July 24 — St. Sharbel Makhluf

St. Sharbel is not well known, and not one whose optional memorial I would normally note, but in honor of Pilgrim I'll give this notice, quoted from an account I have.

"Born in 1828 in a small mountain village in north Lebanon, he became a monk of the Maronite Rite and was ordained a priest in 1859. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, Sharbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice, and prayer by the life he lived. He possessed the gift of performing miracles even during his lifetime. [He died on Christmas Eve in 1898.] His tomb at the monastery of St. Maron in Annaya, Lebanon, is a place of pilgrimage. Canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977, Sharbel is known as the "Hermit of Lebanon." This memorial has been newly included in the Universal Calendar of the revised [Roman Missal]."

Additional detail about the saint is available in a wiki article.