Lebanon hopes Pope Leo’s visit will bring brief respite from its crises

When Pope Leo XIV visits the Saint Maroun Monastery – the sanctuary of Saint Charbel – in Lebanon's mountainous village of Annaya on Monday, he will be making history.

No sitting Pope has ever visited the shrine of Lebanon's most revered saint. Among the first people to receive him will be Father Louis Matar, the caretaker of the monastery.

Preparations are under way to receive Pope Leo at the holy sites he's set to visit. Roads have been repaved, and banners bearing the pope's image, accompanied by the slogan “Lebanon wants peace”, have appeared across the mountains and elsewhere.

“The roads must be worthy of a place the Pope himself will visit,” said Father Louis from his wood-panelled office in the monastery. It is a room adorned with photos of Saint Charbel looking down upon his flock, his heavily white bearded face covered with a dark hood.

“When a Pope visits a monastery, it means the monastery is of global significance.”

The tomb of Saint Charbel at Saint Maroun Monastery in Annaya, Lebanon. Nada Homsi / The National.

Saint Charbel, a hermit who died in 1898 and is entombed at the monastery, is revered for his piety and his miracles of healing. Since his death in 1898, Annaya has become one of Lebanon’s most important pilgrimage destinations for those seeking his blessing.

Pope Leo's visit to Lebanon comes as the country endures one of its darkest chapters: still reeling from war, plagued by daily Israeli attacks, paralysed by a deep-seated economic crisis and institutional failure, and fractured by political and societal divisions. Several points in the country's south – the region where Jesus is said to have conducted his earliest miracles – remain under Israeli occupation.

Yet Pope Leo has brushed aside concerns and insisted the visit will go ahead.

“A doctor visits when the patient is critically ill,” said Father Louis. “Our people are sick, our nation is sick. We're drowning in darkness. People need hope. The Pope's visit gives hope – more than hope. He reminds us of Jesus. He reminds us of faith.”

Pope Leo will visit the Saint Maroun Monastery in Annaya, Lebanon on Monday. Jamie Prentis / The National

The Pope lands in Beirut on Sunday afternoon, a day largely dedicated to meetings with Lebanon’s political leadership.

But Monday's visits to Lebanon's Maronite heartland will be the centrepiece of his visit for Lebanon's more than one million Maronite Christians. From Saint Charbel’s monastery, Pope Leo will travel to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa to meet fellow bishops and priests as well as pastoral workers.

His visit means that the famed Teleferique du Liban – the cable car that transports people from the coast in Jounieh to Harissa – will be closed throughout the trip.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa is another of the country's most famous pilgrimage sites, a giant bronze 8.5 metre tall statue of the Virgin Mary looking out towards Beirut from the Lebanese mountains. It is not a place that gathers only Christians, but Muslims too.

Christians and Muslims visit the statue of Our Lady of Lebanon during Epiphany holiday in Harissa, Lebanon. Reuters

Later, after a visit to the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke, he will address Lebanese youth in the square near the patriarchal seat.

A large tent sits in Beirut's Martyrs' Square where Pope Leo will hold an Ecumenical and interreligious meeting, while the downtown of the Lebanese capital will gradually be shut down ahead of his Tuesday Mass at the waterfront.

“It is our greatest joy that the Pope would visit our monastery,” says Fa