Novena to Saint Maron: The 9-Day Prayer
The novena to Saint Maron is a nine-day prayer to the fifth-century hermit whose life under the open sky gave birth to the Maronite Church. People pray it for healing of body and soul, for their families and their homeland, and in the nine days before his feast on February 9, when Maronites across the world honor their father in faith on the same morning.
No single traditional novena text to Saint Maron has come down to us the way some older novenas have. The prayer offered here is a novena drawn from his life and the tradition: nine days, each resting on one scene from the oldest account of him, with a short meditation, a prayer, and a closing invocation.
Prefer to pray on paper? Download the free printable PDF of the novena to Saint Maron. It holds the full nine days on clean pages you can keep by your bed or give to someone who needs it.
When to Pray the Novena to Saint Maron
Most people pray this novena in the nine days ending on his feast, February 9, which means beginning on February 1. The Feast of Saint Maron is the principal feast of the Maronite Church and a national holiday in Lebanon, so ending the novena that morning joins your prayer to an entire people honoring its father at once.
But a novena is never bound to a calendar. If you are carrying an illness, a worry for your family, or a hunger to pray the way your grandparents prayed, then today is the right day to begin.
How to Pray It
You need nothing but a quiet corner and nine days of small faithfulness. Saint Maron himself prayed with even less: no roof, no walls, only the sky. Each day:
- Make the Sign of the Cross and name your intention. Say clearly what you are asking for, for yourself or for someone else.
- Read the short meditation for the day. Let one scene from his life sit with you for a moment.
- Pray the day's prayer, then the closing invocation.
- End with an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be.
- If you miss a day, pray twice the next day. You do not need to start over. God sees the sincerity of your heart.
After the ninth day, thank him, whatever the answer looks like so far. Novenas work in God's timing, not ours.
The Nine Days
Close each day with this invocation: Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 1: Leaving Everything
Around the year 380, a priest named Maron walked out of the world. He left the cities of Syria behind, climbed a mountain in the region of Cyrrhus near Antioch, and never came down to live among comforts again. He did not leave because the world was evil. He left because he wanted God more.
Saint Maron, you left everything to seek God alone. Loosen my grip on the things I hold too tightly, and give me a heart that wants God more than it wants comfort. Obtain for me the grace I ask in this novena. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 2: A Temple Made New
The mountaintop Maron chose had been a pagan holy place, with an old temple still standing on it. He did not tear it down. He consecrated it to the true God and made it his church, turning a site of idols into a house of prayer. Grace does not always demolish. Often it transforms.
Saint Maron, you turned a pagan temple into a church. Take what is broken and misused in my life and consecrate it, so that even my failures become places where God is worshiped. Make my heart a house of prayer. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 3: Life Under the Open Sky
Maron lived in the open air, without a roof, through Syrian summers and freezing mountain winters. He kept a small tent of goatskins but rarely used it. Theodoret, the bishop who wrote his story, says he embraced this exposure freely, letting the weather itself train his soul to depend on God alone.
Saint Maron, hermit of the open sky, you stood unsheltered before God and were not afraid. Teach me to trust the Father through every season, in heat and in cold, in plenty and in loss. Shelter under your prayers what I cannot shelter myself. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 4: A Hidden Life of Prayer
Nights of vigil, long fasts, ceaseless prayer: this was Maron's whole occupation, hidden from every audience but God. Theodoret says he was not content with the ordinary labors of ascetics but kept adding new ones, gathering the riches of wisdom the way other men gather gold. No one becomes a father of nations without first being alone with God.
Saint Maron, man of vigil and fasting, teach me to pray when no one sees and to keep going when no one applauds. Give me a hunger for the hidden life with God, where every true work begins. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 5: Healing of the Body
God honored Maron's hidden labors openly. The sick began to climb his mountain, and Theodoret records that fevers ceased, demons fled, and the suffering went home cured, one prayer healing many afflictions. The crowds kept coming, from every direction, because word spread that the hermit's God was real.
Saint Maron, healer of the sick, I bring you the illness that weighs on me and on those I love. Pray over us as you prayed over the crowds on your mountain, and ask the Lord for healing, in the body if it is His will, and always in the depths. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 6: Healing of the Soul
Theodoret wrote something striking: Maron cured not only infirmities of the body but applied suitable treatment to souls as well, healing this man's greed and that man's anger, supplying teaching in self-control, and correcting laziness. He was a physician of hearts. He treated the wounds no one else could see.
Saint Maron, physician of souls, you see the wounds I hide: the anger, the greed, the laziness, the fear. Treat them with your gentle medicine. Ask the Lord to heal in me what I have stopped even trying to heal. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 7: The Friend of Saints
From his exile around the year 405, Saint John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of the age, wrote to the hermit on the mountain: to Maron, the priest and monk, asking for news of him and begging his prayers. One saint leaned on the prayers of another. None of us, however holy, prays alone.
Saint Maron, friend of Saint John Chrysostom, you carried the burdens of others before God. Carry mine. Bind me into the great friendship of the saints, and teach me to pray for others as faithfully as I ask them to pray for me. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 8: The Disciples
Maron never founded an institution, yet men and women left everything to learn his way of life. Theodoret says he planted for God the garden that flourished in the region of Cyrrhus: hermits and monks formed by his example, who filled the mountains with prayer. One man's holiness, freely given, became a whole movement.
Saint Maron, father of monks and hermits, let something of your spirit take root in me. Make my faith contagious in my own home, quietly, the way yours was on the mountain. Bless all who are learning to pray, and give the Church new hearts on fire. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Day 9: The Movement That Became a Church
Maron died around the year 410, after a short illness, and the villages nearby nearly came to blows over the honor of keeping his body. His followers built a monastery that bore his name on the Orontes River, and from that community grew a people: the Maronite Church, which carried his name into the mountains of Lebanon and across the world. The hermit who owned nothing left an inheritance that has not run out in sixteen centuries.
Saint Maron, father of the Maronite Church, your death planted a Church that is still bearing fruit. Keep your children faithful wherever they are scattered, protect Lebanon and every family far from home, and present my intention to the Lord one final time. Obtain for me the grace I have asked these nine days, if it is for the good of my soul. Amen.
Saint Maron, pray for us.
Who Is Saint Maron
Saint Maron was a priest and hermit who lived in the region of Cyrrhus, near Antioch in Syria, and died around the year 410. Nearly everything we know of him comes from a single chapter of the Religious History of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, written about thirty years after his death, and from a letter Saint John Chrysostom sent him from exile. It is a short record for so large a legacy: a man who lived under the open sky, healed bodies and souls, and formed the disciples who carried his way into the mountains of Lebanon.
After his death, his followers built the great Monastery of Saint Maron on the Orontes, and the community that gathered around his name grew into the Maronite Church, the only Eastern Catholic Church named for a hermit. His feast on February 9 is a national holiday in Lebanon. You can read his full story in our biography of Saint Maron, and meet the saints his tradition produced, from Saint Charbel to Rafqa and Hardini, among the Maronite saints.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you pray the novena to Saint Maron?
You pray the novena to Saint Maron over nine consecutive days. Each day, make the Sign of the Cross, name your intention, read the short meditation for that day, pray the day's prayer, and end with the invocation and an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be. If you miss a day, pray twice the next day rather than starting over.
When is Saint Maron's feast day?
Saint Maron's feast day is February 9. It is the principal feast of the Maronite Church and a national holiday in Lebanon. To end the novena on his feast, begin on February 1. You can also pray the novena at any time of year, whenever a need arises.
Is there a Saint Maron novena PDF?
Yes. You can download the full novena to Saint Maron as a free printable PDF at charbel.app/downloads/saint-maron-novena.pdf. It contains all nine days with each day's meditation, prayer, and closing invocation, formatted for printing at home.
What do people pray to Saint Maron for?
Saint Maron is invoked for healing of both body and soul, since his biographer Theodoret records that he cured illnesses and also treated the hidden wounds of the heart, such as anger and greed. Maronites also pray to him as the father of their Church, asking his intercession for their families, their homeland, and the grace to keep the faith he handed down.
Was Saint Maron Lebanese?
No. Saint Maron lived and died in the region of Cyrrhus, near Antioch, in what is now Syria, and there is no record that he ever set foot in Lebanon. His disciples carried his way of life south into the Lebanese mountains, and the community that grew from them became the Maronite Church. That is why Lebanon honors as its spiritual father a hermit who never saw its cedars.
See also: Saint Maron, the hermit who fathered a Church. Novena to Saint Charbel. Novena to Saint Rafqa. Novena to Saint Hardini. The Monastery of Saint Maron. The Maronite saints.