Third Sunday of July · July 24

Saint Charbel Feast Day

Saint Charbel has two feast days, and both are correct: the third Sunday of July in the Maronite calendar, and July 24 in the universal calendar of the Catholic Church. Here is what each date means, where they came from, and how the feast is kept at Annaya and at home.

Pray the Novena Before the Feast Miracles & Reports Full Prayer Library

Two Dates, One Feast

In the universal Roman calendar, Saint Charbel's feast is a fixed date: July 24 every year, assigned when the feast was added to the universal calendar after his canonization in 1977. It is the date printed in Catholic ordos and liturgical calendars around the world.

In the Maronite liturgical calendar, the feast is kept on the third Sunday of July, a movable date. The Maronite Church preserves this older local custom, and the Sunday feast remains the principal celebration in Lebanon and in most diaspora parishes. Many Maronite parishes observe both days.

Upcoming Maronite feasts (third Sunday of July):

2026: Sunday, July 19
2027: Sunday, July 18
2028: Sunday, July 16
2029: Sunday, July 15
2030: Sunday, July 21

The universal feast, July 24, does not move.

Why July, and Not the Day He Died?

Saints are usually commemorated on the day of their death, their birth into eternal life. Saint Charbel died on December 24, 1898 - Christmas Eve - after a stroke suffered during Mass days earlier. Christmas Eve was already one of the most solemn days of the Church year, so another date was needed.

When Rome accepted his feast into the universal calendar after the 1977 canonization, it chose July 24: one day after the anniversary of his priestly ordination on July 23, 1859, and in the Lebanese summer, when the outdoor Divine Liturgy at Annaya and the mountain pilgrimage roads are at their most accessible. The Maronite Church had long kept his memorial on the third Sunday of July, and retains it alongside the universal date.

The Feast at Annaya

The center of the feast is the Monastery of Saint Maron at Annaya (plan the trip with our pilgrim's guide to visiting Annaya), where Saint Charbel lived the last 23 years of his life and where his tomb remains. In the week before the feast, pilgrims arrive from every region of Lebanon and from parishes throughout the diaspora.

An all-night vigil is kept in the days before the feast, with candles, quiet adoration, and the rosary, closing at dawn with the Divine Liturgy.
The principal Divine Liturgy is celebrated outdoors in the great square before the basilica to hold the crowds, sung in Syriac and Arabic, presided over by the Maronite Patriarch or a senior bishop.
Blessing with the holy oil: pilgrims file past the tomb, are anointed, and receive small pieces of cotton soaked in the oil to take home.
The hermitage opens: Saint Charbel's preserved cell above the monastery - his habit, his bed of planks, and the altar of his last Mass - welcomes pilgrims who walk the path up the hillside.

Keeping the Feast at Home

The feast can be kept anywhere. A few traditional practices:

Pray the novena. The traditional nine-day Saint Charbel Novena is prayed July 15-23, closing on the eve of the feast with a specific intention entrusted to his intercession.
Light a candle before an image of Saint Charbel on the eve of the feast and keep it burning through the day.
Attend Mass. Join the feast-day Divine Liturgy at a Maronite parish if one is near; if not, any Catholic Mass - the feast belongs to the universal calendar.
Anoint with the holy oil from Annaya, if your family has a vial: a small cross on the forehead with a short prayer for his intercession.
Keep an hour of silence. Saint Charbel's own gift was silence; the silence of Annaya can be kept anywhere.
Read his life aloud with the family - children remember the stories, and adults remember why they started praying. Our Story for Children was made for exactly this.

The Feast Around the World

Maronite communities keep the feast far beyond Lebanon. In Brazil, parishes in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro hold bilingual Portuguese-Arabic Liturgies followed by festivals of Lebanese food, music, and dabke. In the United States, the Eparchies of Saint Maron of Brooklyn and Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles host cathedral celebrations drawing pilgrims from surrounding parishes. In France, the community gathers at Notre-Dame du Liban in Paris. In Australia, tens of thousands fill the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harris Park, Sydney - often the largest Maronite feast-day gathering outside Lebanon. In Canada, the Eparchy of Saint-Maron of Montréal holds a central liturgy joined by parishes across Quebec and Ontario.

The Road to the Feast

December 24, 1898: Saint Charbel dies at the hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul above Annaya, after eight days of agony from a stroke.
April 15, 1899: After months of reports of a mysterious light over his grave, his body is exhumed and found intact, exuding a reddish oil.
1925-1954: Successive ecclesiastical and medical examinations confirm the prolonged incorruption of his body, and reported miracles accumulate.
December 5, 1965: Pope Paul VI beatifies Charbel at the close of the Second Vatican Council.
October 9, 1977: Pope Paul VI canonizes him at a public Mass in Saint Peter's Square.
After 1977: his feast enters the universal Roman calendar on July 24; the Maronite Church keeps its traditional third-Sunday-of-July celebration alongside it.

The 22nd of Each Month

Beyond the annual feast, a monthly day of pilgrimage has grown up at Annaya: the 22nd of every month. The custom traces to the reported healing of Nohad El Shami in January 1993, who awoke on January 22 healed of paralysis after a dream in which Saint Charbel had operated on her during the night. In thanksgiving, she and others began gathering at the hermitage on the 22nd, and the practice has spread to Maronite parishes worldwide - a monthly small feast of Saint Charbel.