BRAINTREE -- First Class Relics of St. Sharbel, a Maronite hermit, will visit Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Church in Jamaica Plain on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17, 2016. The weekend will consist of pilgrimage, prayer and meditation. Activities on both days will run from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and include adoration, readings on the miracles of St. Sharbel and the screening of a movie focusing on his life.

Born in a Lebanese mountain village, St. Sharbel was drawn to the life of his uncles, monks of the Maronite rite, but his peasant mother wanted her youngest child to work in the fields. At age 23, he left home for the monastery, taking the name Sharbel, after an early martyr. He was ordained a priest in 1859 and spend the next 16 years in the monastery at Annaya, working, fasting and praying. From 1875 he lived as a hermit, praying ceaselessly, regarded as a saint by those who knew him. He was cononized by Pope Paul VI in 1977 and is the first Maronite saint included in the Latin-rite calendar.

The miracles of St. Sharbel in Lebanon and the Middle East include impossible cases of healing and cures. His miracles reached far beyond his country of Lebanon. People of all faiths, including Druze and Muslims, have reported miraculous healings by the hundreds through his intercession. In the 1980's over 1,700 documented miracles occurred in Russia that were attributed to St. Sharbel. In the 1990's, his miracles were documented in the U.S., Canada and South America.

The relics will be at Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Church located at 61 Rockwood Street in Jamaica Plain. For more information on the visit of the relics, contact Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Church at 617-522-0225.