Biography of Saint Charbel:

Born at Beqaa-Kafra, the highest inhabited place in Lebanon and a neighboring
village to Hasroun, the young Joseph Makhlouf grew up with the example of two of his uncles who were both hermits, before his eyes.  Aged twenty-three, he left home secretly and entered the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfuq, taking the name of a
Syrian martyr, Charbel, on his admission. Ordained a priest in 1859, he took up his residence at the monastery of St Maroun at Annaya, which is over 3500 feet above the Mediterranean Sea.

Father Charbel lived in this community for fifteen years, and was a model monk in the exact sense of the word: it is recorded that, although he rejoiced to be able to be of the slightest assistance to his neighbour, nevertheless it was always a trial to him to leave his monastery. It was his delight to pass his time in singing the office in choir, in working in the fields and in spiritual reading, and nobody was surprised when eventually he asked, and received permission to go and live the life of a hermit. Whilst Maronite monks are generally engaged in parochial and pastoral work,
provision is nevertheless made for those chosen souls who feel called to the
eremitical life to pursue their vocation, generally in groups of two or three.

So began for the new hermit that holy life which has been led unaltered since the days of the desert fathers: Perpetual fasting, with abstinence from meat, fruit and wine; manual work sanctified by prayer; a mattress stuffed with leaves and covered with goatskin for a bed and a block of wood wrapped in a piece of old habit for a pillow; the interdiction to leave the hermitage without express permission. St Charbel placed himself under obedience to the other hermit, and passed twenty-three years thus, his various austerities seeming only to increase the robustness of his health. The only disturbance to his prayer came in the form of an ever-increasing stream of visitors drawn by his reputation for sanctity to seek from him advice, the promise of prayer or some miracle.

Then one morning, in the middle of December 1898, he was taken ill without warning, just before the consecration while celebrating Mass. His companion helped him to his cell, which he was never to leave. The paralysis gradually gained on him and he was anointed. On the night of Christmas Eve he died, repeating the prayer which he had been unable to finish at the altar: "Father of truth, behold Thy Son, who makes atoning sacrifice unto Thee. Accept the offering; He died for me that I might have life. Behold the offering! Accept it..." The words summed up a life of seventy years.