The Relic of Blessed Abouna YaaQoub find it way to me via Florida .
When I was in Medjugorje in May this year, I talk to my pilgrimage's friend about St. Charbel Makhlouf,
And she told me she had the relic of the St. ( so she think ) She said that it was in the back of her church in Florida on the give away table. She sent the relic to me this month.
The picture that accompany the relic was not of St. Charbel, I e-mail the picture to Our forum friend asking if any one know who this was and I got my answer and the link to read about Blessed Abouna.
I believe the Saint to be what to be known here.
Easter-won
Monday, June 23, 2008
For the first time the celebration was held outside the Vatican.
Founder of the Sisters of the Cross Society Father Yacoub Alkbouche was declared beatified in a mass ceremony for the first time outside the Vatican on Sunday, June 22 at the Martyrs Square, headed by President of the Academy of lawsuits Saints, Cardinal Jose Paulo Martins represented Pope Penidictos XVI, and with the Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir. And chanting the church bells at noon in all of Lebanon.
Abouna Yaacoub
Birth and Origins
Lebanon - Khalil (Venerable “Abouna Yaacoub”) was born on February, 1, 1875 in the village of Ghazir from a father named Boutros Saleh El-Haddad and a mother called Shams Yoakim El-Haddad, both very pious and attached to Christian virtues. “Abuna Yaacoub” says:
My mother taught me:
"Do everything and bear everything for the love of God";
"My son, in tough times, pray with your mother’s rosary";
"My faith is that of Peter".
My father taught me to have:
Realism, integrity of opinion, along with a sense of humor and some determination.
His Childhood
Khalil was baptized at the Church of Our Lady of Habshieh on February, 21, 1875. He grew up in his village Ghazir and went to the parish school Saint Francis. Then he moved to the Saint Louis School known as the “Mzar” School. Afterwards, he joined the “La Sagesse” School in Beirut from which he graduated in 1891. He was a very brilliant pupil who was known for his piety and love for the Virgin Mary.
He traveled to Alexandria in 1892 where he worked as a teacher in order to assist his parents in raising his brothers and sisters. He was an excellent instructor teaching his students virtues and knowledge, and a pious young man who worshiped and meditated on the life of Jesus Christ. There, he heard a voice telling him to leave the world, hold the cross and follow the Christ. So he said: "I shall be a priest".
When he came back to Ghazir, he prayed and strived to convince his father of his Capuchin monastic call when his wish was answered and he entered the Saint Anthony Convent of the Capuchin Fathers in Khashbau on August, 25, 1893. There, he was quoted as saying: "I came in alive and I will only come out dead".
He remained in the Capuchin Seminary eight months during which he worked in the garden of the monastery, taking Jesus of Nazareth as an example, showing a tendency to monastic life with the related virtues of poverty, chastity and obedience, showing proof of a pure call for monasticism, filled with the love of service and prayer.
The Novitiate
He entered the stage of monastic novitiate while he was still at the Khashbau Monastery to learn the track of monastic life and its requirements of striving towards perfection and virtues. On March, 26, 1894, he was given the robe of novitiate and the name of Brother Jacob.
Brother Jacob the Capuchin lived the novitiate with great conviction and idealism. He became a good example in all his attitudes, surrendering to the Providence and responding to the will of his superiors with much obedience, joy, patience and morality, always taking as an example "Anyone who put his hand to the plough and then keeps looking back is of no use to the Kingdom of God" (Lk 9/62). Each time he felt difficulty or pain, he took refuge in the Cross, taking the sanctity of his father Saint Francis of Assisi as an example, using the virtues of the latter to add to his joy in the monastic life, the life of the Cross and the sanctity.
The monks voted unanimously for the qualification of Brother Jacob for receiving the vows. On April, 14, 1895, he took the simple vow; three years later, he took the permanent vows on April, 24, 1898.
His Priesthood
Brother Jacob was transferred to the Krey Monastery to continue his priestly studies that he had started at the Saint Anthony Convent in Khashbau. He was looking forward to reaching the day when he would be celebrating the mass for the first time: "Lord, Please allow me to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice only once and then afterwards, if You decide to take me, I will accept with consolation and happiness".
He was ordained apostolic deacon (1899), and evangelical deacon (1900) and on November, 1, 1901, he was ordained priest by the Apostolic Nuncio in Lebanon and Syria, Monsignor Duval, the French Dominican friar. He had his first mass at the Saint Louis Church in Beirut (Bab Idriss).
He came to his village Ghazir to celebrate his second mass at the Saint Francis altar, as a rewarding gesture for his parents, brothers and sisters and the people of his village.
Apostle of the People
“Abouna Yaacoub” lived at the Beirut Monastery (Bab Idriss) where he worked with seriousness, dynamism and enthusiastic zeal. He got the appreciation of his superior for his efforts in serving God, so the latter oriented him towards missionary work. Then “Abouna Yaacoub” went on building primary schools for boys and girls in the villages of Lebanon for which he chose good teachers worthy of such a noble mission.
“Abouna Yaacoub” used to look after his schools himself; he used to visit them on foot to check their affairs indifferent to pain and tiredness. Moved by his fatherly apostolic love, he took care of the preparation for the first communion and taught the children personally how to be prepared to receive the Eucharist. His contemporaries testify that he used to hold spiritual festivals and sacred processions of the Host or the Virgin Mary’s icon. He used to take his students and the Tertiaries on pilgrimage visits to the Virgin Mary’s sanctuaries especially that of Our Lady of Lebanon.
Besides the school projects, “Abouna Yaacoub” established the Third Order for men and women just like his father Saint Francis. He spread its principles and rules in cities and villages in 1906. He trained its members with spiritual retreats, preaching and guidance; visiting them on foot from one village to another, in order to meet the members and incite them to be the good example through behavior, attitude and prayer. This is what ensured the spread, permanence and continuity of the Third Order. He wanted them to be new apostles of the Church of Christ and leaven in the Lebanese communities.
Today this Third Order is still spreading in our villages and cities, well protected by the sanctity and prayers of its Founder, managed by an elite group of lay people known for their piety, prayers and faithfulness and taken care of by the Capuchin friars.
“Abouna Yaacoub’s” missionary concern was not restricted to his country but it was also about Palestine, Syria and Baghdad. In addition, he was always looking forward to visiting holy places in France and Italy, so his superiors helped him go to France, then to Rome where he had the chance to meet His Holiness, Pope Pius X in 1910.
In 1914, World War I started and his friends, the French priests, had to leave Lebanon so he was entrusted by his superior Father Jerome with the spiritual and material affairs of the mission, including those of the convents of the European nuns. During that fierce war, “Abouna Yaacoub” was subjected to many dangers to his life but God was always there protecting him from any danger and delivering him from every evil.
Apostle of Mercy in the Kingdom of the Cross
“Abouna Yaacoub” had the dream of raising a giant Cross on one of the hills of Lebanon, because he had seen the disasters and tragedies that had affected Lebanon during the war when thousands died of hunger, were hung or exiled without a Cross being raised on their tombs. He wanted that place to become an assembly place for the Tertiaries to pray for the souls of those who died during the war and for the emigrants.
As he was looking for a place to raise the Cross, he was attracted by a hill in Jall-Eddib that used to be called “hill of the djinns”. So he bought that hill, not without difficulties, on August, 25, 1919 and he went on realizing the project relying on the Providence and “widow’s cent”. “Abouna Yaacoub” waited for the visit of the Superior General of the Capuchin Order, Father Joseph Persisto, to erect the corner stone and bless the project; it was on January, 19, 1921. And the edifice grew, the Church was finished first, so it was given the name of Our Lady of the Sea and was inaugurated on May, 3, 1923 in presence of a big number of Tertiaries. In it they put a statue of the Virgin Mary holding little Jesus and a passengers’ boat at her feet. Finally, on the west side of the Church a big Cross was raised and the dream was realized, the dream of “Abouna Yaacoub”.
He believed that the priest is God’s ambassador or minister on Earth. Therefore, and after the inauguration, he received on October, 4, 1926, the first priest he found abandoned and left alone in one of those hospitals to give him the opportunity to finish his life with dignity in prayer and sanctity. That priest was followed afterwards by other priests, patients and disabled persons from different religions and confessions. The place became too small so he opened other centers for them. At that time, “Abouna Yaacoub” really felt, deep in his heart, the dire need to establish a monastic order that would take care of those sick priests. So he initiated his big project relying on the Providence with a small group of tertiary girls whom he entrusted to the Franciscan Nuns of “Lons le Saunier” to teach. They would later on become the Congregation of the Lebanese Franciscan Sisters of the Cross.
“Abouna Yaacoub” and the Personalities of Lebanon
Due to his so many building activities and projects, he had to be acquainted with the consecutive governments and the personalities of Lebanon. The Convent of the Cross was visited by many personalities and officials, including the following:
President Emile Eddeh who granted him the palm medal of Lebanese merit (on January, 5, 1938); President Beshara El- Khoury who awarded him the golden medal of Lebanese merit (on June, 2, 1949) then the Lebanese cedars medal - officer degree (on November, 26, 1951); President Camille Chamoun who offered him, upon his death, the Lebanese golden cedars medal (in June 1954). While he always used to say: "My medal is the Cross".
Just as he was appreciated and honored by the presidents of the republic, as well as helped and supported by senior Lebanese personalities, including for instance Prime Minister Sami Es Solh, Minister Hikmat Joumblat, the Emir Majeed Arslane, Prime Minister Omar Daouk, he was appreciated worldwide; newspapers in Italy and Spain wrote about him praising the founding Father and his generous humanitarian projects.
“Abouna Yaacoub” and the Golden Jubilee of Priesthood
In 1951, “Abouna Yaacoub” celebrated fifty years of priestly life (1901). That year, the Convent of the Cross was transformed from an asylum to a hospital for mental and psychological diseases, after official recognition by the Lebanese government. The celebration was thus double and “Abouna Yaacoub” was given the Lebanese cedars medal.
http://www.ourladyoflebanon.org/NewsDetails.asp?newsId=36
Last edited by Easter-won on Wed Oct 27, 2010 1:14 am; edited 4 times in total
