For more than a century the sick have been carried to Saint Charbel's tomb - most often by the people who love them. There is no single fixed text you must use: name the person, ask his intercession, and trust God. This page gives you the prayers and the rhythm, and it is honest about what prayer does and does not promise.
Saint Charbel's tomb in the monastery church at Annaya - the place the sick are carried to, and where these prayers are said every day. Photograph: LLEW, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Pray slowly, and put the person's name where the brackets are. The prayers on this page are original compositions of this website, written in the tradition of the Church's prayers of intercession.
For Someone You Love
Saint Charbel, friend of the suffering, I bring you the name of someone I love. [Name] is ill, and I cannot make them well. You know what it is to lay a whole life before God without holding anything back - so lay this one before Him now. Ask the Lord to heal their body, to ease their pain, to guide the hands that treat them, and to steady their heart in the hours when they are afraid. Stay near them in my place tonight, because I cannot be with them every hour, and God can. Amen.
When the Illness Is Cancer
Saint Charbel, the word cancer changes the air in a room. We bring you [name] and the fear that came with the diagnosis. Ask the Lord to make the treatment work - every scan, every round, every surgery - and to carry them through the days their body is tired of fighting. Give their family steady hearts and honest hope. And if the road is long, walk it with them the way you walked your own: without bitterness, face toward God. Amen.
When You Are the One Who Is Sick
Saint Charbel, you bore weakness and pain in your own body and never turned them into bitterness. I am tired, and I am asking for your help. Carry my name to Jesus: my illness, my fear, my hope. Ask Him for healing if it is His will, and for courage that does not depend on the outcome. Teach me to suffer without surrendering my peace, and to trust that no prayer offered in love is wasted. Amen.
When to Pray
At diagnosis
The first days are the hardest to pray in. Say the name, say the illness, and ask - short and honest beats long and perfect.
Before treatment and surgery
Pray the night before and the morning of - for the doctors' skill, the treatment's effect, and the patient's peace.
While waiting for results
The waiting room and the scan-week are their own illness. A short daily prayer at a fixed hour steadies the whole family.
In remission, and after
Thanksgiving is a prayer too. Many families mark healing - or simply survival - at the 22nd of the month.
How to Pray It
The tradition asks for three things: the name, the trust, and the honesty.
1. Pray by name
Name the person aloud and describe their illness plainly. Pray for the whole person, not only the diagnosis: healing, relief from pain, skill for their doctors, courage for the days of treatment.
2. Keep a rhythm
Many families pray the nine-day novena on a sick person's behalf, or mark the 22nd of the month, the day special to Saint Charbel's devotees. A small prayer kept daily carries further than a long one abandoned.
3. Use the holy oil as a devotion
Small bottles of blessed oil from Annaya are often given freely near the shrine, and many families anoint the person they pray for. It is a devotional aid, not a medicine - an occasion for faith, never a replacement for a doctor.
4. Ask, don't bargain
Prayer is not a transaction, and no prayer mechanically guarantees healing. Ask with trust and leave the outcome to God - that is the shape of every traditional prayer to Saint Charbel on this site.
What the Tradition Promises - and What It Does Not
People come to Saint Charbel with the hardest cases, and the Church has formally recognized miracles
through his intercession - that recognition is part of why he was canonized. But the tradition has never
claimed that every prayer ends in cure. Saint Charbel himself was struck by illness during Mass in
December 1898 and died eight days later: the saint of healing knew sickness from the inside.
What the tradition does promise is simpler and sturdier: your prayer is heard, your love is not wasted,
and you do not carry the sick person alone. When healing comes, give thanks. When it does not come in the
form you asked for, the same intercession that carried your intention to God can carry you. If you would
like to understand what the Church formally teaches about his intercession, see
what Saint Charbel is patron of and the
recorded miracles - and if you can make the journey, his
tomb at Annaya welcomes everyone.
Saint Charbel's own daily companion was the Rosary; pray today's mystery with him.
Documented Healings
Two cases this site has covered, both sourced - read them as hope, not as promises:
Nohad El Shami (1993). Paralyzed after a stroke, she awoke healed on January 22 after dreaming that Saint Charbel operated on her in the night - the healing behind the monthly 22nd pilgrimage. (Source: CNEWA.)
Dafne Gutierrez (Phoenix, 2016). She recovered her sight after prayers before Saint Charbel's relic; the physician who headed the examining medical committee says there was no medical explanation. (Source: Zeale News, 2026.)
The monastery's register holds more than 29,000 recorded favors - the miracles page explains how the Church separates reports from formally recognized miracles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Saint Charbel prayer for healing?
The most loved traditional one is the Annaya novena's opening prayer ("Oh, Miraculous Saint Charbel... come to my rescue") - see the prayer for a miracle page. The prayers above are this site's original compositions, labeled as such.
Can I pray for someone who is not religious?
Yes. Intercession does not check the patient's beliefs - the register at Annaya includes Christians, Muslims, Druze, and people of no faith at all.
Does the holy oil from Annaya heal?
The oil is a devotional aid, not a medicine. The tradition anoints with faith and keeps the doctors - never one without the other.
Is there a special day to pray for healing?
The 22nd of every month, since Nohad El Shami's 1993 healing - but the tradition's deeper answer is: today, and again tomorrow. Rhythm matters more than dates.
Prayers for Other Needs
Whatever you are carrying, there is a prayer page for it - or search them all in the prayer library.
