Saint Nimattullah Kassab

Nimatullah Kassab OLM, also known as "Al-Hardini" in reference to his birth village, (1808 – 14 December 1858) was a Lebanese monk, priest and scholar of the Maronite Church. He has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church. He was born Youssef Kassab, in 1808 in the village of Hardine, in the North Governorate of Lebanon, one of the seven children of George Kassab and Marium Raad, the daughter of a priest of the Maronite Church. As a boy, Youssef attended the school run by the monks of the Lebanese Maronite Order at the Monastery of St. Anthony in the village of Houb. After he finished his studies there in 1822, he entered the Monastery of St. Anthony in Qozhaya, entering the novitiate of the Order which had taught him in November 1828, at which time he took the monastic name of Nimatullah, which means "the grace of God". As a new monk, Kassab was assigned by the abbot of the monastery to learn how to bind books. He spent the period of his initial formation in the monastic life in frequent prayer, sometimes passing the night in prayer in the monastery church, praying to the Blessed Sacrament. Kassab made his religious profession of vows on 14 November 1830, after which he was sent to the Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Kfifan, in the Batroun District, to pursue higher studies in preparation for ordination, which took place on Christmas Day 1833. Nimatullah Al-Hardini founded a free school in Kifkan and later in Bhersaf. After ordination, he was assigned by the abbot to teach at the order's seminary and to be the director of the seminarians. Among his students was a famed member of the order, Charbel Makhlouf, now widely venerated by the entire Catholic Church. As a monk, Kassab spent his entire life in prayer and the service of his order. He served on its general council for most of the period 1845–1858, also serving as Assistant Abbot General by appointment of the Holy See, in addition to his duties in the seminary.