One-of-a-kind Saint Sharbel spiritual center opens in Pittsburgh

 

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. / Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center

CNA Staff, Jan 10, 2024 / 15:31 pm (CNA).

Located in Pittsburgh’s suburban neighborhood of Beechview sits a unique Catholic spiritual center that is the only one of its kind in the world, according to the bishop who opened it last month.

“Our whole eparchy has always wanted a center for prayer and spirituality,” Maronite Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn said in an interview with CNA.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center is “the only one of its kind in the world,” Mansour said, explaining that the institution offers retreats, courses on spirituality, daily sacraments, Eucharistic adoration, Scripture studies, prayer, reading, and several other opportunities for growth.

The $1.25 million center, which opened on Dec. 8, has a mission to help each person grow in holiness according to the example given by Christ and “the great mystics of the Church” as well as “to cultivate a deeper devotion to Christ in the holy Eucharist through the example of St. Sharbel,” according to a press release from the center.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center
The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center

The center, which is adjacent to Our Lady of Victory Maronite Parish, also includes a library filled with more than 10,000 books on spirituality and a relic of St. Sharbel Makhlouf.

St. Sharbel, canonized in 1954, was a Lebanese Maronite priest and hermit who lived between 1828 and 1898. Although very few words are recorded from his life and he lived in solitude, he is the patron saint of Lebanon and is famous for his miraculous healing intercession.

The saint’s relic that is housed in the center is the same first-class relic associated with the healing of Dafne Gutierrez, a Phoenix woman who was completely blind but was healed after venerating it in 2016.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center
The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center

Mansour told CNA that the eparchy named the center after St. Sharbel “because people know and associate him mostly with miracles and with favors done and intercessions. But sometimes they don’t associate him with a deep and abiding spiritual life.”

“And that’s why we want to focus, of course, on his miracles and his favors and his intercessions, but also developing our love for the Eucharist, our love for Our Lady, our love for the Church, our love for asceticism, our love for silence, our love for solitude that Sharbel not only embodied but lived by extraordinary, heroic example,” he said.

Those visiting the 10,300-square-foot center can learn about St. Sharbel by taking part in a day of reflection in honor of the saint that takes place on the 22nd of each month. Visitors will also be able to learn through books, periodicals, and videos.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center
The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh opened in December 2023 and offers spiritual formation with a special focus on the life of Maronite priest and hermit St. Sharbel Makhlouf. Credit: Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center

The center’s website and Facebook page will also continually produce content promoting the spirituality of St. Sharbel.

The center won’t only focus on St. Sharbel’s spirituality. It will focus on both western and eastern saints, for instance, offering the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and a course in Syriac spirituality.

The center has been approved to build more than a dozen overnight housing units on the property so that retreatants can stay for a prolonged period of time. The center does not currently have the funds yet to begin building and is asking for donations.

For Bishop Mansour, 68, his excitement about the center spans back almost 45 years to when he studied spiritual theology in Rome.

“I feel that that’s one of the things I have as a bishop to offer, and that is the beautiful spirituality of the mystics of the Church. That was my field of study,” he told CNA.

“So when this opportunity became a possibility, I was passionate about it,” he added. “A lot of work went into it, but it has worked out beautifully.”

The center will have a grand opening on Saturday, April 13.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Catholic News Agency 12543 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. VVEDNESDAY NIGHT EDITION • BigPulpit.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*