The 29,000 Miracles of Saint Charbel

Father Louis Matar and forty years of collecting

For more than forty years, Father Louis Matar has been gathering at the monastery of Annaya the testimonies of healings attributed to the intercession of Saint Charbel. According to Patrizia Cattaneo, he has catalogued about 30,000 of them, most accompanied by medical certificates:

“For more than forty years, Father Louis Matar has been collecting the testimonies of miraculous healings attributed to the intercession of Saint Charbel at the monastery of Annaya, carefully accompanied by medical certificates. To date he has catalogued about 30,000 of them, earning the title of ‘Saint Charbel's secretary’.” — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 17^[11]

The figure given by Cattaneo is therefore about 30,000 catalogued testimonies, with no precise closing date for the count and no breakdown by condition. The pages devoted to the register describe its collection, without publishing the individual files.^[12]

Cattaneo herself specifies that this collection centralized at Annaya does not claim to cover all reports worldwide:

“It is impossible to document all the miracles associated with the Lebanese saint. Those recorded at the monastery of Annaya represent only a small part of the testimonies received from dioceses around the world where his devotion is alive.” — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 16^[13]

The figures from 1927 to 2025

The older figures concern different sets: witnesses heard at the trial, healings recorded over a three-month period, cumulative total at the end of 1952. They must not be added to the contemporary figure, which reflects a far broader collection.

“From 22 April to 14 July 1950, the registers of Annaya record 350 cases of healings considered prodigious, concerning 31 blind persons, 37 deaf-mutes, 163 paralytics and disabled persons, and 119 miscellaneous incurables. Among the latter [...] were 20 Muslims.” — Patrizia Cattaneo, Les secrets du corps intact de saint Charbel, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 76^[18]

The categories used for 1950 are those of the cited register: they describe the declared conditions, without providing a modern medical classification. The number of Muslims mentioned concerns the 119 cases of the last category, not all 350 people.^[19]

After the end-of-1952 total, Cattaneo quotes the testimony of Father Daher on Annaya's international reach. He describes daily mail coming from America, Africa, Egypt, Australia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Belgium and France. He says he saw, on 17 September 1951, seven hundred letters arrive by plane from France alone. They included requests for relics, images and prayers, objects to be placed in the old coffin and then returned to the senders, as well as thanks for graces received. Ten of the thirty monks worked at meeting these requests: this volume of mail therefore does not constitute a count of healings.^[20]

Where does the figure of 29,000 come from?

Several French-speaking and English-speaking Catholic media outlets picked up in 2025 and 2026 a figure slightly lower than Cattaneo's. On the occasion of Pope Leo XIV's scheduled visit to Lebanon, the American magazine America thus mentioned “more than 29,000 miracles recorded by visitors to the shrine”:

“More than 29,000 miracles have been recorded by visitors to the shrine.” (French translation) — America Magazine, What to know about Lebanon's beloved patron saint before Pope Leo's visit, 26 November 2025^[21]

On 13 April 2026, the Catholic agency CNEWA in turn presented Nohad's healing as one of the nearly 30,000 miraculous healings attributed to Saint Charbel.^[22]

The press and Cattaneo's figures converge on the same order of magnitude. One dated source marks this progression: in July 2019, Father Matar told the Catholic News Agency that the monastery, which has formally recorded healings since 1950, had already archived more than 29,000 miracles — now requiring medical documentation attesting to the initial illness and then the unexplained recovery.^[23] Cattaneo's round figure (January 2025 edition) and that of America (November 2025) fall within the continuity of this count. The title "The 29,000 Miracles of Saint Charbel" thus echoes a phrase circulated by the press; it does not designate 29,000 decisions of ecclesial recognition.^[24][25]

What a catalogued file does not prove

Father Louis Matar himself describes a heterogeneous set of pathways to healing, which makes it impossible to treat the 30,000 files as a homogeneous clinical series:

"Some people were healed using the oil, pieces of cloth, or incense distributed at Annaya. Others by ingesting a little soil from the saint's first tomb or the hermitage, or by using the leaves of the oak under which the saint meditated. Still others found comfort and healing by praying before his image or statue, or by attending Mass in his honour. Some saw him in a dream or a vision." — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Imprint and the Messages to Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 17^[26]

The passage lists the circumstances reported for the healings: prayer, Mass, anointing, dream, or vision. It describes the diversity of the testimonies; it does not allow one to infer a proportion of medically unexplained healings. To do that, one would need to compare the initial diagnoses, treatments, and the course of each illness. The existence of a register and the canonical recognition of a healing answer two distinct questions.

As early as 1899, the preservation of the body attracts the attention of the religious of Annaya. The expert examinations of 1927 and 1950 precede the cases of Nohad and Raymond by several decades. Incorruptible bodies are the subject of a separate article; the pieces retained here show how observations on the relics fed the earliest investigations around Charbel.^[27][28][29]

A flooded cemetery, then an unexpected exhumation

Charbel dies on 24 December 1898 and is buried the very next day in the monastery's common cemetery, alongside thirty-two other religious already decomposed, in ground made particularly damp by the seepage of a defective roof.^[30] After several weeks of reported nocturnal lights around the tomb, a first informal inspection takes place on 9 February 1899, in the presence of Fathers Antonius Alwan, Elias Al-Mahrini, and Saba Al-Ouwaini.^[31]

"The cemetery was flooded because of water seeping in from the roof and the ground was muddy. The water had reached the plank on which lay the body of Father Charbel, dressed in a worn tunic, entirely covered in worms. [...] He looked well preserved, but the water running off the roof had struck his face, partially detaching his beard, piercing his nose and lips, and damaging his right eye [...]." — Patrizia Cattaneo, The Secrets of the Intact Body of Saint Charbel, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 25; testimony attributed to Father Antonius Alwan^[32]

The superior then writes a cautious letter to the patriarch, which proclaims no miracle but requests a decision:

"An inspection carried out four days ago revealed that his body has not decomposed, unlike the others, and as the tomb is very damp, I propose placing him in a coffin and burying him in the church wall where there is no dampness, to favour his preservation. In any case, I defer all decisions to His Beatitude." — Patrizia Cattaneo, The Secrets of the Intact Body of Saint Charbel, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 28^[33]

The expert examinations of 1927 and 1950

The body subsequently undergoes numerous human interventions — exposure to the wind, alcohol, quicklime in 1908, incision and partial evisceration — all of which the dedicated article details in full. Two major medical expert examinations frame this file. In 1927, Professors Armand Geffroy and Balthasar Melconian, of the French Faculty of Medicine in Beirut, propose a partial naturalistic explanation, based on the evisceration and a "smoking" of the body:

"First completely eviscerated, which explains the delayed putrefaction [...] the underlying tissues continued their slow decomposition [...] in the direction of adipocere degeneration." — Armand Geffroy and Balthasar Melconian, medical expert report, 30 July 1927, reproduced in Patrizia Cattaneo, The Secrets of the Intact Body of Saint Charbel, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, pp. 106-107^[34]

In 1950, a commission composed of Doctors Joseph Hitti, Chucri Bellan, Théophile Maroun, and Simon Guerguerian examines the body on 22 April, then on 4 August. Its report, dated 14 September, describes the samples taken and the histological and chemical examinations.^[35] Tests for tannin, arsenic, mercury, iron, formaldehyde, lead, copper, and zinc all remain negative. The authors note preserved tissue structure but lysed cell nuclei: these are therefore not living tissues.^[36]

The return in August makes it possible to verify the phenomenon during the driest season. The clothes placed in April and the pillows are once again damp; traces of rust are identified in the laboratory. The doctors conclude:

"After the investigations carried out, we cannot provide a sufficiently conclusive and satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon, nor of that of mummification in a damp environment. We limit ourselves for the time being to the observations." — Joseph Hitti, Chucri Bellan, Théophile Maroun, and Simon Guerguerian, expert report, 14 September 1950, reproduced in Patrizia Cattaneo, The Secrets of the Intact Body of Saint Charbel, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 121^[37]

The exudation and Dr Choukrallah's calculation

Joachim Bouflet mentions a report signed by ten witnesses on 15 April 1899, followed by Dr Choukrallah's examinations, some thirty over seventeen years. The physician highlights the duration of the flow by setting out a hypothetical calculation:

"Suppose this liquid weighs only 3 grams per day, on average. That makes, in 66 years, about 72 kilos." — Dr Choukrallah, cited by Joachim Bouflet, A History of Miracles. From the Middle Ages to the Present Day, Seuil, 2008, pp. 129–130.^[38]

The 72 kilos are not the result of a weighed collection over sixty-six years: they express what would be implied by an assumed average flow of three grams per day. The physician's argument concerns the renewal of the liquid in view of the body's small mass. Bouflet reports his supernatural interpretation, while specifying that the ecclesiastical authority has not for all that qualified the incorruption and the flow as canonically recognised miracles.^[39]

The current state of the body

In her work published in 2025, Patrizia Cattaneo describes a state very different from that of the first exhumations:

"Today, his body, reduced to a skeleton covered with darkened skin, rests in a cedarwood case with a transparent glass lid, protected by a grille." — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Imprint and the Messages to Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 15^[40]

Preservation and exudations therefore belong to the history of relics. Contemporary pilgrimage focuses on the intercession of Saint Charbel and his tomb, without assuming that the body still presents the state described by the twentieth-century commissions.

The most detailed file in the entire trilogy concerns Nohad El-Chami, a Lebanese mother whose healing in January 1993 gave rise to the monthly pilgrimage on the 22nd.

A mother of twelve children

Nohad El-Chami, née Nayef El-Tannouri, married Semaan El-Chami on 3 May 1952. Her exact date of birth remains uncertain: Cattaneo gives 22 May 1936, while her identity card states 1938 — the author herself notes the absence of a baptismal certificate that would settle the matter.^[41] The couple had nineteen pregnancies and twelve surviving children, seven boys and five girls, several of whom became direct witnesses to the events of January 1993.^[42]

A prior episode in 1971: the kidney stone

Twenty-two years before the stroke, Nohad is said to have already experienced an episode attributed to Charbel. In 1971, a 1.5 cm stone was diagnosed in her left kidney by Dr Antoine El-Chami, director of Notre-Dame Maritime Hospital in Jbeil, who postponed the operation because of a recent childbirth. After an unfinished visit to the hermitage, Nohad reports a nighttime intervention, with an incision of about twenty centimetres on her back:

“I am Father Charbel, and I removed the stone from you.” — Words attributed to Saint Charbel by Nohad El-Chami, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 36^[43]

No medical report from 1971 is reproduced in the book: this first episode serves as a narrative precedent in Nohad's account, but it does not have the same documentary value as the records from 1993 and 2002.^[44]

9 January 1993: the onset of the stroke

Nohad places the onset of her symptoms on the evening of 9 January 1993: chest burning, blurred vision, numbness of the tongue, then paralysis of the left side during the journey to hospital.

“During the car ride, the situation rapidly deteriorated and I found myself paralysed on the entire left side of my body, including the tongue.” — Nohad El-Chami, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 38^[45]

Dr Joseph El-Chami, described as a specialist in cardiovascular and neurological diseases, examines her at Notre-Dame Maritime Hospital in Jbeil. The diagnosis reported in the book is that of an ischaemic stroke, against a background of severe bilateral carotid stenoses:

“The doctors diagnosed that the cause of the hemiplegia was an ischaemic stroke, or cerebral infarction, resulting from bilateral carotid stenosis of 80% on the left and 70% on the right [...].” — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 39^[46]

No hospital report from January 1993 is reproduced in the book: this diagnosis remains attributed to the account and the author's synthesis, not to a document that can be consulted.^[47] Nohad remains hospitalised from 9 to 18 January, with improvement judged to be limited despite nine days of intensive care; back home, she remains dependent for washing and eating, and an MRI is planned for April at the Hôtel-Dieu de Beirut with a view to a possible angioplasty.^[48]

“Back home, Nohad was forced to remain in bed. Semaan supported her to accompany her to the bathroom, and her children fed her with a straw.” — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 40^[49]

The night of 22–23 January 1993: the account of the operation

Around two in the morning, Nohad reports the appearance of two monks surrounded by light. Saint Maron stands back while Charbel, she says, touches her neck and announces an intervention:

“I am Saint Charbel, and I have come to operate on you.” — Words attributed to Saint Charbel by Nohad El-Chami, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 42^[59]

“Yes, you can do it now! We have operated on you, and now you can drink, get up and walk.” — Words attributed to Saint Charbel and Saint Maron by Nohad El-Chami, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 43^[60]

Upon waking, Nohad says she can once again move her left arm, kneel, walk, drink and speak normally. She describes two scars of twelve centimetres on her neck, with three stitches on the right and four on the left:

“My neck was also bloodied, with on each side two scars 12 centimetres long. The wound on the right side had three stitches, the one on the left had four.” — Nohad El-Chami, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 44^[61]

The account of the nighttime intervention is Nohad's own. The relatives cited by Cattaneo testify to her condition after waking, her recovered ability to walk and the wounds to her neck.^[62]

What the witnesses observed in the morning

On the morning of 23 January, several named relatives attest to the transformation. Shafika, her daughter, hears her mother speak clearly after two hours of apparent silence; Semaan, her husband, sees her walking, her neck bloodied, and faints from the shock; Laure and Saad, two of their other children, find her standing; Father Mikhaël Meghames, head of the hermitage of Annaya, observes the wounds that same morning.^[63]

“These wounds are not only for you, they are a sign for the whole world.” — Words attributed to Father Mikhaël Meghames, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Miracle of Nohad and the 22nd of the Month, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 47^[64]

The names of the children, the husband and the priest place the testimonies in an identifiable setting. The book reports them around a single family event; they do not constitute as many independent medical examinations.^[65]

The Doppler report of 5 March 2002

Cattaneo transcribes the report of a carotid echo-Doppler carried out nine years after the events at the Adonis Medical Center in Jbeil. The printed text reads "Mme Nouhad Chami", the date 5 March 2002, followed by the name of Dr César El-Alam after the mention "Adonis Medical Center Radiology". This is a transcription laid out in the book, not a photograph of the original signed document.^[66]

"Myo-intimal hyperplasia of the bifurcation and the proximal internal carotid, suggestive of a bilateral endarterectomy, better visualised on the right." — Dr César El-Alam, carotid echo-Doppler report of 5 March 2002, reproduced in Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, pp. 62-63^[67]

"60% stenosis on an atheromatous plaque of the right internal carotid, distal to the hyperplasia [...] moderate 40% distal stenosis of the left internal carotid. An Angio-MRI is indicated." — Dr César El-Alam, carotid echo-Doppler report of 5 March 2002, reproduced in Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 63^[68]

The report describes myo-intimal hyperplasia, that is, a thickening of the arterial wall, the appearance of which is suggestive of a bilateral endarterectomy — a procedure removing a plaque from the inner wall of the artery. It also notes narrowings of 60% on the right and 40% on the left, and recommends an Angio-MRI. These figures describe the 2002 examination; on their own, they cannot reconstruct the state of the arteries at the awakening of January 1993.^[69]

The remarkable point is the correspondence between an account of an operation on the neck and an arterial appearance interpreted as possibly post-operative. The report does not, however, date this operation or identify who performed it; it includes no brain examination.^[70]

The seven suture threads and the expertise of Dr Sassine

Nohad reports having kept seven suture threads in her neck after her healing, four on the left and three on the right. According to her account, the first fell out after seven days, the second after fifteen; Dr Majid El-Chami, the family doctor, is said to have removed two; one thread was reportedly given to the diocese of Jbeil and kept at the archdiocese of Amchit, and another sent abroad for analysis.^[71]

"The first thread was given to the bishop of Jbeil and is now kept at the archdiocese of Amchit, while the second was sent abroad for analysis." — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 68^[72]

In 2020, Dr Charbel Sassine, a plastic surgeon in Beirut, examines the scars and three of the remaining threads under a microscope. He identifies an uncoated multifilament 0.5 mm in diameter, identified in the book as linen and described by the doctor as unusual:

"[...] an uncoated polyfilament, made up of several fine monofilaments, twisted together, visible only under a microscope, 0.5 mm in diameter." — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, pp. 72-73^[73]

Questioned by Cattaneo, the doctor describes the phenomenon of the periodic reopening of the scars — dealt with in the following section — as scientifically inexplicable:

"With suturing, the scars close permanently, [...] while the regular reopening of Nohad's wounds, which bleed every 22nd of the month, is a scientifically inexplicable phenomenon." — Dr Charbel Sassine, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 70^[74]

The doctor then reportedly attempted, around 2021 — that is, in his own words to Cattaneo, "about three years ago" before his communication of March 2024 — to perform an ultrasound of the area at the time of a monthly reopening; part of the family is said to have objected, and the examination never took place.^[75] The book publishes no ultrasound report of the reopening, no associated blood work-up, and no continuous clinical photographic series.

The following table summarises the main doctors named in the Nohad file, with the exact level of what each one establishes.

Birth of a monthly devotion

According to Nohad's account, a team from the Lebanese channel LBC interviews her on the fourth day after her healing, and the influx at Annaya would then have reached about 25,000 vehicles between Byblos and the monastery.^[76] The diocesan bishop, Mgr Bechara Raï — the future Maronite patriarch —, comes to observe the facts on the sixth day.^[77] It is in this context that Nohad reports a new request attributed to Charbel:

"I ask you to visit the hermitage on the 22nd of every month, for the rest of your life, to commemorate your healing and to attend Mass." — Word attributed to Saint Charbel, quoted by Nohad El-Chami in Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 50^[78]

Father Louis Matar, already introduced as the collector of the testimonies, gives a figure that illustrates the scale reached by the monthly procession:

"I remember that on a 22nd of the month in Annaya, we distributed 75,000 communions." — Father Louis Matar, quoted by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 53^[79]

Patriarch Bechara Raï himself, meanwhile become head of the Maronite Church, sets out the meaning the institution gives to this pilgrimage: less the isolated healing of Nohad than a continuous conversion of hearts.

"We see with our own eyes the miracle of Nohad El-Chami's healing, but the spiritual and moral miracles that take place in the souls of visitors escape us." — Patriarch Bechara Raï, quoted by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 54^[80]

The rhythm of reopenings and the 2023 exception

Cattaneo announces 377 reopenings as of July 22, 2024, excluding extraordinary openings. This total appears in the author's narrative, alongside the interview with Dr Sassine: it is not presented as a tally signed by the physician. The usual reopening would begin on the evening of the 21st, with bleeding over three days.^[81]

The book itself points out one explicit exception to this rhythm, valuable for avoiding any claim of a flawless mechanism: on the thirtieth anniversary, on January 22, 2023, the wounds did not reopen that day — they had bled, Cattaneo specifies, "on the eve of the Epiphany." One year later, on January 22, 2024, the reopening is indeed reported, but Nohad, then ill, was unable to travel to Annaya for Mass.^[82]

The devotion keeps the 22nd as its date; the account of the bleedings includes exceptions. Cattaneo thus distinguishes the monthly liturgical appointment from the physical manifestation itself.^[83]

Two paintings that ooze oil

Nohad's home also preserves two devotional images whose exudation of oil has been reported since 1993: a painting of Saint Charbel from August 15, 1993, and a second depicting Saint Maron from November 6, 1993.

"That is when I noticed that the painting was oozing oil, a phenomenon that has never ceased since that day." — Nohad El-Chami, quoted by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 86^[84]

The oil collected on cotton is distributed with ecclesiastical authorization, and a votive chapel is inaugurated at Halat on August 24, 1995 by Mgr Bechara Raï.^[85] No chemical analysis of this oil is reproduced in the book: the phenomenon should be presented as a fact reported by the family and visually confirmed by visitors, not as a laboratory result.

It should finally be noted that Nohad herself refuses any excessive personalization of her own case, and consistently links the healings to the Eucharist rather than to her own person:

"It is the Eucharist that sanctifies us; I am only a sign." — Nohad El-Chami, quoted by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. Le miracle de Nohad et le 22 du mois, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 95^[86]

Seven healings reported on the margins of the Nohad case

The book devoted to Nohad names seven other people who link their own healing to the sanctuary of Annaya, without their files reaching the documentary level of the central case.

The accounts do not all describe the same outcome. Virginie Mouradian speaks of breast cancer diagnosed in 2018, but the immediate event she recounts is the disappearance of pain at the biopsy site after an anointing. The healing of the cancer is then announced to her: no subsequent oncological result is reproduced. In Caroline's case, the account goes as far as a pregnancy one month after the visit, then the birth of twins, a boy and a girl; her surname is not given.^[87]

For Michel Maroun Mubarak, Cattaneo distinguishes the visit of October 7, 2021, the reported disappearance of symptoms three days later, and then the filing of the testimony and reports on November 14. For Dolly Dib Al Aouri, August 4, 2020 is the date on which the documents were handed over to the monastery: it is not a date of surgery. These gaps between diagnosis, improvement, and registration explain why the years in the table do not form a uniform chronology of healings.^[88]

Cattaneo's notices report healings and, for several of them, the filing of documents at Annaya. The book does not publish their medical reports: the elements set out here are those of these notices.^[89]

The third major case in Cattaneo's trilogy concerns Raymond Nader, an engineer and executive at the Lebanese Christian channel Télé Lumière-Noursat, who has borne a recurring mark on his arm since 1994.

An engineer turned witness

Raymond Nader was born on 10 November 1961 in Lebanon, into a Maronite family. He earned a degree in electronic and mechanical engineering in Beirut, then stayed in London to study nuclear physics and advanced technologies — though the book does not specify the names of the British institutions he attended.^[90] A father of three, he became a member and then an executive at Télé Lumière-Noursat, Lebanon's leading Christian channel.^[91] He began regular night retreats as early as late 1984, first at Saint-Georges de Yahchouch and Our Lady of Kalaa, then at the hermitage of Annaya.^[92]

The night of 9–10 November 1994

After a retreat that began on 5 September 1994, Raymond returned to the hermitage of Annaya on 9 November at around 10:45 p.m., the eve of his thirty-third birthday.^[93] Cattaneo dates the experience that changed his life, and the discovery of the mark on his arm, to 10 November 1994.^[94] He reports an experience of several hours felt as instantaneous:

"I noticed that it was 3:35 in the morning. Four hours had passed like a handful of seconds." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 34^[95]

Back at his car, he discovers a mark on his arm:

"Once inside my car, I took off my jumper and rolled up my shirt sleeve. I was dismayed to see the imprint of a hand on my arm, surrounded by a reddish halo, from which blood and water were flowing. The imprint looked like a burn, but I felt neither pain nor burning, just an intense heat." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 35^[96]

His wife, whose name is not given in the book, is the first to notice the mark afterwards:

"When I got home, I immediately showed my arm to my wife, who started, made the sign of the cross and asked me whose hand it was." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 35^[97]

As with Nohad, no witness reports having seen the mark itself form: all of them, including his wife, merely note its existence afterwards.

Dr Nabil Hokayem's diagnosis

Advised both by the Bishop of Beirut and by Father Touma Mhanna, superior of the monastery of Annaya, to consult doctors before any religious interpretation, Raymond first went to the Hôtel-Dieu of Beirut, then to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help clinic, which refused to issue a written report.^[98] The evolution of the lesion is described over five days:

"On the first day, the imprint was red and bleeding; on the second day, it began to dry out and turned yellow; on the third day, it took on a brownish tinge and, on the fourth day, crusts formed. On the fifth day, the crusts fell off and the lesion healed, leaving only the imprints of the fingers." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 37^[99]

The only doctor named in this case is Dr Nabil Hokayem, a plastic surgeon, who examines the lesion on three occasions, in 1994, in the spring of 1995 and in the summer of 1996:

"Dr Nabil Hokayem [...] examined the imprint on Raymond's arm on three occasions: the first time in 1994, immediately after its appearance, then in the spring of 1995 and finally in the summer of 1996. He diagnosed a third-degree burn, whose shape recalls the five fingers of a hand, as though someone had grabbed Raymond from behind." — Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 39^[100]

"I have seen and treated hundreds of burn victims, but I have never seen anything like it." — Dr Nabil Hokayem, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 39^[101]

The book does not specify whether Cattaneo interviewed Dr Hokayem directly, and reproduces no signed report, no clinical photograph and no histological examination of his hand.^[102]

A second manifestation, 15 July 1995

Eight months later, a new lesion appears during a vigil at the hermitage, in the presence of several named witnesses: his friends Jean and Georges — whose surnames the book does not give — as well as Fathers Edmond Khashan and Touma Mhanna.

"Jean took a candle, as it was dark, rolled up my sleeve and saw the imprint of five fingers on my arm, from which blood and water were flowing." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 44^[103]

"When Father Mhanna arrived, he examined my arm, touched it and found it to be damp." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 44^[104]

The following Monday, a new diagnosis confirms the first: third-degree burn, with no sign of infection.^[105] It was following this episode that Raymond says he understood his mission, and that he founded, in 1995, a prayer and charity movement known as "The Family of Saint Charbel".^[106]

Fifty-seven messages and ecclesial accompaniment

Asked by Cattaneo about the frequency of the manifestations, Raymond stresses their unpredictable nature:

"Saint Charbel manifests himself several times a year, always unexpectedly and never on specific dates." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 66^[116]

"To date, I have received 57 messages." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 66^[117]

This point clearly distinguishes Raymond Nader from Nohad El-Chami: whereas Nohad's phenomenon settled into a monthly rhythm, Raymond's fifty-seven apparitions follow no calendar. Sixteen messages out of fifty-seven are published in the book; no dated table of all the occurrences is provided.^[118]

Raymond describes spiritual guidance by the Church; his testimony is cited in the answer devoted to the ecclesial status of the manifestations.^[119]

Father Hanna Skandar mentions the Imprimatur granted by Bishop Georges Abu Jawdi, whom he identifies as the bishop of his own diocese, to an edition of the messages that he published:

« The fact that I published them with the Imprimatur of Bishop Georges Abu Jawdi, bishop of my diocese, means that the ecclesiastical authority considers them reliable. » — Father Hanna Skandar, cited in Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Imprint and the Messages to Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 71^[120]

Father Skandar's remark concerns one edition of the messages. He does not indicate that the fifty-seven announced messages, nor each later translation, received the same approval; the question of the scope of an Imprimatur is taken up below.^[121]

The doctrinal content: the Eucharist before the prodigy

The published messages insist less on the physical phenomenon itself than on a classic doctrinal reminder, which subordinates every extraordinary sign to the sacraments of the Church:

« The miracle is the Eucharist, the sign is the Cross, the message is the Gospel, and salvation is in the Church. » — Message received by Raymond Nader, cited in Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Imprint and the Messages to Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 124^[122]

« Refuse any miracle that does not bring you closer to the tabernacle. » — Message received by Raymond Nader, cited in Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. The Imprint and the Messages to Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 125^[123]

This criterion of internal discernment, which refuses as a matter of principle any fascination with the marvelous detached from the sacraments, is consistent with the whole of Catholic spirituality regarding private revelations: an authentic sign never replaces the Eucharist; it leads to it.

Three healings were retained in Charbel's cause: two for the beatification, one for the canonization. This does not mean that only three cases were examined: the testimonies investigated during the process are far more numerous.^[124][125]

Cattaneo describes the three cases: Sister Maria Abel Kamary, suffering from a pyloric ulcer and operated on twice, goes to the tomb on 11 July 1950 and says she is restored the next day; Iskandar Obeid, deprived of sight in his right eye after an accident in 1937, recovers it after a night by the tomb; Mariam Assaf, operated on between 1963 and 1965 for cancer with metastases, is healed after invoking Charbel. The author places this last event in 1967 and reports her medical examination before the 1977 canonization.^[129]

The biography of Charbel Makhlouf sets out the course of his cause. The accounts of Nohad in 1993 and of Raymond in 1994 form no part of the miracles retained for these two celebrations, which precede them.

Paul VI himself recalls, in the homily of 9 October 1977, that he had declared Charbel blessed on 5 December 1965. The canonization extends his cult to the whole Church. The Pope then presents Charbel as a model of contemplative life, prayer, penance, and work; this proclamation of holiness does not amount to collective validation of the later healing accounts.^[130]

Between the two bodily inspections of 1927 and 1950, the theological commission of the beatification process also questioned thirty-four new witnesses to healings between 1927 and 1928 — a hearing procedure that likewise does not amount to the canonical recognition of a miracle, but which shows that the Church, from that time on, sought to document the phenomenon rather than leave it to rumour alone.^[131]

The following documents answer different questions. A doctrinal clearance does not sit above imaging on the same medical scale: it bears on the published text, while the imaging describes an anatomical state.

The Doppler report can be read in the book; the expert opinions attributed to Sassine and Hokayem are reported there without their original write-ups. The Imprimatur, for its part, concerns the publication of the messages. These differences determine the verifications possible for each document.

"29,000 miracles is too many to be credible"

The figure becomes misleading if it is read as that many miracles recognised by Rome. Cattaneo speaks of testimonies catalogued by Father Matar, while three healings were retained for the beatification and canonisation.^[132][133] The scale of the collection tells us about the reach of Charbel; the medical solidity of a case depends on its own documents. Neither does the large number dispense with examining them, nor does their heterogeneity cancel out the best documented dossiers.

"The 2002 Doppler proves a supernatural operation"

The report of Dr César El-Alam notes an aspect suggestive of intervention on the carotids. This is a datum distinct from Nohad's account, and that is the reason for its interest. But it names no operator, dates no supposed intervention, and also describes stenoses of 60% and 40%.^[134] The supernatural interpretation rests on bringing together the account, the relatives' observations and this imaging result; it is not a conclusion stated in the radiological report.

"A spontaneous neurological recovery would explain everything"

The hypothesis concerns the recovery of mobility, speech and swallowing. It must be examined alongside the initial diagnosis, treatments and clinical course; the transcript of the 2002 Doppler alone does not allow this assessment to be redone for 1993.^[135][136] Above all, it leaves another question entirely open: that of the neck wounds and the sutures reported on waking. A neurological recovery does not explain the appearance of these wounds. The family testimony and the observations attributed to Dr Sassine must therefore be considered separately, then brought together with the account of the healing.^[137][138]

"Do the scars really reopen on a fixed date?"

The ordinary rhythm is that of the 22nd, with extraordinary openings and at least one exception explicitly reported: in January 2023, the bleeding preceded Epiphany and did not recur on the 22nd.^[139] Dr Sassine's interview concerns the appearance of the scars and their reopening; the total of 377 occurrences is given by Cattaneo, with no published continuous clinical calendar.^[140] This difference does not erase the doctor's testimony: it distinguishes his observation from a retrospective count.

"An Imprimatur amounts to an ecclesial recognition of the supernatural"

The Imprimatur mentioned by Father Skandar concerns the publication of the messages; it is not a declaration of supernatural origin of the imprint. The doctrinal review of a book concerns its conformity with faith and morals, while the discernment of a phenomenon concerns the facts and their fruits.^[141][142]

"The Church expresses its appreciation, but continues to observe me and to accompany me spiritually, awaiting the conclusion of my earthly journey." — Raymond Nader, cited by Patrizia Cattaneo, Saint Charbel. L'empreinte et les messages à Raymond Nader, 2nd ed., Éditions du Parvis, Hauteville, January 2025, p. 67^[143]

The norms of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of 17 May 2024 themselves distinguish a favourable pastoral reception of a phenomenon from the affirmation of its divine origin. Even a Nihil obstat given in this context does not normally constitute a declaration of supernaturalness. This general framework must not be presented as a particular decision concerning Raymond Nader: his testimony cited here describes an ecclesial accompaniment in the interview published in 2025.^[144]

"A dossier based on recent and hagiographic books is not reliable"

A book favourable to a saint can convey useful documents: its spiritual purpose does not make fictitious the names, dates or texts it cites. In Cattaneo, the 1927 report offers a partial natural explanation, while that of 1950 sets out observations for which its authors find no satisfactory explanation. Their difference remains legible in the book.^[145][146] The Nohad case likewise contains a transcript of the Doppler, which can be distinguished from the author's commentary. Documentary value is thus judged document by document, taking into account the editorial transmission of the documents and testimonies.^[147]

Beyond the debate over numbers and evidence, the case of the miracles attributed to Saint Charbel retains a meaning that neither scepticism nor fascination with the marvellous should cause us to lose sight of. A hermit who died in complete obscurity — without any major writing, without any spectacular foundation, without any seeking of renown — becomes, a century later, the focus of an international influx of Christian and non-Christian pilgrims.^[148] This contrast between the poverty of his life and the magnitude of his posthumous radiance is, in the Catholic tradition, a classic sign of authentic holiness: fruitfulness comes from God, not from human strategy.

The very content of the messages received by Raymond Nader recalls this hierarchy, explicitly subordinating every prodigy to the Eucharist and rejecting in advance any miracle that would draw people away from the tabernacle.^[149] Nohad El-Chami speaks in the same way when she refuses the personalisation of devotion and links her own healing to the Mass rather than to herself.^[150] In the two best-documented cases of this corpus, the beneficiaries themselves thus lead the reader back to the heart of the Catholic faith: extraordinary signs, when they are authentic, never replace the sacraments — they point back to them.

“they recall a path of salvation for all.” — Paul VI, homily for the canonisation of Saint Charbel, 9 October 1977.^[151]

Paul VI places Charbel's vocation at the service of the whole Church: the hermit's solitude becomes intercessory prayer. In this light, bodily healing and conversion are not two competing forms of radiance; they point to the same charity of Christ, lived by the saint in the Mass, in self-denial and in prayer.^[152]

• Saint Charbel Makhlouf — full biography, beatification and canonisation processes.
• Incorrupt bodies — detailed case study of the exhumation, the 1927 and 1950 examinations, and the current state of Charbel's body.
• Miraculous healings — medical criteria and Catholic discernment.
• What is a miracle? — theological definition.
• The communion of the saints — why the saints intercede.
• The case of Mayline Tran — another documented contemporary healing.
• Saint Rafqa Ar-Rayès — nun of the same Maronite Lebanese Order, cause accepted in Rome the same year as Charbel's.