Do You Really Need All Your Closet Baggage?

Undated photograph of Saint Sharbel Makhlūf

Saint Sharbel Makhlūf, the Hermit of Lebanon (1828-1898), whose birth name was Youssef Antoun Makhlūf, dedicated himself to imitating Christ at an early age. He entered the Maronite monastery of St. Maro, took the name Charbel, after a Christian martyr in Antioch from the 2nd century, and was eventually granted permission to live as a hermit. Many sought his counsel over the years, but it wasn’t until his body was discovered incorrupt in 1965 – long after his death in 1898 – that hundreds of miracles were attributed to him, including a well-documented healing from paralysis in 1993 which was part of his case for beatification. He became a sign to 20th-century Christians of the liberating power of simple living. We 21st-century Christians may not be prepared to reduce our possessions to a tunic and leaf-filled mattress, but we could begin to loosen the bonds of materialism by giving away the contents of a closet or two.

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