Do you believe in Miracles in this day and age? I do it for sure.
A little history of San Sharbel. He was a Maronite monk from Lebanon. He was born on May 8, 1859 and died on December 24, 1898. After Sharbel’s death, a light began to shine from his grave attracting the local villagers, miracles of healing began to occur. Four months after his death, his body was exhumed and found incorrupt and floating in the water. His body remained incorrupt, sweating blood and liquid until the day of his beatification, December 5, 1965. To this day, miracles are taking place through the intercession of Saint Sharbel. In fact, if you were to google “Miracles of Saint Sharbel”, you would find over 300 miracles attributed to him.
Sister Maria Abdel Kamari, just one of the miracles of Saint Charbel.
More recently, in 1992, some of Charbel’s “miracles” found their way into the Western press. Swedish newspapers and the British newspaper The Guardian carried the story of 15-year-old Samira Hannoch, who reported having a vision of Charbel at her home near Stockholm. Since then, the oil has been pouring out of a portrait of Charbel and has been associated with a number of healings. His final resting place and sanctuary is in Lebanon.
Now let’s fast forward to the St. Sharbel Maronite Catholic Mission, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Several weeks ago, after Mass celebrated by two Spanish priests, several people noticed that the statue had begun to bleed “oil” from its head, chest, and palms.
Personally, I had the opportunity to visit the mission a few weeks ago and witnessed that, in fact, the statute was indeed “bleeding oil”. A truly remarkable but inexplicable phenomenon. This is not a hoax, but reality, and has been witnessed by hundreds of people who have said their prayers in front of the statue.
The Knights of Columbus have guarded the statue 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since more and more people visited the statue and surely someone had to protect it from theft or vandalism. The charter has since been moved to the parish hall and encased in a locked Plexiglas box for safety and protection from the public.
For those who wish to visit the statute, please contact St. Sharbel Maronite Catholic Church at 10325 Rancho Destino Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, and see and form your own opinion of this miracle.