Pope prays for peace at tomb of saint revered by Christians and Muslims

A group of nuns reach out to Pope Leo XIV as he arrives to the Catholic basilica of Harissa, Lebanon

Pope Leo XIV prayed yesterday at the tomb of a Lebanese saint revered among Christians and Muslims as he brought a message of peace, hope and religious coexistence to a region torn by conflict.

Bells rang out as Leo’s covered popemobile snaked its way through the rain and thousands of enthusiastic Lebanese lining his motorcade route into Annaya, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Beirut. Some waved Lebanese and Vatican flags and tossed flower petals and rice on his car in a gesture of welcome as he zoomed by.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the hilltop monastery of St. Maroun overlooking the sea to pray at the tomb of St. Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite hermit who lived from 1828 to 1898. Believers credit him with miraculous healings that have occurred after people prayed for his intercession.

Leo prayed quietly in the darkened tomb, and offered a lamp as a gift of light for the monastery.

“Sisters and brothers, today we entrust to St. Charbel’s intercession the needs of the church, Lebanon and the world,” Leo said in French. “For the world, we ask for peace. We especially implore it for Lebanon and for the entire Levant.”

Leo’s visit to the tomb, the first by a pope, opened a busy day for history’s first American pope. He received a raucous, ululating welcome from nuns and priests at the Our Lady of Lebanon sanctuary in Harissa, a town north of Beirut.

There, Leo urged the church workers to offer their flocks, and especially young people, hope amid life’s injustices.

“It is necessary, even among the rubble of a world that has its own painful failures, to offer them concrete and viable prospects for rebirth and future growth,” he said to cheers and shouts of “Viva il Papa” (Long live the pope).

In the afternoon, the pope was to preside over an interfaith gathering alongside Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim leaders in the capital Beirut.

A message of peace in a time of turmoil

There, Leo was expected to hammer home his core message of peace and Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon and beyond at a time of conflict in Gaza and political tensions in Lebanon that are worse than they have been in years. His visit comes at a tenuous time for the tiny Mediterranean country after years of economic crises and political deadlock, punctuated by the 2020 Beirut port blast.

“We, as Lebanese, need this visit after all the wars, crises and despair that we have lived,” said the Rev. Youssef Nasr, the secretary-general of Catholic Schools in Lebanon who was on hand to welcome Leo at the Our Lady of Lebanon Basilica in Harissa, a town north of Beirut. “The pope’s visit gives a new push to the Lebanese to rise and cling to their country.”

More recently, Lebanon has been deeply divided over calls for Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party, to disarm after fighting a war with Israel last year that left the country deeply damaged. NICOLE WINFIELD, ANNAYA, MDT/AP