The Blind Saint of Lebanon

St Rafqa

St Rafqa (1832-1914) lost her sight, then the use of her body - and called it a gift. A nun of the same Lebanese Maronite Order that formed Saint Charbel, she became the first woman of Lebanon to be canonized. Her shrine at Jrabta draws pilgrims to this day.

St Nimatullah Maronite History Prayer for Healing

Early Life in Himlaya

She was born on June 29, 1832 in Himlaya, a village of the Northern Metn, the only child of Mourad Saber el-Choboq el-Rayess and Rafqa Gemayel, and baptized Boutroussieh on July 7. Her mother died when she was seven. Sent into domestic service for four years during her father's financial troubles, she returned home to find a stepmother and a marriage being arranged for her - and felt, instead, a call to religious life.

At the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Bikfaya, before the icon, she felt that call confirmed. She received the habit of her congregation on the feast of St Joseph, March 19, 1861, and worked at the Jesuit seminary in Ghazir - where among the seminarians was Elias Houwayek, later Patriarch - before being sent to teach catechism at Deir el-Kamar in the violent days of 1860, where she once saved a child by hiding him under her robe.

Into the Lebanese Maronite Order

In 1871, after praying for guidance, she entered the Lebanese Maronite Order - the order of St Nimatullah and of the monk then living as a hermit above Annaya, Charbel Makhlouf. She received the habit at the monastery of St Simon el-Qarn in Aito on July 12, 1871, pronounced her vows on August 25, 1872, and took the name Sister Rafqa, after her mother. She would spend twenty-six years there, a model of prayer, silence, and austerity.

Years of Blindness and Suffering

On the first Sunday of October 1885, she prayed to share in the suffering of Christ's Passion. The Vatican's biography records what followed: unbearable pains began in her head and moved to her eyes. An American doctor passing through Byblos operated on one eye; she refused anesthesia, and the eye was lost. The disease then struck the other eye, and for twelve years she lived in intense pain - patient, uncomplaining, giving thanks, in her own understanding, for a share in her Lord's suffering.

In 1897 she was one of six nuns sent to found the monastery of St Joseph al-Dahr at Jrabta, near Batroun. By 1899 she was fully blind; her clavicle, hip, and leg gave way, until her vertebrae showed through her skin. Her face, witnesses said, remained shining, and her hands intact - she used them to knit socks, and thanked God for them.

Connection to Annaya and Saint Charbel's World

Rafqa and Charbel never meet in the Vatican's pages, and this page will not invent a meeting. What is documented is a shared world: the same order, the same valleys of the Qadisha region, the same years. While the hermit of Annaya lived his hidden life a few valleys away, Sister Rafqa lived hers at Aito and Jrabta - two contemporaries of one monastic family, canonized within a generation of each other (1977 and 2001).

Death and Canonization

She died on March 23, 1914, at Jrabta, and was buried in the monastery cemetery. On July 10, 1927 her body was transferred to a shrine in the monastery chapel. Pope John Paul II declared her Venerable in 1982, beatified her on November 17, 1985, and canonized her on June 10, 2001 - the first woman of Lebanon raised to the altars by the Catholic Church.

Her Shrine at Jrabta

Her tomb and shrine are at the monastery of St Joseph al-Dahr in Jrabta, in the Batroun district - the monastery she helped found. Pilgrims often visit Jrabta together with Annaya and Kfifan, a triangle of Maronite holiness in one small region; see the pilgrim's guide to Annaya and the places of Saint Charbel's Lebanon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is St Rafqa called the blind saint?

She asked in prayer to share in Christ's suffering in 1885; severe illness then took her sight over the following years, and she lived blind and largely paralyzed - while remaining, by every account, patient and thankful.

Did St Rafqa know Saint Charbel?

No meeting is recorded in the Vatican biography. They were contemporaries in the same order - the Lebanese Maronite Order - living a few valleys apart, and were canonized within a generation of each other.

Was St Rafqa really Lebanon's first female saint?

She was the first woman of Lebanon to be canonized by the Catholic Church, raised to the altars by Pope John Paul II on June 10, 2001.

Where is St Rafqa's shrine?

At the monastery of St Joseph al-Dahr in Jrabta, near Batroun in North Lebanon - the monastery she helped found in 1897.

When is her feast day?

She is commemorated on March 23, the day of her death in 1914.

What order did she belong to?

The Lebanese Maronite Order, which she entered in 1871 at the monastery of St Simon el-Qarn in Aito - the same order as Saint Charbel and St Nimatullah.