The Hermitage of Saint Charbel

The stone cell above Annaya where a hermit's silence changed the world

The Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul is not a grand building. A small cluster of stone cells, a narrow chapel, a terrace, and a garden, set into the hillside above the Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya. It is not visible from the monastery courtyard. Pilgrims have to look up, past the cedar trees, to the line of wall on the ridge above them.

For twenty-three years, from February 1875 until Christmas Eve 1898, Saint Charbel Makhlouf lived inside one of those cells. He rose before dawn. He said Mass in silence. He worked in the small garden. He ate one meal a day. He spoke as little as possible. And when he died, the hidden life he had lived on that ridge became the most publicly loved spiritual legacy of the modern Maronite Church.

Where the Hermitage Stands

The hermitage sits at approximately 1,400 metres above sea level in the mountains of the Byblos (Jbeil) district in north Lebanon. Below it, on a lower ridge, is the Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya. Above and around it, the peaks of Mount Lebanon and the deep slopes of the Nahr Ibrahim valley.

From the monastery courtyard a paved path leads up through pine and oak to the hermitage in about fifteen minutes on foot. A narrow road follows the same ridge and permits vehicle access for pilgrims who cannot walk. The view from the terrace, on a clear day, reaches west to the Mediterranean coast and east to the ridges above the Qadisha Valley.

The Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul: A Short History

The hermitage was built in 1798 by the Lebanese Maronite Order as a place of deeper retreat for monks who had lived in the community long enough to ask for solitary life. It is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, whose feast falls on June 29. The architecture is simple: rough stone walls, tile roofs, small square windows, a shared chapel, and a row of cells, each one meant for a single hermit.

The hermit tradition in the Lebanese mountains long predates the building. The fourth-century hermit Saint Maron, the spiritual father of the Maronite Church, was himself a solitary ascetic in the mountains north of Antioch. In the cedar forests of Lebanon, generations of monks have sought out caves and cells for the same reason: to strip life back to God alone. The Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul is one expression of that long line.

Saint Charbel's Twenty-Three Years of Silence (1875–1898)

In February 1875, after sixteen years as a monk of the Monastery of Saint Maron, Saint Charbel received permission from his superiors to withdraw to the hermitage. He was forty-seven years old. He would not come down the path to the monastery again except, rarely, under direct orders.

His daily rhythm was extreme but unvaried. He rose at about 2 a.m. for the night office, celebrated the Divine Liturgy alone or in silence with the small number of other hermits sharing the building, spent hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, worked in the garden during the daylight, and took his single meal in the afternoon. The meal was often vegetables from the garden, bread, and a little water; never meat. He slept a few hours on a wooden plank with a log for a pillow.

He wore the same habit throughout. Under it, a hair shirt and iron chains. He wrote almost nothing. The few surviving letters from his years at the hermitage are short, practical, and self-effacing.

He was not entirely alone. The hermitage usually sheltered two or three hermits at a time, each in his own cell, observing a rigorous silence. The monastic records describe his brothers at the hermitage as stunned by his interior recollection: he appeared to pray ceaselessly, eyes on the tabernacle, without awareness of time.

What You See When You Visit

The cell where Saint Charbel lived is preserved essentially as he left it. Visitors step through a low doorway into a room of perhaps three metres by four. Stone walls, a small window, a plank bed with a wooden log at the head, and in a glass case the things he used every day: his patched monastic habit, his hair shirt, the iron chains he wore under it, his short breviary, his rosary, a wooden crucifix.

A doorway leads to the small chapel. The altar is the one he used every morning for the Divine Liturgy (the Qurbono). It was at this altar, on the morning of December 16, 1898, that he suffered the stroke from which he would die eight days later. On the lectionary still rests the page of the Syriac Maronite anaphora at the words he was praying when he collapsed: Father of Truth, behold your Son, a sacrifice pleasing to you. Accept this offering from my hands, and be reconciled to me and my people.

Outside the cell is a small garden terrace. Saint Charbel tended it for his food. The old olive trees and grape vines still stand. From the terrace wall you can see the monastery far below, the cedars on the next ridge, and on clear days the far blue of the sea.

His Last Mass: December 16, 1898

Saint Charbel was celebrating the Divine Liturgy at the hermitage altar on the morning of December 16, 1898. He was seventy years old. At the elevation of the chalice, in the prayer that accompanies the breaking of the bread and the signing of the cup, he suffered a stroke. He was unable to finish the words. The other hermits helped him to his cell.

For the next eight days he lay paralyzed on the plank bed. He could not speak clearly. He asked, by signs and broken words, for the Eucharist. The brothers brought the Blessed Sacrament from the chapel. He received it, and whispered prayers, and did not eat.

He died on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1898. They carried his body down the path to the monastic cemetery and buried him, according to the custom of the Lebanese Maronite Order, in the ground without a coffin, wrapped only in his habit. Within months a mysterious light was reported over the grave, and four months after his burial the body was exhumed and found incorrupt. The story of the miracles that followed unfolded from there.

How to Visit the Hermitage

Annaya lies about 75 km north of Beirut. The drive takes roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes on the coastal road through Jbeil (Byblos), turning inland through the villages of Jrabta and Mishmish and climbing the mountain road to Annaya. Signs direct pilgrims all the way.

From the main monastery car park, the path to the hermitage climbs the ridge through about fifteen minutes of moderate walk. The path is paved, with switchbacks, benches, and several small stations of the cross along the way. Pilgrims unable to walk can drive the narrow road that continues up to a small parking area near the hermitage itself.

The hermitage is open year-round without entrance fee. Quiet is expected inside the cell and the chapel. Modest dress is appreciated. Photography is usually permitted outside and in the courtyard; the cell itself is kept quiet and visitors are asked to pray rather than film. Small vials of oil blessed at the tomb can be obtained in the monastery below.

The busiest days are the Maronite feast (third Sunday of July), the universal feast (July 24), and the 22nd of every month. On those days, expect crowds; on most other days, the hermitage is quiet enough to hear the wind in the pines.

The 22nd of Every Month

Outside the annual feast, the hermitage has become the center of a growing monthly pilgrimage: the 22nd of each month. The date traces to a reported healing in January 1993. A Lebanese Maronite woman named Nohad El Shami was partially paralyzed and, according to her account, saw two monks in a dream on the night of January 21–22. One of them, whom she identified as Saint Charbel, performed a kind of incision on her neck. She awoke on the morning of January 22 with two visible scars on her neck and her paralysis healed.

In thanksgiving, she and other pilgrims began gathering at the hermitage on the 22nd of each month. The Lebanese Maronite Order adopted the practice. Today, Maronite parishes around the world hold a special Mass, the rosary, and anointing with the holy oil on the 22nd of every month. The hermitage itself receives thousands of pilgrims on that day. For the full story, see the miracles of Saint Charbel and the chronological list.

The Hermitage and the Maronite Hermit Tradition

Saint Charbel was not the first Maronite hermit, nor the last. The Lebanese mountains have sheltered solitaries since the fourth century. The Qadisha Valley, a few ridges north of Annaya, contains caves and stone cells used by hermits for more than fifteen hundred years. Several hermits live in the valley today.

The Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul is, in that sense, a late example of a very old tradition. What distinguishes Saint Charbel is not the form of his life but the completeness of his fidelity to it, and the volume of grace that has flowed from his tomb into the wider Church in the century and a quarter since his death.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Hermitage of Saint Charbel?

The Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul sits at approximately 1,400 metres above sea level on a hillside above the Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya, in the Byblos (Jbeil) district of north Lebanon. It is about a fifteen-minute walk up from the monastery along a paved path. A narrow road also allows vehicle access. The drive from Beirut takes roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Can anyone visit the hermitage?

Yes. The hermitage is open to pilgrims of every faith and background year-round, free of charge. Visitors are asked to keep silence inside the cell area and to dress modestly. Feast days (third Sunday of July and July 24) and the 22nd of each month are the busiest times. Most weekdays are quiet enough to allow unhurried prayer.

Is the hermitage the same as the Annaya monastery?

No. They are two distinct sites linked by a short mountain path. The Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya is the main community building, containing the church, the tomb of Saint Charbel, and the monastic quarters. The hermitage, called the Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul, is a smaller retreat of stone cells on the hillside above, where Saint Charbel lived in solitude for 23 years. Most pilgrims visit both.

How long did Saint Charbel live in the hermitage?

Saint Charbel lived in the hermitage for 23 years, from February 1875, when he received permission to withdraw, until his death on December 24, 1898. He suffered a stroke on December 16, 1898, while celebrating the Divine Liturgy at the hermitage altar, and died eight days later.

What can you see inside Saint Charbel's cell?

Visitors can see the preserved cell of Saint Charbel with his monastic habit, his hair shirt, his iron chains, his small selection of books, the wooden plank and log he used as a bed and pillow, and the altar where he said his last Mass. The adjoining chapel of Saints Peter and Paul is also open, along with the garden terrace he tended.