One-of-a-kind Saint Sharbel spiritual center opens in Pittsburgh

By Joe Bukuras

CNA Staff, Jan 10, 2024 / 15:31 pm

Located in Pittsburgh’s suburban neighborhood of Beechview sits a unique Catholic spiritual center that is the only one of its kind in the world, according to the bishop who opened it last month.

“Our whole eparchy has always wanted a center for prayer and spirituality,” Maronite Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn said in an interview with CNA.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center is “the only one of its kind in the world,” Mansour said, explaining that the institution offers retreats, courses on spirituality, daily sacraments, Eucharistic adoration, Scripture studies, prayer, reading, and several other opportunities for growth.

The $1.25 million center, which opened on Dec. 8, has a mission to help each person grow in holiness according to the example given by Christ and “the great mystics of the Church” as well as “to cultivate a deeper devotion to Christ in the holy Eucharist through the example of St. Sharbel,” according to a press release from the center.

The center, which is adjacent to Our Lady of Victory Maronite Parish, also includes a library filled with more than 10,000 books on spirituality and a relic of St. Sharbel Makhlouf. 

St. Sharbel, canonized in 1954, was a Lebanese Maronite priest and hermit who lived between 1828 and 1898. Although very few words are recorded from his life and he lived in solitude, he is the patron saint of Lebanon and is famous for his miraculous healing intercession.

The saint’s relic that is housed in the center is the same first-class relic associated with the healing of Dafne Gutierrez, a Phoenix woman who was completely blind but was healed after venerating it in 2016.

Mansour told CNA that the eparchy named the center after St. Sharbel “because people know and associate him mostly with miracles and with favors done and intercessions. But sometimes they don’t associate him with a deep and abiding spiritual life.”

“And that’s why we want to focus, of course, on his miracles and his favors and his intercessions, but also developing our love for the Eucharist, our love for Our Lady, our love for the Church, our love for asceticism, our love for silence, our love for solitude that Sharbel not only embodied but lived by extraordinary, heroic example,” he said.

Those visiting the 10,300-square-foot center can learn about St. Sharbel by taking part in a day of reflection in honor of the saint that takes place on the 22nd of each month. Visitors will also be able to learn through books, periodicals, and videos.

The center’s website and Facebook page will also continually produce content promoting the spirituality of St. Sharbel. 

The center won’t only focus on St. Sharbel’s spirituality. It will focus on both western and eastern saints, for instance, offering the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and a course in Syriac spirituality.

The center has been approved to build more than a dozen overnight housing units on the property so that retreatants can stay for a prolonged period of time. The center does not currently have the funds yet to begin building and is asking for donations. 

For Bishop Mansour, 68, his excitement about the center spans back almost 45 years to when he studied spiritual theology in Rome. 

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“I feel that that’s one of the things I have as a bishop to offer, and that is the beautiful spirituality of the mystics of the Church. That was my field of study,” he told CNA.

“So when this opportunity became a possibility, I was passionate about it,” he added. “A lot of work went into it, but it has worked out beautifully.”

The center will have a grand opening on Saturday, April 13.

Joseph Bukuras is a journalist at the Catholic News Agency.  Joe has prior experience working in state and federal government, in non-profits, and Catholic education. He has contributed to an array of publications and his reporting has been cited by leading news sources, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Catholic University of America. He is based out of the Boston area.