The Light Above the Tomb

On the night of Christmas Eve 1898, after Saint Charbel had been buried in the monastery cemetery of Annaya, the villagers of the surrounding hills began to notice an inexplicable light shining above the monastery enclosure.

For forty-five consecutive nights, shepherds, farmers, and travellers reported a brilliant column of light rising from the place of burial — visible even from distant ridges. Some climbed the mountain in procession, drawn by the luminosity, and gathered to pray near the grave.

The reports were so numerous and consistent that the Superior of the monastery petitioned the Patriarch for permission to exhume the body. What they found in April 1899 — a body perfectly preserved, exuding a reddish liquid — confirmed in the eyes of all that the light had not been a trick of the imagination.