Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès
Encyclopedia
Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès (Arabic: رفقا بطرسيّة شبق ألريّس, June 29, 1832 – March 23, 1914), also known as Saint Rafka (Arabic name for Rebecca), is a Lebanese
Maronite
saint
canonized
by Pope John Paul II
on June 10, 2001.
).
When Rafqa was 14 years old her stepmother wanted her to marry her brother, and her maternal aunt wanted her to marry her son. Rafqa did not want to marry either of the men and this caused a great deal of discord in her family. After overhearing her stepmother and aunt exchange insults, Rafqa asked God
to help her deal with the problem. She then decided to become a nun
and went straight to the convent of Our Lady of Liberation
at Bikfaya
.
This decision was not just to escape the problem of her marriage but a response to a true calling. As Rafqa recounts, “When I entered the Church I felt immense joy, inner relief and, looking at the image of the Blessed Virgin, I felt as if a voice had come from it and penetrated the most intimate part of my conscience. It said to me: You will be a nun.”
Rafqa’s father and stepmother did try to take her back home but she did not want to go. “I asked the mistress of novices to excuse me from seeing them and she agreed. They returned home, saddened, and since then I never saw them again…”
Father Joseph Gemayel
and his family founded a new religious institute for women that provided them with full- time education as well as religious instruction. Rafqa’s name, Pierina, was listed last among the first four aspirants of “Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception” (“Mariamettes”, in French) in Father Gemayel’s notebook dated January 1, 1853. She was 21.
in Ghazir convent and chose the name Anissa (Agnes). She took her first vows in 1856 that were renewable every year. She was first “in charge of the kitchen and was studying in preparation for teaching the rudiments of culture … She was placed in charge of the workers and had the task of giving them religious instruction in a spinning mill in Scerdanieh, where she remained for two months.” After her final vows, Rafqa was sent to the Jesuit founded Eastern seminary of Ghazir .
In 1860 she went to Deir-el-Qamar, in Mount Lebanon - Shouf Lebanon
. She recounted, “That year there were the well known battles and bloody massacres.” In less than two months the Druze
sect, goaded by the Turks
, killed 7,771 people and destroyed 360 villages, 560 churches, 28 schools, and 42 convents. Blessed Rafqa saved one child’s life by hiding him in her skirt as he was being chased by some soldiers.
Two years later, Rafqa was transferred to Gebail where she remained for one year before going to Ma'ad at the request of Antoun (Anthony) Issa, a local dignitary who was married but had no children. Rafqa lived in their home while teaching Christian doctrine and supervising religious practice. One of her students of six years described her as “always tranquil, serene, sensitive and smiling in her humility…she never raised her voice and…never used corporal punishment.”
In 1871, the “Mariamettes” religious institute dissolved. Blessed Rafqa decided to join the Baladita Order
, the monastic order now named “The Lebanese Maronite Order of St. Anthony
", founded in 1695 and told Antoun Issa of her decision. He asked her to stay on until the end of the year promising to leave her property and money but refused. Realizing her resolve, he offered to pay the dowry demanded by the Order for her.
That same night, Blessed Rafqa dreamed of three men. One with a white beard, one dressed like a soldier and the third was an old man. One of the men said to her, “’Become a nun in the Baladita Order
.’ I woke up very happy … and went to Antoun Issa, bursting with joy … and I told him about my dream.” Antoun identified the men as St. Anthony of Qozhaia (St. Anthony Abbot) of whom the order was inspired, the soldier was St. George, to whom the church in Ma’ad was dedicated and the third could only be a Baladita monk. Rafqa decided to leave immediately for the monastery of St. Simon in Al-Qarn. Antoun gave her the money as promised as well as a letter of recommendation to the archbishop.
On July 12, 1871 Rafqa began her novitiate into the new monastery and then on August 25, 1873, she “professed her perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the spirit of the strict Rule of the Baladita Order.” Her new name was that of her mother’s, Rafqa, (Rebecca), the name of Abraham’s great granddaughter and wife of his son Isaac. Rafqa remained in the monastery until 1897.
Blessed Rafqa continued in her account to her superior, the next night after the prayer “At the moment of sleeping I felt a most violent pain spreading above my eyes to the point that I reached the state you see me in, blind and paralyzed, and as I myself had asked for sickness I could not allow myself to complain or murmur.”
“The symbolic daughter of a country which for over a decade has been in the world headlines because of its suffering,” Blessed Rafqa suffered many years because of her desire to share in the passion of Jesus Christ.
One sister accompanied Rafqa to Tripoli
for a medical visit for her eyes. “The doctor explored, poking one eye, then the other. Blood gushed out and… [Rafqa] remained calm and smiling, repeating, ‘In communion with your suffering, Jesus!’…Two or three days later, the sore became inflamed and for about a month there was a copious discharge of pus.”
For two years, Blessed Rafqa suffered. She went to several doctors who all agreed that there was nothing they could do. Upon the persuasion of Father Estefan, Blessed Rafqa consulted an American doctor who strongly suggested that the eye be removed. Estefan recalls, “Before the operation I asked the doctor to anesthetize the eye so that Rafqa would not feel any pain but she refused. The doctor made her sit down and pushed a long scalpel … into her eye … the eye popped out and fell on the ground, palpitating slightly … Rafqa didn’t complain … but only said, ‘in communion with Christ’s Passion.’” The pain was then all concentrated to her left eye and nothing could be done.
Gradually her left eye shrunk and sunk into the socket and Rafqa became blind. For about thirty years both sockets hemorrhaged two to three times a week. She also suffered from frequent nosebleeds. “Her head, her brow, her eyes, her nose were as if they were being pierced by a red hot needle. Rafqa did not let this pain isolate her from the community. She continued to spin wool and cotton and knitted stockings for the other sisters; she participated in choral prayer.
Due to the harsh winters at the monastery of St. Simon, Rafqa was allowed to spend the coldest months on the Lebanese coast as a guest of the Sisters of Charity
and then of the residence of the Maronite Order. Unable to observe the Rule at these locales, Blessed Rafqa asked to be taken to the monastery of St. Elias at El Rass, which belonged to her order.
In 1897, Blessed Rafqa, out of obedience, was able to permanently move to the monastery St. Joseph of Gerbata in Ma’ad along with Sister Ursula, where she remained for the last 17 years of her life. It was here that her suffering increased.
In 1907, she confided to Sister Ursula that she felt a pain in her legs, “as if someone were sticking lances in them and pain in my toes as if they were being pulled off.” This began the long list of sufferings and pains Blessed Rafqa withstood for the last seven years of her life.
Based on direct evidence and on the autopsy of Rafqa’s remains in 1927, she became paralyzed due to “the progressive disarticulation of her bones. She kept intact only her brain, her tongue, her ears and her wrist and finger joints while the pain continued in her head, her devastated eye sockets and her nosebleeds … completely immobile her lower jaw touched her benumbed knee.”
Even in this state, Blessed Rafqa was able to crawl to the chapel on the feast of Corpus Christi
to the amazement of all the sisters. When asked about this, Blessed Rafqa replied, “I don’t know. I asked God to help me and suddenly I felt myself slipping from the bed with my legs hanging down; I fell on the floor and crawled to the chapel.”
On a separate occasion, when asked by her superior if she would like to see, Blessed Rafqa responded, “I would like to see for at least an hour, to be able to look at you.” In an instant the superior could see Rafqa smile and suddenly said, “Look, I can see now.” Not believing her, Sister Ursula put her to the test asking her to identify several objects. Shortly thereafter, Rafqa fell into a deep sleep for about two hours. Sister Ursula became worried and tried repeatedly to awaken her. Upon waking, Rafqa explained that she had entered a large, beautifully decorated building with baths full of water and people crowding to enter them; she went with them. Sister Ursula asked her why she came back; why she didn’t continue to walk. Blessed Rafqa explained, “You called me, and I came.”
Blessed Rafqa’s obedience and love for her superior is quite evident in this account. For a nun, the superior, “as the Rule puts it, represents Christ and is owed respect, obedience and love. Despite her condition, Rafqa did nothing without the Superior’s permission.”
Before dying, Blessed Rafqa told of her life to Sister Ursula, superior of the monastery in which she died, “There is nothing important in my life that is worthy of being recorded … my mother died when I was seven years old. After her death my father married for a second time.”
Three days before her death, Rafqa said, “I am not afraid of death which I have waited for a long time. God will let me live through my death.” Then on March 23, 1914, four minutes after receiving final absolution and the plenary indulgence, she died.
, in the presence of the Holy Father John Paul II, the decree approving the miracle of Elizabeth Ennakl who was completely cured of uterine cancer in 1938 at the tomb of Rafka, was promulgated.
On November 16, 1985 His Holiness Pope John Paul II declared her a Blessed
and on June 10, 2001 he elevated her to the rank of Saint
at a solemn ceremony in the Vatican
.
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
Maronite
Maronite Church
The Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See of Rome . It traces its heritage back to the community founded by Maron, a 4th-century Syriac monk venerated as a saint. The first Maronite Patriarch, John Maron, was elected in the late 7th...
saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
on June 10, 2001.
Birth and Youth
Born in 1832, Saint Rafqa was baptised as Boutrossieh (Pierina, Pierrette or Petronila in FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
).
When Rafqa was 14 years old her stepmother wanted her to marry her brother, and her maternal aunt wanted her to marry her son. Rafqa did not want to marry either of the men and this caused a great deal of discord in her family. After overhearing her stepmother and aunt exchange insults, Rafqa asked God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
to help her deal with the problem. She then decided to become a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
and went straight to the convent of Our Lady of Liberation
Our Lady of Liberation
Our Lady of Liberation is a church built in an old fort located at nearly 500 meters of altitude, in the city of Besançon .- History :...
at Bikfaya
Bikfaya
Bikfaya is a town in the Matn District region of Mount Lebanon. Its stone houses with red-tiled roofs resting amidst pine and oak forests make Bikfaya one of the most sought-after suburbs of Beirut and one of Lebanon's most popular summer resorts.-Culture:...
.
This decision was not just to escape the problem of her marriage but a response to a true calling. As Rafqa recounts, “When I entered the Church I felt immense joy, inner relief and, looking at the image of the Blessed Virgin, I felt as if a voice had come from it and penetrated the most intimate part of my conscience. It said to me: You will be a nun.”
Rafqa’s father and stepmother did try to take her back home but she did not want to go. “I asked the mistress of novices to excuse me from seeing them and she agreed. They returned home, saddened, and since then I never saw them again…”
Father Joseph Gemayel
Joseph Gemayel
Joseph Gemayel is a Lebanese fencer. He competed in the individual and team épée events at the 1964 Summer Olympics.-References:...
and his family founded a new religious institute for women that provided them with full- time education as well as religious instruction. Rafqa’s name, Pierina, was listed last among the first four aspirants of “Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception” (“Mariamettes”, in French) in Father Gemayel’s notebook dated January 1, 1853. She was 21.
Convent years
On February 9, 1855, the Feast of St. Maron, Rafqa commenced her novitiateNovitiate
Novitiate, alt. noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a novice monastic or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to the religious life....
in Ghazir convent and chose the name Anissa (Agnes). She took her first vows in 1856 that were renewable every year. She was first “in charge of the kitchen and was studying in preparation for teaching the rudiments of culture … She was placed in charge of the workers and had the task of giving them religious instruction in a spinning mill in Scerdanieh, where she remained for two months.” After her final vows, Rafqa was sent to the Jesuit founded Eastern seminary of Ghazir .
In 1860 she went to Deir-el-Qamar, in Mount Lebanon - Shouf Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. She recounted, “That year there were the well known battles and bloody massacres.” In less than two months the Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
sect, goaded by the Turks
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
, killed 7,771 people and destroyed 360 villages, 560 churches, 28 schools, and 42 convents. Blessed Rafqa saved one child’s life by hiding him in her skirt as he was being chased by some soldiers.
Two years later, Rafqa was transferred to Gebail where she remained for one year before going to Ma'ad at the request of Antoun (Anthony) Issa, a local dignitary who was married but had no children. Rafqa lived in their home while teaching Christian doctrine and supervising religious practice. One of her students of six years described her as “always tranquil, serene, sensitive and smiling in her humility…she never raised her voice and…never used corporal punishment.”
In 1871, the “Mariamettes” religious institute dissolved. Blessed Rafqa decided to join the Baladita Order
Lebanese Maronite Order
The Lebanese Maronite Order , is a monastic order among the Levantine Catholic Maronite Church, which from the beginning has been specifically a monastic Church...
, the monastic order now named “The Lebanese Maronite Order of St. Anthony
Lebanese Maronite Order
The Lebanese Maronite Order , is a monastic order among the Levantine Catholic Maronite Church, which from the beginning has been specifically a monastic Church...
", founded in 1695 and told Antoun Issa of her decision. He asked her to stay on until the end of the year promising to leave her property and money but refused. Realizing her resolve, he offered to pay the dowry demanded by the Order for her.
That same night, Blessed Rafqa dreamed of three men. One with a white beard, one dressed like a soldier and the third was an old man. One of the men said to her, “’Become a nun in the Baladita Order
Lebanese Maronite Order
The Lebanese Maronite Order , is a monastic order among the Levantine Catholic Maronite Church, which from the beginning has been specifically a monastic Church...
.’ I woke up very happy … and went to Antoun Issa, bursting with joy … and I told him about my dream.” Antoun identified the men as St. Anthony of Qozhaia (St. Anthony Abbot) of whom the order was inspired, the soldier was St. George, to whom the church in Ma’ad was dedicated and the third could only be a Baladita monk. Rafqa decided to leave immediately for the monastery of St. Simon in Al-Qarn. Antoun gave her the money as promised as well as a letter of recommendation to the archbishop.
On July 12, 1871 Rafqa began her novitiate into the new monastery and then on August 25, 1873, she “professed her perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the spirit of the strict Rule of the Baladita Order.” Her new name was that of her mother’s, Rafqa, (Rebecca), the name of Abraham’s great granddaughter and wife of his son Isaac. Rafqa remained in the monastery until 1897.
Life with pain
In 1885 Rafqa decided not to join the nuns for a walk around the monastery. In her autobiographical account she wrote, “It was the first Sunday of the Rosary. I did not accompany them. Before leaving each of the nuns came and said to me, ‘Pray for me sister.’ There were some who asked me to say seven decades of the Rosary … I went to the Church and started to pray. Seeing that I was in good health and that I had never been sick in my life, I prayed to God in this way, ‘Why, O my God, have you distance yourself from me and have abandoned me. You have never visited me with sickness! Have you perhaps abandoned me?’”Blessed Rafqa continued in her account to her superior, the next night after the prayer “At the moment of sleeping I felt a most violent pain spreading above my eyes to the point that I reached the state you see me in, blind and paralyzed, and as I myself had asked for sickness I could not allow myself to complain or murmur.”
“The symbolic daughter of a country which for over a decade has been in the world headlines because of its suffering,” Blessed Rafqa suffered many years because of her desire to share in the passion of Jesus Christ.
One sister accompanied Rafqa to Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
for a medical visit for her eyes. “The doctor explored, poking one eye, then the other. Blood gushed out and… [Rafqa] remained calm and smiling, repeating, ‘In communion with your suffering, Jesus!’…Two or three days later, the sore became inflamed and for about a month there was a copious discharge of pus.”
For two years, Blessed Rafqa suffered. She went to several doctors who all agreed that there was nothing they could do. Upon the persuasion of Father Estefan, Blessed Rafqa consulted an American doctor who strongly suggested that the eye be removed. Estefan recalls, “Before the operation I asked the doctor to anesthetize the eye so that Rafqa would not feel any pain but she refused. The doctor made her sit down and pushed a long scalpel … into her eye … the eye popped out and fell on the ground, palpitating slightly … Rafqa didn’t complain … but only said, ‘in communion with Christ’s Passion.’” The pain was then all concentrated to her left eye and nothing could be done.
Gradually her left eye shrunk and sunk into the socket and Rafqa became blind. For about thirty years both sockets hemorrhaged two to three times a week. She also suffered from frequent nosebleeds. “Her head, her brow, her eyes, her nose were as if they were being pierced by a red hot needle. Rafqa did not let this pain isolate her from the community. She continued to spin wool and cotton and knitted stockings for the other sisters; she participated in choral prayer.
Due to the harsh winters at the monastery of St. Simon, Rafqa was allowed to spend the coldest months on the Lebanese coast as a guest of the Sisters of Charity
Sisters of Charity
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....
and then of the residence of the Maronite Order. Unable to observe the Rule at these locales, Blessed Rafqa asked to be taken to the monastery of St. Elias at El Rass, which belonged to her order.
In 1897, Blessed Rafqa, out of obedience, was able to permanently move to the monastery St. Joseph of Gerbata in Ma’ad along with Sister Ursula, where she remained for the last 17 years of her life. It was here that her suffering increased.
In 1907, she confided to Sister Ursula that she felt a pain in her legs, “as if someone were sticking lances in them and pain in my toes as if they were being pulled off.” This began the long list of sufferings and pains Blessed Rafqa withstood for the last seven years of her life.
Based on direct evidence and on the autopsy of Rafqa’s remains in 1927, she became paralyzed due to “the progressive disarticulation of her bones. She kept intact only her brain, her tongue, her ears and her wrist and finger joints while the pain continued in her head, her devastated eye sockets and her nosebleeds … completely immobile her lower jaw touched her benumbed knee.”
Even in this state, Blessed Rafqa was able to crawl to the chapel on the feast of Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
to the amazement of all the sisters. When asked about this, Blessed Rafqa replied, “I don’t know. I asked God to help me and suddenly I felt myself slipping from the bed with my legs hanging down; I fell on the floor and crawled to the chapel.”
On a separate occasion, when asked by her superior if she would like to see, Blessed Rafqa responded, “I would like to see for at least an hour, to be able to look at you.” In an instant the superior could see Rafqa smile and suddenly said, “Look, I can see now.” Not believing her, Sister Ursula put her to the test asking her to identify several objects. Shortly thereafter, Rafqa fell into a deep sleep for about two hours. Sister Ursula became worried and tried repeatedly to awaken her. Upon waking, Rafqa explained that she had entered a large, beautifully decorated building with baths full of water and people crowding to enter them; she went with them. Sister Ursula asked her why she came back; why she didn’t continue to walk. Blessed Rafqa explained, “You called me, and I came.”
Blessed Rafqa’s obedience and love for her superior is quite evident in this account. For a nun, the superior, “as the Rule puts it, represents Christ and is owed respect, obedience and love. Despite her condition, Rafqa did nothing without the Superior’s permission.”
Before dying, Blessed Rafqa told of her life to Sister Ursula, superior of the monastery in which she died, “There is nothing important in my life that is worthy of being recorded … my mother died when I was seven years old. After her death my father married for a second time.”
Three days before her death, Rafqa said, “I am not afraid of death which I have waited for a long time. God will let me live through my death.” Then on March 23, 1914, four minutes after receiving final absolution and the plenary indulgence, she died.
Beatification and canonization
On June 9, 1984, the eve of PentecostPentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
, in the presence of the Holy Father John Paul II, the decree approving the miracle of Elizabeth Ennakl who was completely cured of uterine cancer in 1938 at the tomb of Rafka, was promulgated.
On November 16, 1985 His Holiness Pope John Paul II declared her a Blessed
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
and on June 10, 2001 he elevated her to the rank of Saint
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
at a solemn ceremony in the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
.