Raymond Nader: The Night at the Hermitage
On the night of November 10, 1994, praying outside Saint Charbel's hermitage at Annaya, Lebanese engineer Raymond Nader reported a four-hour mystical experience - and came home with the imprint of five fingers on his forearm. His account led to the Family of Saint Sharbel, a worldwide prayer movement.
The Person Before
Raymond Nader was a Lebanese telecommunications engineer, a Maronite Catholic with years of disciplined prayer behind him. Since 1985 he had made regular retreats, often praying through the night in the cold outside Saint Charbel's hermitage at Annaya. He was not seeking signs; by his own account, he was simply keeping a custom.
What Happened
On the night of November 10, 1994, kneeling in the open air before the hermitage, he later wrote, everything stopped - the candles, the trees, the sound, the feeling of his own body. He described seeing a light "unlike any light I had ever seen," a sea of crystal light in which he felt utterly known and utterly safe, and a dialogue without words in which the light told him: "This is me." The experience, he said, lasted four hours.
Walking back to his car past the statue of Saint Charbel, he felt heat on his left forearm. Rolling up his sleeve, he found the imprint of five fingers on his skin, "as if imprinted through fire" - warm, but not painful. His wife made the sign of the cross when she saw it. The mark faded and healed completely within five days, leaving no scar.
Watch: Raymond Nader Tells the Story
Raymond Nader recounting the night at the hermitage in his own words. More video reports on our videos page.
The Evidence
Nader placed himself under the Church's authority and complied with its request to document the event, submitting to physical and psychological evaluation. Dr. Nabil Hokayem, a Beirut plastic surgeon, examined the mark three times between 1994 and 1996. In his professional opinion it presented as a third-degree burn - destroying both layers of skin - yet without pain, and it healed without a scar, which he called unusual. The rest is Nader's own testimony: a detailed written account, given consistently for thirty years.
How the Church Treated It
With the care it always gives private revelation. The Church has not declared Nader's experience a miracle, and Catholic teaching is clear that private revelations - even genuine ones - add nothing to the deposit of faith and bind no one. What the Church did approve was the fruit: in 1995 Nader founded the Family of Saint Sharbel, a lay prayer movement that gathers for Bible study, the Divine Liturgy, and Rosary processions to the hermitage. After nine years of close observation by the Church, the movement received formal recognition as an ecclesial community in 2010 - approved by the Maronite bishops and Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir - and has since spread worldwide. The distinction matters: the experience is his testimony; the prayer family is a recognized work of the Church.
What It Means for Pilgrims Today
Nader's account points pilgrims not to himself but to the place and the practice: night prayer at the hermitage, Scripture, the Rosary, the Eucharist. The Family of Saint Sharbel still keeps that rhythm at Annaya and in chapters abroad. And the lesson of the hand print, as he tells it, was assurance - that what he met in prayer was real. This site reports his testimony for what it is, and notes with equal honesty what the Church has and has not said about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Raymond Nader?
A Lebanese telecommunications engineer who reported a four-hour mystical experience while praying outside Saint Charbel's hermitage on November 10, 1994, and found the imprint of five fingers on his forearm afterward. He founded the Family of Saint Sharbel prayer movement in 1995.
What did the doctor say about Raymond Nader's arm?
Dr. Nabil Hokayem, a Beirut plastic surgeon who examined the mark three times (1994-1996), said it presented as a third-degree burn - yet with no pain and no scarring, healing fully in five days, which he called unusual.
Is Raymond Nader's experience Church-approved?
The experience itself has not been declared a miracle; private revelations bind no one in Catholic teaching. What the Church did approve is the Family of Saint Sharbel, the lay prayer movement he founded in 1995 and which received formal recognition as an ecclesial community in 2010, with Maronite eparchial and patriarchal approval.
What is the Family of Saint Sharbel?
A lay Catholic prayer movement founded by Raymond Nader in 1995 at Annaya: Friday gatherings for Bible study, the Divine Liturgy, and Rosary processions to Saint Charbel's hermitage, formally recognized by the Church in 2010 and now with chapters worldwide.
Did Raymond Nader see Saint Charbel?
His account describes an experience of divine light and a dialogue without words - not a visual apparition of the saint. He believes Saint Charbel imprinted the hand mark as assurance that the experience was real. We report this as his testimony.