St. Charbel Makhlouf

Charbel Makhlouf was a Baldite monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order. Born to a pious Christian family in northern Lebanon in 1828, he entered the Monastery of Our Lady in Mayfouq in 1851, made his final vows in 1853, and was ordained a priest in 1859. He quickly gained a reputation for holiness among Christians and non-Christians alike, though he spent his final two decades as a hermit. Following his death in 1898, many miracles were reported at his tomb, and he was canonized a saint in 1977.

Goretti Fine Art’s striking portrait of St. Charbel highlights the intense asceticism of his spirituality. Wearing a distinctive Maronite-style stole over his monastic habit, Charbel raises his hand toward the viewer in benediction, even as his piercing gaze seems to pass through the on-looker toward a highly reality. The scene is rendered with George and Polly's trademark Western verisimilitude; nevertheless, the ornate halo, the strong bilateral symmetry, and the idealized, slightly elongated facial features all evoke a Byzantine aesthetic that honors the Eastern Rite origins of one of Lebanon’s best-loved saints.