of 80 and was buried there. A church was built over her tomb
and dedicated to her. Many saints have visited her tomb, including
St. Gregory the Nazianzen.
Saint
Rafka
Saint
Rakfa, or Rebecca, was born in 1832 in the village of Himlaya,
Lebanon. She entered the convent of Our Lady of Liberation, an
organization of the Mariamettes, or daughters of Mary, at the age of
21, against the wishes of her family. There she trained as a teacher
and was known to use sweetness and persuasion instead of punishment
to teach her students. She continued with that order until
persecutions by the Turkish and Druze forced the order to disband.
In 1871 she
entered the Lebanese Maronite Order of St. Anthony, a cloistered
community. There St. Rafka meditated on the Scripture, which read,
“It is necessary to open one’s ears to the divine words and to the
discourses of the saints, so that nothing escapes; rather, it is
necessary for the words to work here,” and she pointed to her
forehead. She prayed to God to test her as He tested many others
during that time of persecution. Then she asked God to allow her to
share in the suffering of Christ, in order to become closer to Him.
That same
evening she prayed for “God to visit me with sickness as a sign of
His mercy to me,” she became aware of a terrible pain in her eyes.
This turned into an infection that eventually blinded her. It is
believed that St. Rafka contracted Tuberculosis a few years after
becoming blind. Subsequently, she lived the rest of her life in
extreme pain and completely paralyzed, often heard uttering the
epithet, “In communion with Your suffering, Jesus.”
Knowing that
she would soon die, St. Rafka said, “I am not afraid of death, for
which I have waited a long time. God will let me live through my
death.” On October 23, 1914, she died peacefully. Her fame for
sanctity spread quickly throughout Lebanon, and pilgrims began to
visit her tomb in great numbers, asking for and receiving her
intercession and healing.
In 1938,
Elizabeth Ennakl, who was suffering from uterine cancer, visited St.
Rakfa’s tomb and was instantly and completely cured. Her doctors
were surprised by her sudden recovery and could find no scientific
explanation. This was the miracle put forward for St. Rafka’s
beatification on June 9, 1984. On November 16, 1985, His Holiness,
Pope John Paul II declared her a Blessed.
Finally, on
June 10, 2001, the same Holy Father elevated her to the rank of
Saint at a solemn ceremony at the Vatican.
