Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès

In 1853, at the age of 21, Boutrossieh went to the Convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Bikfaya to join the Congregation of the Mariamettes (Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception), recently founded by Father Joseph Gemayel. Upon entering the convent church, she felt a profound joy and heard an inner voice confirming her vocation: "You will be a nun."

After her postulancy, she received the novice habit on March 19, 1861, the feast day of Saint Joseph, and pronounced her first temporary vows the following year, on March 19, 1862. She was first sent to the Jesuit seminary in Ghazir, where she took care of the kitchen. There, she associated with future great prelates of the Maronite Church, including the future Patriarch Elias Houayek. During her free time, she studied Arabic, calligraphy, and arithmetic.

In 1860, she was sent to Deir el-Kamar to teach catechism. It was there that she witnessed the bloody massacres of Christians by the Druze. At the risk of her life, she saved a young child by hiding him under her habit. She then taught in Jbeil (Byblos) in 1862, and later in Maad starting in 1863, where she spent seven years founding and directing a school for young girls thanks to the support of the benefactor Antoun Issa.

In 1871, the Congregation of the Mariamettes went through a major crisis and was dissolved. Troubled, Boutrossieh prayed in the Church of Saint George in Maad. She then had a dream in which Saint George, Saint Simeon the Stylite, and Saint Anthony the Great appeared to her, the latter telling her: "Enter the Order of the Lebanese Maronite Nuns."

She then joined the Monastery of Saint Simon el-Qarn in Aitou. She received the novice habit there on July 12, 1871, and pronounced her solemn vows on August 25, 1872, taking the name Sister Rafqa (Rebecca), in memory of her mother. She spent 26 years in this cloistered monastery, distinguishing herself by her rigorous obedience, her love of silence, and her continuous prayer.

Rafqa's desire to unite fully with Christ led her to ask for a singular grace. On the first Sunday of October 1885, while praying in the chapel of the monastery of Aitou, she asked God to allow her to participate in His redemptive Passion. Her prayer was immediately answered: that same evening, she felt violent headaches that quickly spread to her eyes. Despite numerous attempts at treatment, her condition worsened. During a medical trip to Jbeil (Byblos), an American doctor attempted to operate on her but accidentally removed her right eye. Rafqa refused any anesthesia and offered her suffering, repeating: 'In union with the Passion of Christ.' The ailment soon reached her left eye, and she became completely blind in 1899. In 1897, she was part of the group of six nuns sent to found the new monastery of Saint Joseph al-Dahr in Jrabta (Batroun), under the direction of Mother Ursula Doumit. It was there that the final stage of her ordeal took place. Afflicted with osteoarticular tuberculosis, she became progressively paralyzed. Her joints dislocated, her collarbone sank into her neck, and her body withered until it was nothing more than a gaunt skeleton. She spent the last seven years of her life lying only on her right side. Despite these unspeakable sufferings, her face remained serene and radiant. She retained the use of her hands to knit socks and work with wool, thanking God for leaving her this ability to work. She passed away holily on March 23, 1914, at the monastery of Jrabta, at the age of 81.

After her death, Rafqa was buried in the cemetery of the Jrabta monastery. A brilliant light appeared over her tomb for two consecutive nights, and numerous miraculous healings were quickly reported through her intercession. On July 10, 1927, her remains were transferred to a new tomb within the monastery church. The cause for beatification was officially introduced in Rome on December 23, 1925. Pope John Paul II declared her Venerable on February 11, 1982. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 17, 1985, in Rome. Her canonization was celebrated by the same sovereign pontiff on June 10, 2001, in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, in the presence of an immense crowd of Lebanese faithful. She thus became the first Lebanese and Middle Eastern woman to be raised to the glory of the altars.

The spirituality of Saint Rafqa rests entirely on the mystery of the Cross and the salvific value of suffering experienced through love. Far from passively enduring illness, she embraced it as an active participation in the Passion of Christ for the salvation of the world and her tried Lebanese people.

She is invoked today as the patroness of the sick, the afflicted, and all those who suffer in their bodies. Her shrine at the Saint Joseph Monastery in Jrabta is a major site of pilgrimage and Eucharistic and Marian devotion in Lebanon. During her canonization, Pope John Paul II prayed that she would watch over the peoples of the Middle East in particular, who are confronted with violence, making her a figure of peace and reconciliation.