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2 - The
residence of the French Consulate
By
the middle of the sixteenth century, the relations between the
Maronites of Mount Lebanon and France were so cordial that the
small building was converted into a summer residence for the
French Consul.
In 1633, at the time
of Patriarch Youhanna Makhlouf, a group of Carmelite Monks came
to the region and occupied one of the hermitages belonging to
the Saint Elisha monastery in the valley of Qannubin. These
Monks were followed by Father John the Carmelite,
who acted as a liaison between the Pope and Patriarch Girgis
Sibaali. In 1699, these Monks were joined by Friar Jeronimo from
Mount Carmel who was a polygot, proficient in Arabic and in many
field of knowledge. In consideration of the great culture of the
Friar and of his organizing the proselytism of the region, and
in gratitude to the Monks for their activity in the fields of
health care and religious education, the notables of Bsharri
offered them the hermitage, the existing building
and the surrounding oak forest, as a mort main property, in order
to pursue their missionary activity and promote spiritual
culture in the region lying between Wadi Qadisha and the Cedars.
In
1701, the Monks demolished the existing building and replaced it
, to the east of the hermitage by the monastery which is still
standing. In 1908, some of the Monks moved down to Bsharri and
built the Saint Joseph Monastery which is still known as the
"Monastery of the Carmelite Fathers". The rest of the
Monks remained in the old monastery.
From 1701 until
1908, the Monks were diligently active in their religious,
social and educational activities. They also cultivated the land
adjacent to the monastery and irrigated their crops from basins
which were still existent not so long ago. They also
progressively enlarged the monastery.
According to the
Annals of the Monks and popular traditions, one of them, Friar
Michael, became famous as an example in piety and hard work -
"for fear of the devil", he said. Gibran frequently
spoke of him to Mary Haskell (as we shall see at the end of the
chronology).
It was he who excavated the galleries and carved the steps in
the rocks that lead to the hermitage which by then, had become a
church and
was visited by worshippers in large numbers on Sundays and feast
days.
From the tunnel in
the mountain...
to the small campaniles... to Gibran's city...and the infinite
On the western side of the "Small Chapel" (the
upper room), Friar Michael pierced a long tunnel through the
mountain until he reached the cliff facing the city, where he
erected small campaniles whose bells ring for prayer.
The Annals of the
Monks tell us that Our Lady of Lourdes, pitying the suffering
Friar Michael who had to carry water to irrigate his crops,
appeared to him one night and beckoned him to follow her to a
nearby
rock east of the monastery and signaled to him to dig beneath it.
He did, and a fountain sprang out. The place was consecrated to
Our Lady of Lourdes. It is now a sanctuary visited by worshippers.
it was enlarged and illuminated by the National Gibran Committee
when it restored the monastery and turned it into the Gibran
Museum.
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