The Litany of Saint Charbel

The traditional responsive prayer to the hermit of Annaya under his many titles

A litany is one of the oldest forms of Christian prayer. It names a saint under title after title, and to each title the faithful answer "Pray for us." The rhythm is slow. The repetition is the point. The prayer is less about gathering information and more about letting the soul settle into trust.

The Litany of Saint Charbel places the hermit of Annaya in that long tradition. It calls him friend of silence, lover of the Blessed Sacrament, healer of bodies and souls, and worker of wonders — names drawn from his life and from the testimonies of those healed through his intercession.

Alongside the Novena to Saint Charbel and the Saint Charbel Prayer for Healing, the litany forms a third path of Maronite devotion to the saint. The novena commits nine days. The healing prayer pleads a single need. The litany lets you sit with him under many names, unhurried, until your heart slows down.

What Is a Litany?

The word litany comes from the Greek litaneia, meaning supplication or entreaty. The form was already well established by the fifth century, when processional litanies were prayed in times of plague, famine, and war. The congregation would walk between churches, answering the cantor's invocations as they went.

Over the centuries, litanies developed for particular devotions: the Litany of the Saints, prayed at baptisms, ordinations, and the Easter Vigil; the Litany of Loreto, addressed to the Blessed Virgin under dozens of titles; the Litany of the Sacred Heart; the Litany of Saint Joseph. The pattern is always the same. A leader names. The people answer. The repetition slows the mind and opens the heart.

Only a handful of litanies are formally approved for use in the public liturgy of the Roman Church. Most — including the saint litanies that circulate widely in parish books — are devotional prayers. That is how the Litany of Saint Charbel is used. It is prayed at home, in small groups, at his tomb in Annaya, and during the novena. It has the pastoral blessing of bishops and of the Maronite Patriarchate, but it is not part of the Qurbono, the Maronite Divine Liturgy.

The Litany of Saint Charbel: Full Text

The litany below follows the most widely circulated English form used in Maronite parishes in the United States, Australia, and Lebanon. Other versions, slightly longer or shorter, exist in French and Arabic. If you are praying alone, say both the invocation and the response. If you are praying as a group, one person reads each invocation and everyone answers together.

Lord, have mercy. — Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy. — Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. — Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us. — Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, — have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, — have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, — have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, — have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, — pray for us.
Our Lady of Lebanon, — pray for us.

Saint Charbel, hermit of Annaya, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, faithful son of the Maronite Church, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, friend of silence, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, lover of the Blessed Sacrament, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, devoted to the Holy Eucharist, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, son of the Virgin Mary, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, disciple of Saint Nimatullah, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, faithful imitator of Saint Anthony the Great, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, son of Saint Maron, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, example of humility, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, model of poverty, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, pillar of chastity, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, light of the monastic life, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, man of prayer and penance, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, lover of solitude, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, who celebrated the Holy Sacrifice with great devotion, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, who died on the altar, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, witness to the Gospel, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, father of the sick, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, healer of bodies, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, healer of souls, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, comforter of the afflicted, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, friend of the poor, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, refuge of the despairing, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, intercessor before God, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, whose body remained incorrupt, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, whose tomb flowed with holy oil, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, worker of wonders, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, glory of Lebanon, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, treasure of the Maronite Church, — pray for us.
Saint Charbel, bridge between heaven and earth, — pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, — spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, — graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, — have mercy on us.

V. Pray for us, Saint Charbel.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.
Lord God, you called Saint Charbel to live the life of a hermit in humility, silence, and prayer. Through his intercession, grant us the grace we seek (here mention your intention), and teach us to love you above all things. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Other versions of the litany, in French and Arabic, contain a few additional titles — "rose of the hermits," "the second Saint Anthony," "son of the cedars" — and sometimes a longer concluding prayer. The form above is the one most commonly printed in English-language Maronite devotional booklets.

Where the Litany Comes From

The Litany of Saint Charbel was composed in Arabic shortly after his beatification in 1965, drawing on the titles that pilgrims and monks had already been using at his tomb for decades. The body of invocations gathers the themes of his life — the hermitage, the Blessed Sacrament, his obedience to Saint Nimatullah — with the themes that emerged after his death: the healings, the oil, the incorruption of his body.

As Maronite communities spread through the twentieth century, the litany was translated into French for the communities in France and West Africa, into Portuguese for Brazil, into Spanish for Argentina, and into English for the United States, Canada, and Australia. Parish booklets printed in São Paulo, Sydney, and Detroit all carry slightly different versions of the same core prayer.

No single approved text has replaced them. That flexibility is normal for devotional litanies. What matters is the movement of the heart: naming the saint, trusting in his prayers, and bringing a need before God.

How to Pray the Litany

Praying the litany takes about ten minutes, depending on the pace. It can be done in many settings:

Alone, as a quiet evening prayer. Sit somewhere still. Light a candle if you wish. Read the invocations slowly, answering each one yourself. Let the rhythm settle your thoughts before you bring your intention to the final prayer.

In a family or small group. One person leads; the others answer. This is the form the litany was designed for. Praying aloud together, the repetition becomes something like the beating of a common heart.

During the novena. Many people add the litany to each of the nine days of the novena, after the day's prayer and before the Our Father and Hail Mary. It slows the devotion and makes each day feel full.

On the 22nd of the month. The 22nd is observed as a day of special devotion to Saint Charbel in memory of the 1993 healing of Nohad El Shami. Many parishes hold a Mass followed by the litany.

Before anointing with the holy oil. Some families pray the litany before applying oil from Annaya to a sick person, as a way of preparing the heart and entrusting the moment to God.

You can pray the litany in English, Arabic, French, Portuguese, or your own language. Saint Charbel himself prayed in Syriac and Arabic. He will understand.

The Titles of Saint Charbel Explained

Hermit of Annaya

For twenty-three years Saint Charbel lived alone in a small stone hermitage above the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, in the mountains of northern Lebanon. He rose before dawn, celebrated Mass, worked in a small garden, and spoke only when necessary. This is the life from which everything else in the litany flows. To call him "hermit of Annaya" is to place him in his home. Visitors to Annaya Monastery still enter that stone cell today.

Lover of the Blessed Sacrament

The brother monks who lived with Saint Charbel testified again and again that the center of his life was the Eucharist. He would prepare for Mass for hours beforehand and remain in thanksgiving for hours after. His face, they said, would change at the elevation of the host. When people today carry their sick to his tomb, they are carrying them to a man whose whole life was organized around the Real Presence of Christ.

Whose Tomb Flowed with Holy Oil

Beginning with the first exhumation of his body in April 1899, monks at Annaya observed a reddish, oil-like substance seeping from Saint Charbel's body and from his tomb. The oil, treated by the Church as a sacramental, has been associated with thousands of reported healings and is the origin of the small vials distributed to pilgrims around the world. The title is not poetic shorthand — it names a physical phenomenon carefully documented across decades, detailed in our article on the miracles of Saint Charbel.

Who Died on the Altar

On December 16, 1898, Saint Charbel suffered a stroke while celebrating the Divine Liturgy, at the moment of the elevation of the chalice. The words of the Qurbono were in his mouth when his body fell silent. He died eight days later, on Christmas Eve. The title joins two mysteries: the altar on which Christ is offered, and the saint who was offered there with him. It is one of the most striking images in the litany and one of the reasons the Maronite Divine Liturgy is so closely tied to his memory.

Litany, Novena, and Prayer for Healing: Which to Pray?

These three devotions are not rivals. They sit on the same shelf and are meant to be used together, depending on what your heart needs.

The Saint Charbel Prayer for Healing is short. It is a single, direct plea — often prayed over a sick person, at bedtime, or in a moment of fear. It fits into five minutes.

The Litany of Saint Charbel is longer and more contemplative. It does not focus on a single need. It gathers all of Saint Charbel's life into a series of names and lets the soul rest there.

The Novena to Saint Charbel is an arc. Nine days, a prayer for each day, a growing confidence. It is the form most Catholics turn to when they are asking for something specific and are willing to commit time to the asking.

Many families pray all three together during serious illness: the healing prayer each morning, the litany each evening, the day's novena prayer before bed. Other families choose one. There is no rule. The Maronite rosary can also be woven into the same rhythm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Litany of Saint Charbel?

The Litany of Saint Charbel is a traditional responsive prayer from the Maronite tradition. A leader (or the person praying alone) names Saint Charbel under a series of titles — hermit of Annaya, lover of the Blessed Sacrament, healer of bodies and souls, worker of wonders — and each title is followed by the response "Pray for us." The litany closes with invocations to the Lamb of God, a versicle and response, and a concluding prayer asking a specific grace through the saint's intercession.

When should I pray the Litany of Saint Charbel?

The litany can be prayed at any time. It is especially fitting on Saint Charbel's feast day in July, during serious illness, on the 22nd of each month (in memory of the healing of Nohad El Shami), and as part of the nine days of the novena. Many families pray it together on the anniversary of a loved one's illness or recovery, or before anointing with the holy oil from Annaya.

Can I pray the litany alone?

Yes. Litanies were written for communal prayer with a leader and a response, but they are fully suited to private devotion. When praying alone, simply say both the invocation and the response. The rhythm of title and response — repeated forty or fifty times — has a quieting, meditative effect that many people find especially suited to silent prayer.

Is the Litany of Saint Charbel officially approved?

The Litany of Saint Charbel is a devotional prayer, not part of the official liturgy of the Church. Like most saint litanies outside the Litany of the Saints and the Litany of Loreto, it has been composed and circulated within Maronite parishes and monasteries and has received the pastoral blessing of bishops and the Maronite Patriarchate. It may be prayed privately or in small groups. Only the Litany of the Saints and a handful of others are approved for use in the public liturgy.

What is the difference between a litany and a novena?

A litany is a single prayer made of many short invocations, each with a response, usually prayed in one sitting. A novena is a devotion that repeats a prayer or set of prayers over nine consecutive days for a specific intention. The two complement each other: many people pray the Litany of Saint Charbel as part of each day of the nine-day novena, together with the Saint Charbel Prayer for Healing.