The 22nd of the Month

Saint Charbel's monthly day of pilgrimage and prayer - where it came from and how it is kept

The 22nd of every month is a day of prayer and pilgrimage in honor of Saint Charbel. It is not a feast on the Church calendar but a devotion that grew from one woman's reported healing in 1993, and it is now kept at the monastery in Annaya and in Maronite parishes on every continent.

On that day, buses climb the mountain road to Annaya, parishes in Sydney and São Paulo and Detroit schedule an extra Mass, and families who will never see Lebanon light a candle at home. The date is ordinary. What people do with it is not.

Where the Date Comes From

In 1993, a Lebanese Maronite woman named Nohad El Shami was left partially paralyzed after a stroke had blocked arteries on both sides of her brain. She was fifty-five years old and the mother of twelve children.

According to her account, on the night of 21 to 22 January she saw two monks standing at her bedside in a dream. One of them she recognized as Saint Charbel. She said he told her he had come to perform an operation on her neck, and that he did so while she slept.

She woke on the morning of 22 January able to get up and walk. On her neck were two small wounds that later became scars, and she carried them for the rest of her life. Her doctors were unable to explain the recovery.

The part of the story that gave the world the 22nd came afterward. In a further apparition, she said Saint Charbel told her he had done this so that people would see and return to their faith, and he asked her to visit his hermitage at Annaya on the 22nd of every month and to attend Mass for the rest of her life.

She did. Nohad El Shami kept that monthly pilgrimage for more than thirty years, until her death in May 2025. Her case has never been declared a Vatican-approved miracle, and the Church has not ruled on the private apparition, but it is documented at Annaya and is the best known modern account associated with the saint. Our overview of the miracles of Saint Charbel covers it alongside the two healings the Church did formally recognize.

How the Devotion Spread

At first it was one woman keeping a promise. Neighbors and relatives began coming with her, and the number of pilgrims on the 22nd grew year by year until the day had a character of its own.

The Lebanese Maronite Order, which cares for the monastery and the hermitage, took the practice into its own rhythm. Special Masses were scheduled, the tomb chapel stayed open longer, and the day became a fixed point in the life of Annaya rather than a private devotion.

From Lebanon it followed the diaspora. Maronite communities in Australia, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, France, and the Gulf carried the 22nd with them, and many Latin rite parishes with a Saint Charbel shrine or relic have adopted it too. In some churches the 22nd now draws a larger congregation than an ordinary Sunday evening.

Part of the appeal is the frequency. The feast of Saint Charbel comes once a year, and for people carrying a long illness or a long worry, once a year is far apart. A monthly day gives the same intention somewhere to go, twelve times over.

The 22nd at Annaya

Annaya on the 22nd is crowded, and pilgrims should plan for that. The Monastery of Saint Maron sits in the mountains north of Beirut, reached by a narrow road that fills with cars and coaches well before the main Mass.

The monastery celebrates Mass on the 22nd, usually more than once, in the Maronite rite and mainly in Arabic. Weather permitting there is a Eucharistic procession, and the tomb chapel below the church stays busy from morning until late.

Most pilgrims spend part of the day at the tomb itself, praying in a slow line that moves through the small stone chapel. Many then climb the path above the monastery to the hermitage where Saint Charbel lived his last twenty-three years, and where his cell is kept much as he left it.

Anointing is a large part of the day. Priests and monks anoint pilgrims who ask, and small vials of the blessed oil of Saint Charbel are distributed. People come with the sick, and with the names of the sick written down.

One practical warning is worth repeating. Mass times at Annaya change with the season and are different on the 22nd from an ordinary day, and no online schedule can be trusted to be current. If you are traveling for a specific Mass, confirm with the monastery directly. Our guide to visiting Annaya covers transport, timing, and what to expect at the tomb.

The crowd is also part of what people come for. Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims all come to Annaya, and on the 22nd that mixture is at its most visible. Saint Charbel has long drawn people from outside the Church, and the monastery has never turned them away.

Keeping the 22nd Away from Lebanon

Almost everyone who keeps this devotion does so without going anywhere. That is not a lesser version of it. What Saint Charbel asked Nohad El Shami for was Mass and faithfulness, and both of those are available in any parish.

The simplest form is to go to Mass on the 22nd if a weekday Mass is within reach. Many Maronite parishes hold a dedicated Saint Charbel Mass that day, often with the rosary beforehand and anointing with blessed oil afterward. Calling the parish office is usually enough to find out.

At home, people keep it in quieter ways. A candle lit in the evening, a decade of the rosary, one of the prayers to Saint Charbel, a passage from the Gospel read aloud. Some fast for the day or eat simply, echoing the hermit's own austerity.

Families with blessed oil often anoint the sick member of the household that evening, with a prayer for healing and for the grace to accept whatever God sends. The oil accompanies the prayer; it does not work on its own, and it is not a substitute for a doctor.

A quiet caution belongs here. The 22nd is not a technique, and keeping it faithfully does not oblige God to answer as we ask. Saint Charbel spent his life in silence and obedience, and the devotion is truest to him when it leads toward trust rather than toward bargaining.

The 22nd, the Feast, and the Novena

These three practices are often confused, and the difference is simple. The 22nd of the month is a popular devotion with no fixed liturgical status. The feast of Saint Charbel is a real feast: 24 July in the universal Roman calendar, and the third Sunday of July in the Maronite Church.

The novena to Saint Charbel is a form of prayer rather than a date. Nine consecutive days with a single intention, prayable at any time of year.

Devotees combine them freely. Some begin a novena on the 14th so that the ninth day falls on the 22nd. Some pray the traditional novena from 15 to 23 July, ending on the eve of the feast, and keep the 22nd on its own through the other eleven months.

None of this is regulated, which is the point. A monthly day, an annual feast, and nine days of prayer are three ways of returning to the same intercession, and Saint Charbel himself would likely have been most interested in what happens in the ordinary days between them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the 22nd of the month special to Saint Charbel?

The date comes from the reported healing of Nohad El Shami, a Lebanese Maronite woman who was partially paralyzed by a stroke. On the night of 21 to 22 January 1993 she saw two monks in a dream, one of whom she identified as Saint Charbel, and she woke on the morning of 22 January able to walk, with two small marks on her neck. In a further apparition she said Saint Charbel asked her to come to his hermitage at Annaya on the 22nd of every month and to attend Mass for the rest of her life. She kept that promise for over thirty years, and others began to keep the day with her.

What happens at Annaya on the 22nd?

The 22nd draws far larger crowds to the Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya than an ordinary day. The monastery celebrates Mass, usually more than once, and weather permitting there is a Eucharistic procession. Pilgrims pray at Saint Charbel's tomb, climb to the hermitage above the monastery, and receive the blessed oil, with priests and monks anointing those who ask. Mass times shift with the season and are different on the 22nd, so pilgrims traveling for a specific Mass should confirm with the monastery rather than rely on a schedule found online.

How do you keep the 22nd at home?

Most devotees cannot travel to Lebanon, and the heart of the day is Mass and prayer rather than the journey. Many attend Mass on the 22nd if a weekday Mass is available, or join a special Saint Charbel Mass at a Maronite parish. At home, people light a candle, pray a prayer to Saint Charbel or the rosary, read from the Gospel, and some fast or keep a simpler meal in imitation of his life. Anointing with blessed oil, when a family has it, is often part of the evening.

Is the 22nd an official Church feast?

No. The 22nd of the month is a popular devotion, not a liturgical feast. Saint Charbel's feast in the universal Roman calendar is 24 July, and the Maronite Church keeps his feast on the third Sunday of July. The 22nd has no fixed place in the liturgical calendar and no proper Mass texts of its own. It is a widely loved custom that the Lebanese Maronite Order and many parishes have embraced, but a Catholic is free to keep it or not.

How does the 22nd relate to the novena to Saint Charbel?

The two fit together easily. A novena is nine days of prayer with one intention, so many devotees begin on the 14th of the month in order to finish on the 22nd, or begin on the 22nd and pray through to the end of the month. Others pray the traditional July novena from the 15th to the feast on the 24th and keep the 22nd separately through the rest of the year. There is no required pattern; the novena is a form of prayer, and the 22nd is a day, and either can carry the other.