Nohad El Shami

The paralysed mother, the night vision, and the two scars — Saint Charbel's most famous modern miracle

In January 1993, a Lebanese mother of twelve went to bed unable to move one side of her body and woke up walking. On her neck were two incisions she said had not been there the night before.

Her name was Nohad El Shami, and her testimony became the best known modern story attached to Saint Charbel. It is also the reason tens of thousands of people gather at Annaya on the 22nd of every month.

Who She Was

Nohad El Shami came from Mezarib, a village in the Mount Lebanon region. She was a Maronite, married, and the mother of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters.

She was in her mid fifties, and most accounts give her age as fifty-five. She was not a public figure and had no connection to the monastery, just an ordinary Lebanese woman living through the aftermath of a long war.

The Stroke

On 9 January 1993 she lost strength and control on her left side. Her leg, her arm and part of her mouth stopped responding.

Doctors diagnosed hemiplegia, paralysis of one side of the body, caused by serious obstruction in the arteries supplying her brain. Most retellings cite roughly eighty percent blockage on one side and seventy on the other, though these figures come from the family's account rather than a published medical file.

The prognosis was bleak. She was told there was no medication that would restore what she had lost, and that a vascular operation was possible in theory but unlikely to help her.

Her son Saad made the drive up to Annaya. He brought back oil from the shrine and a little soil from Saint Charbel's tomb, which is what Lebanese families have done for their sick for over a century. Our article on the oil of Saint Charbel covers that practice.

The Night of 21 to 22 January

What happened next is her own account, told the same way for more than thirty years.

She said that during the night two Maronite monks appeared beside her bed. One of them placed his hands on her neck and began to operate on her. The other held a pillow behind her back and eased her pain while it was done.

She recognised the first monk as Saint Charbel. When she woke, she found she could lift her arms. She stood, and she walked.

On either side of her neck were two long wounds that looked like surgical incisions. Her family found her on her feet in a house where she had been carried from room to room days earlier.

"I Did the Surgery"

In her telling, Saint Charbel came to her again the following night with an explanation and a request.

He said he had performed the operation so that people would see and return to their faith. Then he asked her to come to his hermitage at Annaya on the 22nd of every month, and to attend Mass regularly for the rest of her life.

The line about returning to faith is the part she repeated most often when she spoke to pilgrims. She never presented herself as the point of the story.

The Scars

The incisions on her neck are the detail that made the account travel. Devotional sources report that the marks remained visible for the rest of her life and that they periodically reopened.

Here it is worth being careful. The scars were seen and photographed by many people, including journalists and clergy, and that much is not in dispute. The claim that they reopened on a recurring schedule appears in popular retellings with varying detail, and no clinical follow-up has been published. We report it as a widely repeated element of a devotional account rather than a verified medical finding.

What the Church Has and Has Not Said

This distinction matters, and it is often blurred online.

Saint Charbel was beatified in 1965 and canonized in 1977. The healings formally examined and approved by the Vatican in his cause all belong to that earlier period. By 1993 the process had long since closed, so Nohad El Shami's healing was never submitted to a Vatican tribunal.

What the Church has done is allow the devotion that grew from it. The monastery at Annaya received her, permitted her testimony, and the 22nd of the month gatherings take place with the blessing of the Maronite hierarchy. That is real ecclesial acceptance, but not a canonically approved miracle.

For the cases that were formally investigated, see our overview of the miracles of Saint Charbel and the fuller list of documented healings.

How the 22nd of the Month Began

Nohad kept the promise. Every month she went up the mountain road to the hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul above the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, and she went to Mass.

At first she went with her family. Then neighbours came, then people who had heard the story, then people who had heard it second and third hand from other countries.

Today the 22nd is a fixed point in the Lebanese devotional calendar. Mass at Annaya on that date draws large crowds, and Maronite parishes from Sydney to São Paulo hold their own 22nd of the month prayers to Saint Charbel. If you are thinking of making the trip, our guide to visiting Annaya covers what to expect.

Her Later Years and Her Death

She spent three decades telling the same story to whoever asked. Pilgrims sought her out at Annaya on the 22nd, and she spoke to them without ceremony.

Nohad El Shami died on 14 May 2025. Her death was reported across Lebanese media, which described her as the messenger of Saint Charbel's most famous miracle.

How to Hold a Story Like This

Stories of this kind are easy to misuse in two directions. One is to dismiss them outright. The other is to treat them as a formula, as though praying the right way guarantees the same outcome.

Nohad herself never promised anyone a healing. She said Saint Charbel acted so that people would come back to their faith, and she pointed toward the Mass rather than toward herself. That is the honest way to receive it.

If you are carrying an illness of your own, or praying for someone you love, you can bring it to Saint Charbel in the prayer for healing or over nine days with the novena to Saint Charbel. And to understand the silent hermit at the centre of all of it, read the life of Saint Charbel Makhlouf.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Nohad El Shami?

Nohad El Shami was a Lebanese Maronite woman from Mezarib, in the Mount Lebanon region, and a mother of twelve children. In January 1993, in her mid fifties, she was left partially paralysed by a stroke. She became known throughout Lebanon and far beyond for her testimony that Saint Charbel healed her during a night vision, and she gave that testimony publicly at Annaya for more than thirty years.

What happened to Nohad El Shami?

On 9 January 1993 she suffered a stroke that left one side of her body paralysed. Doctors reported severe blockage in the arteries supplying her brain and told the family there was little that could be done. On the night of 21 to 22 January she reported seeing two Maronite monks at her bedside, one of whom she recognised as Saint Charbel. She said he placed his hands on her neck and operated on her while the other monk supported her. She woke able to move and walk, with two incisions on her neck.

Is the Nohad El Shami miracle recognized by the Church?

Not in the formal canonical sense. The miracles officially examined and approved by the Vatican in the cause of Saint Charbel are earlier cases, used for his beatification in 1965 and his canonization in 1977. Nohad El Shami's healing happened in 1993, well after that process closed. It is a widely attested and much publicised testimony that the monastery at Annaya has welcomed and shared, and the devotion around it is fully permitted, but it is not a Vatican-approved canonization miracle.

Why does the 22nd of the month matter?

In her account, Saint Charbel asked Nohad 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 decades, and other pilgrims began coming with her. Today the 22nd of each month draws crowds to Annaya for Mass and prayer, and Maronite parishes around the world hold their own 22nd of the month devotions to Saint Charbel.

Is Nohad El Shami still alive?

No. Nohad El Shami died on 14 May 2025, more than thirty-two years after the healing she described. Lebanese media reported her death widely, and she was remembered as the woman whose story sent a generation of pilgrims back to Annaya. She had continued to speak to visitors and pilgrims about what happened to her almost until the end of her life.