{"id":16094,"date":"2026-08-03T13:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/saint-rafqa-pietra-choboq-ar-rayes-1832-1914\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T13:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:08:23","slug":"saint-rafqa-pietra-choboq-ar-rayes-1832-1914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/en\/saint-rafqa-pietra-choboq-ar-rayes-1832-1914\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Ray\u00e8s (1832\u20131914)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saint Rafqa is one of the most famous Lebanese saints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in 1832 in Hemlaya, Rafqa Choboq Ar-Ray\u00e8s had a difficult childhood marked by the loss of her mother. At age 18, she felt a deep calling to a life of piety, and it was finally in 1859 that Rafqa entered the Mariamettes convent in Bikfaya. She claimed to have heard a voice in the convent telling her, \u201cYou will become a nun!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a crisis that shook her congregation in 1871, Saint George, Saint Simeon, and Saint Anthony the Great\u2014whom she saw in a dream\u2014commanded her to join the Lebanese Maronite Order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sister Rafqa joined the Mar S\u00e9maan al-Qarn Monastery and made her solemn vows on August 25, 1872.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a state of extreme self-denial, she asked the Lord, in October 1885, to allow her to live out His Passion. For 29 years, the nun suffered severe pain, became blind and paralyzed, yet accepted these afflictions with joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She died on March 23, 1914, and was buried at the Mar <em>Yousseph<\/em> Monastery; miraculously, a light appeared over her grave for two consecutive nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Patroness of the sick and the afflicted, she was canonized in 2011 by Saint John Paul II and is celebrated on March 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"344\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Saint-Rafqa-Pietra-Choboq-Ar-Rayes-03-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-820\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Saint-Rafqa-Pietra-Choboq-Ar-Rayes-03-1.png 450w, https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Saint-Rafqa-Pietra-Choboq-Ar-Rayes-03-1-300x229.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saint Rafqa is one of the most famous Lebanese saints. Born in 1832 in Hemlaya, Rafqa Choboq Ar-Ray\u00e8s had a difficult childhood marked by the loss of her mother. At age 18, she felt a deep calling to a life of piety, and it was finally in 1859 that Rafqa entered the Mariamettes convent in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"thematique":[83],"class_list":["post-16094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","thematique-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Saint Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Ray\u00e8s (1832\u20131914) - \u0152uvre d&#039;orient<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/en\/saint-rafqa-pietra-choboq-ar-rayes-1832-1914\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saint Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Ray\u00e8s (1832\u20131914) - \u0152uvre d&#039;orient\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saint Rafqa is one of the most famous Lebanese saints. Born in 1832 in Hemlaya, Rafqa Choboq Ar-Ray\u00e8s had a difficult childhood marked by the loss of her mother. 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