Selim (Abouna Bechara) was born in 1853, the second of eight children, to Jabbour Abou Mrad and Elisabat al-Kesh. From his youth, he was known for his pleasant and mature temperament, as well as a piety inherited from his virtuous parents.
His innocence did not last long, given that within six years, the famous revolt of Tanios Shahine, an uprising of Maronite peasants against the Maronite feudal house of Khazen, was launched. The successful revolt began spreading to other Maronite villages where peasants prepared to rise against their feudal lords. These lords, largely of the Druze sect, in return began arming their co-religionists to defend their rule. Decades of simmering tensions between the Druze and the Maronites, fuelled by European and Ottoman politics and alliances, finally exploded in a series of armed conflicts. Cycles of revenge-killings between both communities extended over many months, leading to the infamous Deir el-Kamar massacre of Maronites at the hands of the Druze.
In June of 1860, the Battle of Zahle took place. Druze, Sunni and Shiite militias stormed the mostly Christian town and vanquished the defenders, causing a large part of its inhabitants to flee as refugees. The Druze took the town by disguising themselves with the Crosses and belongings of the Christians militias they had vanquished in other battles. As such, when the defenders saw them coming, they mistook them for allies coming to their aid.
The fall of Zahle was a major blow to the Christians, because it was formerly known as an unconquerable stronghold of the community. Selim, still a young boy at the time, was among the Melkite refugees who fled the town. Initially, the Abou Mrad family left on foot through the mountains towards Baskenta, then to Beirut. However, due to the simmering tensions between Christians and Muslims there, and fearing yet another massacre, they moved on to the Christian stronghold of Keserwan, specifically in Zouk Mekayel. There they stayed with cousins of Jabbour, until the storm had passed thanks to the deployment of French troops to protect the Christian population. Afterwards, little Selim and his family returned to Zahle to find their house destroyed and the family store burnt. They began rebuilding their lives there, and to this day, Zahle remains a stronghold of the Melkite community in Lebanon.
Selim attended the school of Saint Elijah run by the Basilian Salvatorian Order of which he will later become a member. As a student, he was very studious. He learned the basics of the Arabic Language and Reading through his Psalter and Octoechos. He also learned Arabic Penmanship there and was quite skilled, as shown by the letters he wrote, which are preserved in the archives of the Holy Saviour Monastery in Joun, Lebanon.
After his years at St. Elijah, he transferred to the school founded by Father Boutros (Peter) Geraigiry. There he learned Algebra and French, as well as several other subjects, and excelled significantly. Due to his piety and maturity, Father Boutros would often choose Selim to accompany him on his pastoral visits and prayers.
Selim met many Salvatorians and Melkite priests throughout his youth, many of them family members, like Bishop Boulos Abou Mrad or his uncle Fr. Flavianos al-Kesh. Perhaps the most notable among these clerics is the above-mentioned Father Boutros Geraigiry, who would go on to be known as Patriarch Boutros IV Geraigiry, shepherding the Melkite Catholic Church from 1898 to 1902.
After their return to Zahle, as well as the country's relative stability with the arrival of French troops, Selim was given the responsibility of running his father's little grocery store. It provided basic products like olive oil, sugar, flour, and other necessities of daily life to the inhabitants of their neighbourhood. The job suited Selim's fragile build, as opposed to farm work, and his beautiful handwriting and Math skills were necessary for keeping track of the financial aspects of such a job. He was very attuned to the need of the poor, always aware of their situation, as well as the vices of society, like dishonesty, theft, unfaithfulness and similar issues. Often, God's call to him would take him out of his little shop to the nearby church, where he would spend hours in prayer.
One day, he finally disclosed to his parents his desire to follow God's calling to the monastic life. They were very antagonistic to this revelation. Selim was a support and pillar of the family, being both a man and of working age. They also feared he has chosen this path due to the fragility of his build and the sensitivity of his character, deeming the world too difficult for him to handle. Because of that, they withheld their blessing.
After asking them for their permission and blessing yet another time, they maintained their refusal. It was then that Selim decided to run away under the cover of darkness to pursue this unceasing call. However, his uncle and neighbour caught him sneaking away, quickly informing his father who then caught up to him and brought him back home. Being persistent with his desire and request, Selim finally managed to gain his mother's acquiescence, who in turn convinced her husband to give his blessing.
With joy, Selim began his long trip on a donkey from Zahle, in the Bekaa Valley, to the Holy Saviour Monastery in South Lebanon, rooted in the pine forests of the mountains adjacent to the historic coastal city of Sidon (modern day Saida). He was accompanied by a Salvatorian priest from Zahle, Fr. Basilios. In fact, growing up surrounded by the formidable Salvatorian priests, at church or school, helped shape Selim's desire to join their order.
They arrived in time for Esperinos (Vespers), as the church bells and beautiful chants welcomed them. The newly elected Hegumen, Fr. Semaan Nasr, was surrounded by renowned cantors such as Fr Athanasios Srouji and Athanasior Rizk. Another well-known cantor was Fr Hanania Berkhosh, whose voice had impressed Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, at the opening of the Suez Canal.
Perhaps one of the most impressive and lasting encounters to make their mark on Selim was this one: Among the angelic choir of monks, he witnessed none other than Patriarch Clement Bahouth of thrice-blessed memory, present there as a mere monk and hermit. Patriarch Bahouth is famous for having introduced the Gregorian Calendar into the Melkite Church in 1857, an act which resulted in some opposition. This was one of the reasons which led to his resignation in 1858. However, given that the Maronite-Druze war, including the Massacre of the Chouf Mountains and the Massacre of Damascus, were to explode openly in 1859, the Melkite clergy requested that Rome refuse his resignation, which it did. There were far more important matters to address than a calendar, and the Church could not afford to go through such turmoil without leadership.
At the time, Russia saw a religious and political chance to gain more influence in the Levant, at a time when East and West were vying for economic, military and political power there. As such, it encouraged and funded a little-known schism within the Melkite Church, separate from both the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. These schismatics came to be known as the Easterners. However, their schism did not last long, and they never numbered more than 5000.
Finally, in 1864, Patriarch Bahooth offered his resignation yet again, this time being accepted by Rome. He retired to the Holy Saviour monastery to live a life of prayer, solitude and asceticism, living mostly in the older monastery near the shrine of Saydet al-We'ra (Our Lady of the Rugged Terrain/Cliffs). He spent his days in the spiritual exercise, becoming a beacon and icon to the other monks who took him as an emblem of the holy monastic life. In 1870, he was a silent observer at the First Vatican Council, and he finally reposed in the Lord in June of 1882, at his beloved monastery, where he was buried.
Selim found himself surrounded by such figures in the monastic life. After a period of prudent inquiry and assessment of his intentions, disposition and character, Selim was finally accepted into the novitiate. As was the norm, he was sent to the nearby monastery of Saydet al-Niyah, 5km away from the Holy Saviour Monastery. There, in that quieter and more solitary monastery, novices would learn the Divine Office, menial work, and asceticism. There, the novice's soul was trained to mature step by step into the fullness of the monastic life. This was not hard for Selim, for his own life was very similar to the monastic life, imbued with prayer, work and fasting.
It was not difficult for Selim to immerse himself into the requirements of monastic life and the novitiate. Life at the time was very close to monasticism in its nature. Most people lived very humbly, in a simple harmony with nature, living off of the land, immersed in the cycles of both the seasons and the Church. Social mores expected men and women alike to be modest, pure, hard-working and shunning all forms of temptation and impurity. The Christians of the region, even to this day, are deeply attached to their roots and the nature of their homeland. Additionally, the Church and her liturgical calendar still shapes their lives and their mores. As such, Selim, already surpassing fellow young laymen in holiness, internal peace, love of solitude and prayer, found himself at home in the novitiate of the Holy Saviour Monastery.
After some time spent in the novitiate, his superiors found him ready to be accepted into the community as a monk. The long-awaited moment arrived, and Selim made his vows on the 24th of September, 1876, accepting the monastic name of Bechara. Bechara is a very common name among Lebanese Christian men, but it also means "Annunciation". The Feast of the Annunciation would then translate to Eid el Bechara.
After his profession, Bechara was transferred to the renowned Salvatorian seminary where he studied Arabic, Philosophy and Theology. However, just a few years before, all these aspects of his world had been destroyed by the attacks on Christians in what is known as the "Mount Lebanon Civil War", which we have already discussed in this series. The monastery itself was attacked and its inhabitants slaughtered, as well as those of the female monastery adjacent to it. Given that this was only in the 1860s, the community was still struggling to put itself back together, pushing forward with its intent of remaining a beacon of theological formation for Melkites in the region and the rest of Lebanon. To this day, hieromonks of the Basilian Salvatorian Order still serve Melkites around the world, including in Canada and the United States.
After his ordination to the diaconate, Bechara kept pushing off his priestly ordination. Though his superiors kept insisting, Bechara would put it off yet again by repeating the following: "I came to the monastery to save my soul, not to seek ordination." (It is important to note that ordination to the priesthood was and remains a position of honour in the Melkite community. Unfortunately, many candidates seek it out of a sense of self-promotion, to gain social status, or various other wrong reasons. In his humility, Bechara feared taking upon himself such a grave responsibility, having a direct effect on the salvation of souls.) However, Bechara finally responded to the call of God and of his superiors, accepting ordination on the 26th of December 1884.
The day after his ordination, Fr. Bechara celebrated his first Divine Liturgy. Fr. Botros (Peter) Kheriati described it as such: "Fr. Bechara offered the Divine Liturgy in such an astounding level of humility. We saw him as if he was a heavenly angel rather than an earthly human, standing at the edge of the Altar, raising his hands to Heaven and his sight above. He called upon He who is the subject of his love, speaking to the angels, saying the prayers of the Divine Service with a humility after which there can be no humility (incomparable humility). A rare piety unseen before, and it touched us immensely. We saw him during the Liturgy as if elevated from the ground. When we communed from his holy hand, we felt as if we ourselves were not of the Earth, due to the immensity of the humility he would share with us." Witnesses and participants in his Liturgies everywhere would repeat similar testimonies, proving that the wishes of his spiritual director, Fr Youssef (Joseph) Ghannam, came true: "I hope that your last Liturgy will be exactly as your first."
After his ordination, Abouna (Father) Bechara became an instructor at the seminary. One of his students was a man who would later become known as Fr. Konstantine Basha, "the historian of the Melkites". He writes the following about his teacher: "He used to spend long hours of the night praying. After waking up, he would pray until it was time to wake up the students. He would then head out to the church to pray before Liturgy. After its end, he would spend more time in prayer, kneeling in the middle of the church with his face hidden in his palms. During meals, he would serve the students himself, then eat very little and continue praying. All his spare time was spent praying, either with a prayer book or with the prayer rope. When he went on walks with the students, he would hide a large stone in his left sleeve for penance and mortification, while using his right hand to continue praying the salutations to the Theotokos."
This holy man remained in the Salvatorian seminary from 1884 till 1892, after which he headed out for parish work. His holiness was known to the then Bishop of Sidon, Basilios Hajjar. The latter got acquainted with Abouna Bechara through his repetitive visits to the Holy Saviour Monastery. These visits were a direct result of him being appointed as the bishop responsible for the Apostolic Visitation required by the Apostolic See. Why? After the massacres of the 1960s that, as previously mentioned, the Salvatorian community was in disarray, the paths of its members skewed, its future uncertain. That is why the Apostolic See saw fit to proclaim an Apostolic Visitation to correct and restore its situation, as well as rebuild what was destroyed and wrecked. It was through those visits that the bishop got acquainted with the priest.
That is how in 1892, Abouna Bechara started his parish work in the world, away from his beloved monastery. This was a mission that would last some 40 years. His first relocation was as a teacher in the new school founded by Bishop Hajjar in Deir el-Kamar. He was known to be particularly gentle and caring towards its young students, always encouraging the other priests to take good care of their soul while he also taught them the virtues by example. He also taught them reading skills in Arabic and French, as well as Catechism.
Besides Deir el-Kamar, the Chouf region itself severely lacked the presence and service of priests. A large part of its population had reverted to Orthodoxy, and this was due to two major reasons. Firstly, the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar by Patriarch Clemandos Bahooth a few years before pushed many people away from the "Latin calendar" towards Orthodoxy. Secondly, the British who were vying for influence in the region pressured the Druze lords of the region (which is still heavily Druze to this day) to push the Melkites away from their relations with the French. The latter perceived and presented themselves as the protectors of Catholics in the region, especially after the famous massacres. As such, if Melkites were pushed out of the Catholic Church and towards Orthodoxy, they would be less likely to ally themselves to the Catholic French and thus more open to British influence. This is why the region, at the time, had largely reverted to Orthodoxy. However, this was about to change with the arrival of a young, zealous and holy Melkite hieromonk.
Abouna Bechara's reputation of holiness spread among all who knew him. He would spend hours, from the morning till 2 AM, sSitting in church praying, hearing confessions, or counseling parishioners who had become lax in their spiritual lives. He would only leave once a day to have his lunch, in addition to the times he visited the sick. He was, as his biographer Fr Saba Dagher called him, “a lamp that shone in the valley.”
Fr. Constantine Basha recalls a visit he had carried out to Deir el-Kamar while Abouna Bechara was there. “I asked him to hear my confession, and as soon as I was done, people started flocking to him for their own confessions. They remained as such from 3 PM till 4 AM, meaning thirteen hours, with Abouna Bechara remaining in the confessional without having dinner or even drinking a glass of water. His real cell was the confessional.”
This is why Abouna Bechara was described as the “apostolic hermit.” He combined a life of intense asceticism and prayerful solitude with a zeal for the service and salvation of souls through the Sacraments of the Catholic Church and the living of Christian charity.
In one of the regions of his work, there was no church. Abouna Bechara presented a request to Bishop Basilios Hajjar of the Eparchy of Sidon for a church, and the latter put him in touch with a benefactor in Beirut named Bechara el-Khoury. After traveling to meet him, Bechara el-Khoury agreed to fund the building of a church in the remote region by donating 25 gold coins to begin with. This was joined by the efforts of a multitude of inhabitants of the valley where Abouna Bechara intended to build the church. Some worked for free, others donated building materials, and slowly they built not only a church, but a small school next to it for the teaching of children and teens.
Unfortunately, these times of abundance and joy did not last. With the start of the Great War (WWI), the Ottoman Empire joined the fighting. At the time, Lebanon’s lands were under the control of the Ottomans. This meant that they were deeply affected, especially with a particular occurrence called “kafno” in Syriac, or Starvation. The event is not as documented as it should be. However, we will address it briefly to give a good context of those years of the life of Abouna Bechara and the people he loved. Allied Forces established a blockade of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. In response, the Ottomans stopped the entering of food from Syria into Lebanon. Even more, they confiscated the existing food of the region for the benefit of their own soldiers. This caused a man-made famine across Lebanon. While Kafno is usually described as the Mount Lebanon Famine, these conditions were largely widespread but less documented in the other regions of Lebanon.
This period of immense trial and tragedy allowed for the light of the Church to shine even brighter. Monasteries opened their doors to the hungry, sold their possessions to feed the population, gave them refuge, and supported them through this tragedy. Abouna Bechara himself became pale and thin due to the extreme self-denial he practiced, depriving himself of food so he could feed others. He would call upon the rich and the comfortable for help and donations in order to feed the less fortunate.
After 32 years of service, Abouna Bechara was called out of this remote and difficult region to a life in the city. Bishop Athanasios Kheriati, now Eparch of Sidon, requested his transfer. By that time, Abouna Bechara had become weakened, thin and exhausted. He has been spent by decades of intense ascetical practice, continuous labor, exertion on the rugged paths between the villages of Deir el-Kamar, as well as the famine and trials of the Great War. At least in Sidon, he could be afforded better healthcare, easier work, and far less physical exertion. Despite the strong and heartbroken pleas of his parishioners, Abouna Bechara was finally transferred to Sidon, where he served five years. However, his love of fasting and zeal for souls remained as intense in the city as it was in the villages. He pursued his efforts and labors, being described by the Hegumena (Abbess) of the Sisters of Saint Joseph as “a new Cure d’Ars” (like Saint John Vianney) and a “confessor of rare quality.”
In 1927, the virtuous monk returned to the monastery he had left almost four decades ago, to the arms of the Salvatorian mother house in Joun, South Lebanon. He had become too ill to continue parish work, with weakening eyesight and increasing heart issues. Bit by bit, he became more and more constrained to his cell and bed, no longer able to celebrate his beloved Divine Liturgy or participate in the various prayer services of the monastery. Despite this suffering, his fellow monks helped him maintain his prayers by chanting some of the services for him in his cell, praying the Holy Hours, the Akathist, the Paraklesis, etc…
His final years were years of intense suffering and pain, but he maintained his smile and gentleness, and above all his personal prayer, throughout. He received his last Rites on February 21st, 1930. Crossing his arms over his chest, he finally reposed in the Lord at 6:30 AM on February 22nd, 1930, at the age of 77.
At his death, special steps were taken by the Ecclesial Authorities, reflecting a keen awareness of the sanctity of this hieromonk. He was placed in a special tomb in the western wall of the monastery’s church, and documents pertaining to his life were included for the reference of future generations. His reputation was so widespread that people flocked to his funeral, and his room had to be locked due to the attempts at taking “relics” from a man known for his holiness.
Various miracles were attributed to him during and after his life. We list here some of the types of intercessions he is most known for, as well as examples of occurrences:
We conclude the biography of Venerable Hieromonk Bechara Abou Mrad with these examples of his intercession, praying for the day he will be declared a jewel of the Melkite Church and a Blessed of the Catholic Church. END
Source:
"Al-Ab Bechara Abou Mrad: Nasek wa Rasoul". Al-Maktaba Al-Boulisiyya Publications.
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