Business Listing of Saint Rafqa The Life
Saint Rafqa The Life
Country: Lebanon
llustrated biography, image gallery, and bibliography.
[The Life of Saint Rafqa][Photo Gallery][Bibliography][Maronite Saints]IntroductionSister Rafqa (Rebecca) El-Choboq El Rayes, a Maronite Catholic Lebanese nun,was beatified as Blessed Rafqa on November 17, 1985 and canonised as Saint Rafqa on 10 June 2001 in both instances by His Holiness Pope John Paul II.In 1885, at the age of 53, Sister Rafqas wish and repeated prayers had finally been answered - the desire to participate in the sufferings of Christ. She began to suffer numerous and extreme violent pains for the remaining 29 years of her life. She is a striking example for us of how suffering can be lived with joy but only through total submission to God. She is The Little Flower of Lebanon for hope and intercession to God for divine assistance. The miracles which are now recorded and verified by the Vatican are testament to her help.OriginSaint Rafqa was born on June 29, 1832 in Himlaya, a Maronite village in the Lebanese mountains near Bikfaya. Her baptismal name was Boutrosiya(pronounced in Arabic as the feminine of Peter) having been born on the feast day of St Peter. She was an only child of her father Mrad El Rayes and her mother Rafqa Gemayel. Her mother died when she was 7 years old and her father later re-married. Civil war in the 1840s in Lebanon caused economic hardship. To help her father, Boutrosiya became a maid for three years in the home of Assad and Helena El-Badaui both in BAbda Lebanon and Damascus Syria. According to the El Badaui family she was a model of purity. She was devoted to the Most Holy Virgin and prayed morning and night having learnt the devotion from the sweet heart of her maternal mother.Religious CallingAt the age of 14 her father called her to return home with the intention to marry her. More than one suitor presented himself. One day fetching water at the well in her village she heard a fierce quarrel between her stepmother (who wanted her brother to marry Boutrosiya) and her maternal aunt (who wanted her son to marry her). Disheartened by the struggle between the two, she asked God to free her from the situation.On her 21st birthday she entered the convent of the Mariamite sisters in Bikfaya. Shortly thereafter her father and stepmother attempted to take her back home but she refused. Her father never saw her again.Sister Boutrosiya To Sister RafqaAfter one year of postulancy, Boutrosiya became a novice on St Marouns feast day, February 9 1855. She pronounced her religious vows in 1856 in Ghazir. For 7 years she performed kitchen work during the day and studied Arabic, calligraphy and mathematics at night. For the next 11 years she taught school girls in Deir-El-Qamar, Jbeil (Byblos) and Maad. During the time of the massacres of the Christians in the Chouf Mountains she saved a young boy by hiding him in her gown (habit) and later herself hid with other sisters in a stable. Sister Boutrosiya was deeply affected by the massacres.In 1871 at the age of 39 she went to the monastery of St Simon in the village o
[ view Saint Rafqa The Life website ]
Other information about Saint Rafqa The Life
This text is what you will find on Saint Rafqa The Life Website. The text is edited by our engine to provide complete search results for the Saint Rafqa The Life Website.The Text is copyrights of Saint Rafqa The Life website. Fanoos will not be held responsible for any text writen above, since it is copyrighted material of Saint Rafqa The Life website.
Saint Rafqa The Life useful Tools
Archived Saint Rafqa The Life Pages