Issued by the Catholic Center for Studies and Media - Jordan. Editor-in-chief Fr. Rif'at Bader - موقع أبونا abouna.org

Published on Saturday, 4 April 2020
St. Charbel, Riccardo Pampuri patrons of the new field hospital in Milano

Agenzia Fides :

Lebanese Saint Charbel, together with the Lombard San Riccardo Pampuri, will be co-patron of the new hospital set up in record time in the building of a large trade fair and exhibition center in the Italian city of Milan to host patients affected by the coronavirus epidemic. On Monday, March 30, during the blessing rite of the new health facility, the Archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini, entrusted "this place of care and hope to the intercession of the saint doctor Friar Riccardo Pampuri and the holy Lebanese thaumaturge Friar Charbel Makhluf". Archbishop Delpini also addressed "Mary, mother of the sick, our prayer to obtain the divine blessing on this hospital, on those who designed and set it up, on the sick who will be welcomed there and on those who will do their utmost to serve".

Riccardo Pampuri (1897-1930) the young doctor from Trivolzio who entered the Fatebenefratelli family, is a dear and familiar saint for many Lombard Catholics. And Lebanese priest Assaad Saad, at the head of the church of Santa Maria della Sanità in via Durini, entrusted to the Maronite community, reports to Agenzia Fides that "even before the pandemic many sick people came to Milan from southern Italy for cancer treatment. They asked to venerate the saint's relics before entering the hospital".

The mortal remains of San Charbel, a monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order, are venerated in Lebanon in the monastery of San Marone in Annaya, kept in a cedar urn. Countless healings, bodily and spiritually, of Christian and Muslim people are connected to the intercession of Saint Charbel, in Lebanon and throughout the world. The prodigious phenomena began to occur post mortem among those who prayed around the monk's tomb, which at that time oozed blood mixed with water. "The pandemic crisis is global", remarked Father Assaad - and perhaps the facto f having both Lebanese Charbel and Lombard Pampuri as patrons of the new hospital for coronavirus patients suggests that there is a universal horizon also in the intercession of saints, much need now".