East meets West for Nov. 22 St. Charbel Mass

St. Charbel Makhlouf is depicted in a mosaic at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. A special Mass  at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Nov. 22 will celebrate the popular saint and unite the Maronite community of Our Lady of Cedars and Latin rite Catholics of the Archdiocese. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
Maronite saint known for monastic simplicity, healings

HOUSTON — For the first time in the Archdiocese, there will be an encounter of Catholics from Eastern and Western traditions to celebrate the life and legacy of St. Charbel Mahklouf, the first Maronite saint inscribed on the Latin rite calendar.

The event, to be held at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, 1111 St. Joseph Pkwy, on Nov. 22 — a significant date in the celebration of St. Charbel, has been years in the making. The Maronite community of Our Lady of the Cedars in southwest Houston had always hoped to provide an opportunity for Catholics across the Archdiocese to come together to celebrate St. Charbel in the Maronite tradition.

“For us, it is very important to promote our Liturgy, especially after Pope Leo’s address to the Eastern Churches about the importance of preserving our Eastern rites and traditions,” said Father Edward Hanna, associate pastor at Our Lady of the Cedars. “It is also important, especially as St. Charbel is famous in the Latino community, for the Western Church to connect with us.”

Also featured will be first-class relics of St. Charbel from the Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon - St. Peter Maronite Cathedral in Los Angeles. Pope Leo XIV is expected to visit Lebanon for three days, Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, during his first apostolic journey, which also includes Turkey, the Vatican said. He will also visit the tomb of St. Charbel at the Monastery of Saint Maroun in Annaya on Dec. 1. 

Bishop Elias Zaidan of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, one of two eparchies in the U.S., will be the principal celebrant of the Maronite Liturgy, along with Father Milad Yaghi, who founded Our Lady of the Cedars 36 years ago and serves as pastor. 

Father Hanna. Father Jeffrey Bame, rector of the Co-Cathedral, will concelebrate the Mass with other priests from the Archdiocese. Daniel Cardinal DiNardo and Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS,  are also expected to attend.

“It’s very important to see and hear the Maronite Mass for all of us Catholics, who have only been exposed to the Latin rites,” Father Bame said. “We can all fall into the trap of thinking that the Latin rites are the only rites, but it is always fruitful to encounter our Eastern brothers and sisters.”

Though the Eastern Church has many saints, Father Hanna said St. Charbel represents the spirit of the Maronite Church. 

“He is a modern figure who represents spirituality, solitude, hermitage and detachment,” Father Hanna said. “Pope Leo in his address to the Eastern Church reminded us of the importance of detachment and the simplicity of life — and we see how important that is today in a world that’s in a rush.”

The approximately 90-minute Mass will start at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, followed by a luncheon of Lebanese food and presentations about the spiritual life and legacy of St. Charbel at the Cathedral Centre, located at 1701 San Jacinto St.

“The unique thing about the Maronite Church is that it is a natural bridge between East and West,” Father Bame said. “The Maronites have long bridged and stayed in contact with the Latin Church, and they have openness to the Latin rites.”  

Father Bame said they have always wanted to have this celebration, but there were logistical challenges in settling on an appropriate month to hold the event on the 22nd day. The 22nd of every month is when pilgrims from around the world gather at the hermitage and tomb of St. Charbel for prayer, processions and a Mass. 

While there is much similarity to the Latin Mass, there are subtle differences in the Liturgy. The Maronite Church has a Syriac tradition, with unique prayers, some of which are spoken in Syriac. The consecration also is in Syriac. 

“This event is a call to live together and show we are one church, and we are on one journey together, living in solidarity,” Father Hanna said. 

Located in southwest Houston, Our Lady of the Cedars has grown considerably since its founding in the early 1990s. The initial community of about 250 families raised enough funds to buy an approximately 5.2 acres in 1992 at 11935 West Bellfort Ave. More fundraising resulted in a community center, completed in 1996, and a church building, dedicated in 2003. 

Today, there are 1,000 registered families, the majority of them of Lebanese descent, with a mix of immigrants of different Christian faiths from across the Middle East. 

“It’s very important to celebrate St. Charbel, because in our region of the Middle East, where Muslims and Christians live together, he is everyone’s saint,” Father Hanna said.

To learn more about Our Lady of the Cedars and St. Charbel, visit ourladyofthecedars.net.

Who is St. Charbel?

St. Charbel, born in 1828 as Youssef Antoun Makhlouf, displayed an extraordinary devotion to prayer and silence from a young age. He entered the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouq at the age of 23 and took the name Charbel after a second-century martyr of the Church of Antioch. 

After 16 years of monastic life, he moved to the Hermitage of Sts. Peter and Paul, where he spent the rest of his life as a hermit. He died in 1898 after suffering from a stroke. After his death, mysterious lights were seen around his tomb, and countless miracles began to be reported. St. Charbel was beatified in 1965 by St. Paul VI and canonized in 1977. 

Miracles continued, the most famous of which was that of Nohad El Shami, who was said to have been healed from paralysis on Jan. 22, 1993. She said St. Charbel asked her to visit the hermitage on the 22nd of every month thereafter to see the miracle and return to the faith. Since then, St. Charbel has become the most revered saint in the Maronite Church and has a worldwide following within the Catholic Church, especially in Latin America, and among Christians of other faiths and non-Christians.