The only photograph of St. Charbel was a miracle

St. Charbel lived in the 19th century in Lebanon. He was attracted to the hermit’s life of the desert and eventually entered the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya.

After many years, Charbel felt God calling him again to become a hermit and was granted permission to live the rest of his life at a hermitage set on a hill near the monastery.

He died in 1898 and was reportedly never photographed during his lifetime. Even if he was photographed, no photograph exists that is from the time period.

However, there does exist a mysterious photograph of him that was later used for most of his official portraits.

Fr. George Webby, a Maronite priest from Pennsylvania, went on a pilgrimage to St. Charbel's tomb on May 8, 1950, St. Charbel's birthday, with a group of fellow Maronite monks.

They took a picture outside the monastery walls and after the picture was developed, they noticed an unknown figure in front of everyone.

The figure in the photo was not part of their group and so they asked the monks at the monastery if they knew who it was.

A few older monks knew immediately who it was: St. Charbel.

These monks had known St. Charbel during their lifetime and could recognize him.

What's fascinating is that most modern-day portraits of St. Charbel are based on this miraculous image.

There is another case of a mysterious photo: a photograph taken in 2016 that reportedly shows St. Charbel blessing a woman who had cancer. She had come to his tomb to pray for healing, but the monastery was shut. So she asked an elderly monk to bless her and only found out later that no monk lived at the monastery with that description. She took it as a sign that St. Charbel himself had blessed her. When she returned, it was discovered that her cancer was gone.

It is a reminder of how St. Charbel remains a powerful heavenly intercessor and miracles continue to happen many years after his death.