Nimattullah Kassab

Nimatullah al - Hardini, actually Joseph Kassab, (* 1808 in Hardin ( Batroun ), Lebanon, † December 14, 1858 in Kfifane, Lebanon ) was a Syro- Maronite monk and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2004. He was the theological teacher of another Lebanese Saints, Scharbel Machluf ( 1828-1898 ).

Life

Al- Hardini came from a Christian family of farmers, the Kassab in place Hardin. Three of the six children went into monasteries, another older brother was ordained beyond after marriage for priests (which is possible in the Eastern Churches united with Rome, as in the Orthodox Church ). The home Hardinis is close to the port city of Batroun in northern Lebanon, the only even today still inhabited almost exclusively by Christians region in the Arab world, whose culture is heavily influenced by the numerous there existing Maronite monasteries and hermitages.

Hardini entered, the example of an older brother following, in 1828, in a monastery and laid on November 14, 1830 from his monastic vows, in Antony Monastery Quzhaya. For his theological studies, he then went to the monastery of St. Cyprian in Kfifane. In 1833 he was ordained a priest. From 1848 he worked as a teacher at the convent schools of Kfifane and Bhersaf (al- Mitn ). In Kfifane one of his students was ( 1853-1855 ) Scharbel Machluf. From 1845, he served as Assistant General of his Order. On December 14, 1858 Hardini died in Kfifane, where his grave is revered today.

Similar to Scharbel Machluf his body remained incorrupt after his death, also in 1927 at the reburial in the initiation of the beatification process, these integrity was confirmed. Also Hardinis grave was a place of Maronite popular piety, where numerous healings have been reported very quickly. Hardini was on 7 July 1997 in Rome, a few weeks after the historic visit of Pope John Paul II in Lebanon in May 1997, in the presence of numerous guests from Lebanon ( next to Christian pilgrims and celebrities also the then Prime Minister Rafiq al -Hariri, a Sunni Muslim ), beatified. On 14 May 2004, they in Rome the canonization Hardinis.

" Mar Hardini " whose image in numerous Lord angles, at taxi windshields, and in churches and chapels can be found in the Orient, is one with Rebekah Ar Rayes (2001 canonized by John Paul II ) and Scharbel Machluf, ( canonization in 1977 by Paul VI. ) to the three officially canonized by Rome Lebanese saints.