On February 21, 2026, the Vatican promulgated a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Father Béchara Abou Mrad, a Lebanese Melkite priest born in 1853 and died in 1930. The decision, made by Pope Leo XIV during an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, represents a decisive step toward the beatification of this emblematic figure of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. The announcement comes in a Lebanon marked by relative political calm since the election of President Joseph Aoun in January 2025, although the country still faces security tensions.
A life dedicated to serving the humble
Selim Jabbour Abou-Mourad was born on May 19, 1853 in Zahlé, in the Beqaa Valley, into a modest Melkite Christian family. Attracted to religious life from a young age, he entered the monastery of Saint Savior near Saida on September 5, 1874, adopting the name Béchara, which means ‘good news’ in Arabic. He was ordained a deacon in 1882 and a priest in 1883, beginning his ministry as a discipline master at the Basilian seminary. For over thirty years, he served as an itinerant missionary in the district of Deir el-Qamar, in Mount Lebanon, an area marked by interfaith tensions. There he celebrated Mass in private homes, contributed to the construction of churches, and founded a charitable society. His fame as a tireless confessor spread, and testimonies collected in his beatification process describe him as ‘a father to the afflicted.’ He died on February 22, 1930 at the monastery of Saint Savior, leaving a legacy of over 50 years of priesthood.
The miracle recognized by the Vatican
The decree of February 21, 2026 is based on the healing of Thérèse Skaff Asmar, diagnosed in 1983 with grade IV degenerative osteoarthritis of the knees, which confined her to a wheelchair. In 2009, after reading a biography of the venerable and hearing accounts of healings that occurred during his life, she prayed intensely during a night of severe pain. The next day, she got up without assistance, walked without pain, and resumed a normal life, confirmed by medical examinations as a complete, direct, and permanent remission. The medical commission of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints examined the case from 2012 and validated it on March 27, 2015. The postulator of the cause, Salvatorian Archimandrite Mtanios Haddad, described the healing as ‘direct, complete, and permanent.’ This miracle illustrates Father Béchara’s reputation as a wonderworker, with monastic archives reporting similar healings during his lifetime.
Reactions and current context in Lebanon
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the decision ‘a luminous station in the history of the Eastern Church and Lebanon,’ highlighting that it embodies ‘the values on which our country is founded: faith, a message of love, and a culture of coexistence.’ The Basilian Salvatorian Order, to which Father Abou Mrad belonged, welcomed the news with enthusiasm, describing it as ‘a significant step for the Catholic Church in Lebanon.’ Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Youssef Absi stressed the importance of such figures to revitalize the Christian presence in the region, where Christians represent approximately 34% of the Lebanese population. The beatification could strengthen the pastoral initiatives of the Melkite Church, which has about 200,000 faithful in Lebanon out of a total of 1.5 million worldwide. In the context of a persistent economic crisis, with inflation reaching 150% in 2025, this news offers a reason for hope for Christian communities.
Preparations for beatification
Since the announcement, thanksgiving Masses have been celebrated in the Melkite cathedrals of Beirut and Zahlé. Committees
Original source: libnanews.com (published February 22, 2026)
Photo: Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash
