St Nimatullah al-Hardini

Youssef Kassab Al-Hardini was born in 1808 in the mountain village of Hardin, in North Lebanon, into a family steeped in the Maronite monastic tradition - four of his brothers became priests or monks. In 1828 he entered the Lebanese Maronite Order, the same order that would one day count Charbel Makhlouf and Sister Rafqa among its children.

He began religious life at the monastery of St Anthony in Qozhaya, in the Qadisha Valley, receiving the name Nimatullah - Arabic for "grace of God." After his profession on November 14, 1830, he was sent to the monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Kfifan to study philosophy and theology, and was ordained a priest on December 25, 1833.

At Kfifan, Fr Nimatullah became director of the scholasticate and a professor of theology - and among his students was a young monk named Charbel Makhlouf. The Vatican's own account of the 2004 canonization notes it plainly: the saint of Annaya sat in Fr Nimatullah's classroom. A man of culture, he also asked his superiors to send monks to study at the new Jesuit college in Ghazir, and he founded free schools at Kfifan and Bhersaf for the youth of the mountain.

His teaching was not only academic. His motto was "The greatest is he that can save his soul," and he held that "a monk's first concern, night and day, should be not to hurt or trouble his brother monks." When his brother Fr Elisha urged him to withdraw to a hermitage during the civil wars of 1840 and 1845, he refused: "Those who struggle for virtue in community life will have greater merit." The student who heard these things would later live them to the furthest extreme at Annaya.

Canonizing him, Pope John Paul II called Fr Nimatullah "a man of prayer, enamored of the Eucharist, which he adored for long periods." He was often found in chapel on his knees, arms raised in the form of a cross, eyes fixed on the tabernacle - frequently at the sacrifice of sleep. He carried a deep devotion to the Virgin Mary, his "source of strength," and after the Angelus would often repeat: "Blessed be the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin."

He served the order as Assistant General from 1845 and for further terms, but refused the office of Abbot General out of humility - "Better death than to be appointed Superior General," he is reported to have said - and declined the personal servant customarily attached to the role.

An honest distinction, the same one this site keeps for Saint Charbel: the Vatican biography records no list of prodigies performed by Fr Nimatullah in his lifetime. What it records is a reputation - even while alive, people called him the "Saint of Kfifan," and he was loved by Christians, Muslims, and Druze alike. When Patriarch Boulos Massad heard of his death, he said: "Congratulations to this monk who knew how to benefit from his monastic life."

The miracles formally examined by the Church came through his intercession after his death - reported healings investigated during the processes that led to his beatification and canonization. We report that record; we do not add to it.

In December 1858, teaching at Kfifan through a bitter mountain winter, he fell gravely ill. He died on December 14, 1858, aged fifty, holding an icon of the Virgin Mary and saying: "O Mary, to you I entrust my soul."

Pope John Paul II beatified him on May 10, 1998, and canonized him on May 16, 2004 in St Peter's Square, presenting him to the whole Church as a witness "that the love of God is the only source of joy and happiness for man."

St Nimatullah's tomb is at the monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Kfifan, in the Batroun district of North Lebanon - the same monastery where he studied, taught, and died. Pilgrims combine Kfifan with the nearby Annaya-Dimane circuit; our pilgrim's guide to Annaya covers the practicalities of the region, and the places of Saint Charbel's Lebanon page maps how the monastic sites connect.

Pray to him as the Church presents him: a teacher of the interior life. A simple way is to take up his own sentences - "The greatest is he that can save his soul" - and let them examine you. You might pray:

"St Nimatullah, man of prayer enamored of the Eucharist, you formed a saint by your teaching and your example. Teach my heart to seek what truly saves it, and ask Our Lord to grant the grace I now entrust to your intercession. Amen."

As with every prayer on this site: prayer asks, and God remains free - no formula guarantees an outcome.

Was St Nimatullah really Saint Charbel's teacher?

Yes. Fr Nimatullah directed the scholasticate and taught theology at the monastery of Kfifan, where the young Charbel Makhlouf was among his students - a fact noted in Vatican coverage of his 2004 canonization.

What does the name Nimatullah mean?

It is Arabic for 'grace of God' (Ni'mat Allah). He received it as his monastic name at his novitiate; he was born Youssef Kassab Al-Hardini.

Where is St Nimatullah buried?

At the monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Kfifan, in the Batroun district of North Lebanon, where he studied, taught, and died.

When was St Nimatullah canonized?

Pope John Paul II beatified him on May 10, 1998 and canonized him on May 16, 2004, in St Peter's Square.

When is his feast day?

The Maronite Church keeps his memory on December 14, the day of his death in 1858.

How is he related to St Rafqa?

They belonged to the same order: the Lebanese Maronite Order. Sister Rafqa entered it in 1871, thirteen years after his death - the same monastic family that formed Saint Charbel.

• Holy See: Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini (1808-1858), biography - life, sayings, death, and beatification
• Pope John Paul II: homily at the canonization, May 16, 2004 - 'a man of prayer, enamored of the Eucharist'
• Zenit, May 16, 2004 - canonization coverage: schools founded, Charbel Makhlouf among his students, loved across faiths
• MyBreviary: St Nehmet Allah Hardini, December 14 - the Maronite liturgical commemoration