Pierre Marchildon, Full-time Pilgrim of St. Michael

In the small town of Ehme
there lived a mentally ill person
who was a great danger to
himself and others. With great
difficulty, several men brough
him to the monastery in Annaya,
but they were unable to
bring him into the church, for
he resisted with superhuman
strength. Father Charbel approached
and asked him to
go in with him and kneel before
the tabernacle. The man
calmed down and humbly did
as the monk asked. After praying
in accordance with the
eastern custom, Father Charbel
read to him from the Gospel.
Then a miracle occurred: the
man regained his sanity. Later
he married, had a large family,
and moved to the United States. There are
many other accounts of miracles associated
with Father Charbel, but most occurred after
his death.
Father Charbel died on Christmas Eve of
1898, while adoring before the Blessed Sacrament.
His fellow monks found him on the
chapel floor. Flooding the body was a strange
light radiating from the tabernacle. The monks
saw this as a visible sign from heaven. Outside,
it was snowing hard, and a chill wind
was blowing. All the roads to the hermitage
were snowbound, and no one from the monastery
could inform the local villagers of the
hermit’s death. Yet a strange thing happened.
That very day every local villager experienced
an inner conviction that Father Charbel
had been called to heaven. Young men set
out with shovels to clear the snow, that they
might reach the hermitage and carry the body
to the monastery in Annaya. “We have lost
a brilliant star that protected our Order, the
Church, and all of Lebanon with its holiness”
wrote the Prior. “Let us pray that God make
Charbel our patron, who will watch over us
and be our guide through the darkness of our
earthly life.”
On Christmas Day, Father Charbel was laid
to rest in a communal grave in the monastery.
The following night a mysterious brilliant light
became visible across the entire valley. It continued
to shine for forty-five nights. The event
caused a great stir throughout the whole district.
Thousands of Christians and Muslims
came to the tomb to see this extraordinary
phenomenon. Some managed to dig up the
grave and help themselves to scraps of the
saint’s clothing and locks of his hair as relics.
For reasons of safety the Maronite Patriarch
decided to have the body brought to the
monastery. The grave was opened in the presence
of a doctor and other official witnesses.
Though covered with wet mud, the exhumed
body was perfectly preserved. The body was
then subjected to medical tests, which confirmed
that it was free of any signs of decay;
moreover, it gave off a wonderful aroma and
a fluid of unknown origin (a mixture of plasma
and blood). To this day, the fluid continues
to seep out of the Saint’s body as a sign of
Christ’s healing power. Father Charbel’s body
was washed, dressed in fresh robes, laid in
an open coffin, and interred in a chamber of
the monastery closed to the public. Owing to
the fluid constantly seeping out of the body,
the monks had to change the Saint’s robes
every two weeks.
It was only on July 24, 1927 that the mortal
remains of the hermit were laid in a metal
coffin and removed to a marble tomb in the
monastery church. In 1950, a mysterious flu-
Jan.-Feb.-March 2008
Pope Paul VI before a beatificatory picture of Fr. Charbel
id began to flow in profusion from the tomb.
The Maronite Patriarch had the tomb opened
and the body, exhumed. This was performed
in the presence of a medical commission,
church representatives, and city officials. An
extraordinary sight greeted their eyes. The
Saint looked just as he had at the moment
of death — in a state if perfect preservation.
In fact, the mysterious fluid that constantly
seeped from the Saint’s body had corroded
the metal coffin and eaten its way through the
marble of the tomb. Again the body of Saint
Charbel was washed and dressed in new
robes and, after being shown to the public for
several days, laid in a new coffin, and placed
in a tomb sealed with cement. That year a
record number of miraculous healings and
conversions was noted in Annaya. The monastery
became the focal point of pilgrimages,
not only for Christians but also Muslims and
those of other faiths.
Another exhumation took place on August
7, 1952, this time in the presence of the
Syriac-Catholic Patriarch, bishops, five professors
of medicine, the Minister of Health,
and other observers. The remains of the hermit
saint were incorrupt but submersed in
the same mysterious fluid which continued
to seep out. Saint Charbel was put on public
display from August seventh to the twentyfifth
of that year. Various attempts to stop
the emission of the fluid were made, among
others, by removing the stomach and intestines,
but all to no avail. Human efforts could
not stop the power of God acting on the body
of the holy hermit.
The renowned Lebanese professor of
medicine, Georgio Sciukrallah, has closely
examined the body thirty-four times over a
period of seventeen years. This is how he
summed up his many years of study: “No
matter how many times I examined the body
of Saint Charbel, I always found to my amazement
that it was intact, free of any decay, and
supple as though death had just occurred.
What amazed me in particular was the fluid
constantly seeping from the body. In my travels
I have consulted with professors of medicine
in Beirut and in various cities across
Europe, but none have been able to account
for this phenomenon. The phenomenon is
truly unique in all of history. If the body were
to secrete only three grams of fluid daily (in
fact it secretes several times more than that),
then in the space of sixty-six years the total
weight of the fluid would be 72 kilograms,
which is considerably more than the weight
of the body itself. ... From a scientific standpoint,
this phenomenon admits of no explanation,
for the human body contains five liters
of blood and other fluids. Based on studies I
made so far, I conclude that the body of Saint
Charbel remains in a state of
perfect preservation, while secreting
a mysterious fluid, which
I attribute to the intervention of
God Himself.”
Father Charbel was beatified
in 1965 and canonized on October
9, 1977 in St Peter’s Square
in Rome by the Holy Father, Paul
VI. No one ever photographed
Saint Charbel, neither did anyone
paint a portrait of him in his
lifetime. On May 8, 1950, still
another extraordinary event occurred.
Several Maronite missionaries
took a photo of themselves
before the Saint’s grave.
After the photo was developed,
it turned out that there was another
unknown figure — that
of a monk — standing among
them. Some of the elderly monks recognized
that figure as Father Charbel himself, and
from that time on this photo has been the
prototype of all subsequent portraits of the
saint hermit. (See picture on opposite page.)
By the example of his life and constant
intercession before God, Saint Charbel calls
on us to aspire to eternal happiness in heaven
— daily, courageously, and without compromise.
One road only leads to heaven, and
that is the one that Jesus invites us to take: “If
anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake and for
the gospel will save it” (Mk 8:34-35).
Taking Saint Charbel as our example, let
us not fear the way of mortification, self-denial,
and dying to sin. Let us unite ourselves
with Christ — the Source of Love — through
constant prayer, the reception of the Sacraments
of Penance and Holy Communion, and
sacrificial love of neighbor.
Fr. Mieczyslaw Piotrowski SChr
Reprinted with permission. This article is taken
from the excellent Catholic magazine Love One
Another (n. 8), published by the Society of Christ.
Website: www.loveoneanothermagazine.org
God’s cake
Sometimes we wonder, “What did I do to deserve
this?” or “Why did God have to do this to
me?”
Here is a wonderful explanation! A daughter is
telling her mother how everything is going wrong:
she’s failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with
her and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile, her mother is baking a cake and
asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the
daughter says, “Absolutely Mom, I love your cake”.
“Here, have some cooking oil,” her mother offers.
“Yuck” says her daughter. “How about a couple
raw eggs?” “Gross, Mom!”
“Would you like some fl our then? Or maybe
baking soda?” “Mom, those are all yucky!”
To which the mother replies: “Yes, all those
things seem bad all by themselves. But when they
are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully
delicious cake!
God works the same way. Many times we wonder
why He would let us go through such bad and
diffi cult times. But God knows that when He puts
these things all in His order, they always work for
good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually,
they will all make something wonderful!
God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers
every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever
you want to talk, He’ll listen. He can live anywhere
in the universe, and He chose your heart.
“Michael” Journal, 1101 Principale St., Rougemont, QC, Canada — J0L 1M0
Tel.: Rougemont (450) 469-2209; Montreal area (514) 856-5714; Fax (450) 469-2601; www.michaeljournal.org
Page 23