Eighth Anniversary of the Dedication of Saint Sharbel’s Shrine – September 2025

​On Saturday, September 27, 2025, the Family of Saint Sharbel, USA, gathered to mark the eighth anniversary of the dedication of Saint Sharbel’s Shrine at the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

​The commemoration began in St. Mary’s Glass Chapel with Eucharistic Adoration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, continuing with the celebration of the Holy Mass, presided over by Father Theodore Trinko (Institute of the Incarnate Word, IVE- http://ive.org/en/). The liturgy was enriched with traditional Maronite hymns, chanted in English, Syriac, and Arabic by the members of the Maronite Parish in DC.

​During the liturgy, Fr. Trinko gave a homily about St. Sharbel and St. Vincent de Paul, whose feast day coincided with the Shrine Dedication Anniversary celebration.  In it, he pointed out that, despite living very outwardly different lives, St. Sharbel and St. Vincent de Paul both, importantly, prioritized prayer and fraternal charity, always seeking to strike a balance between the two as we are also called to do.

​Following the Holy Mass, Fr. Trinko led a procession with the relic of Saint Sharbel, encased in a cedar-shaped reliquary, as the faithful joined in song, chanting Maronite hymns. The celebration concluded at the Shrine with the blessing with the oil of Saint Sharbel and the veneration of his relic.