Sept17-2004
Our Lady of Beshwet continues to draw thousands of people
September 2004
Tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims, from the USA, Australia, Canada, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt + other countries, are flocking to a small Maronite village called Beshwet, to visit Our Lady of Beshwet (Saydet Beshwet) after miracles have been reported since August 23, 2004. It started with a Muslim young boy who saw the Statue of the Virgin Mary moving and opening her eyes and closing them. He saw the Virgin Mary holding the cross of our Lord. He was surprised and asked a Christian woman if the statue was made in a way it could move. The woman said no. She thought the boy was suffering hallucinations. She continued to pray. Then, she looked at the statue and saw the Virgin moving. She cried immediately. At hearing that, the young boy’s Muslim family came into the church and asked what was going on. They were amazed seeing the statue of the Virgin Mary moving as if it was alive. Since then, people flocked to the holy place and miracles happened. A crippled man saw a light and was compelled to walk. A woman who had back problems was healed and her doctors approved that something supernatural, unexplained happened to that woman. On September 24, 2004, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (TV Station) called the little 10-year-old boy, Mohammad, who is now in his country, in Jordan. Mohammad said that the Virgin Mary appears to him every night since the end of August saying, “Mohammad, Do not be afraid.” She also teaches him how to pray. The miracles that happened in Beshwet inspired thousands of crippled, blind, lame, epileptics, the paralysed who were brought to the Mother of Jesus, the Queen of Heaven and Earth asking for healing. These events remind us of Jesus’ times when “His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.”[Mat 4:24-25]
Worshippers walk to miracle church for 8th night
Daily Star/Monday, August 30, 2004/Morshed al-Ali
Posted on 09/17/04 11:00 am
BAALBEK: Thousands of worshippers marched for the eighth consecutive night toward the Saydet Bashwat Church in Baalbek, after a child witnessed a miracle by the Virgin Mary in the old town church.
Worshippers have been spending the nights humbly praying at the church door since the alleged miracle.
The Muslim Jordanian child Mohammed Naef al-Awwad al-Hawadi, 10, was accompanying his parents on a pilgrimage to the old church when he saw the Virgin Mary's statue blink.
Bishop Boulos Monjed Hashem presided over a service at the new Saydet Bashwat Church where he gave a sermon, saying: "I believe that this is a message to return to God, to morals, to discipline, to prayers."
Worshippers who spent the night at the church said they also saw the eyes, hands and rosary of the Virgin Mary's statue move.
The miracle is not first of its kind. Tony Sukkar, 37, who resides in New York, suffered from a chronic disease, which causes a failure of movement in the upper body. Recently, Sukkar visited the old church where he prayed for his healing. Soon after, he started moving and progressively healed.
As a gesture of gratitude, Sukkar began constructing a statue of the Virgin Mary in his home town of Deir al-Ahmar.
Miracles draw crowds to Ras Baalbek. Tales of the Lady of Beshwat's miracles spread
Daily Star/Tuesday, September 07, 2004/Morshed al-Ali
Posted on 09/17/04 11:00 am
BAALBEK: Worshippers continue to flock to the miraculous Lady of Beshwat in Ras Baalbek, as tales of more miracles performed over the weekend continue to spread.
President of the Saydet Ras Baalbek Monastery, Father Elias Khodatri, told the press in Hermel that Hadi Mahrous Chaaban and his wife, and Salima Mtanios Melhem and her mother, saw the Virgin close and open her eyes. Other worshippers also saw this happen.
Asaad Chamoun, a crippled 79-year-old man, was reportedly cured in front of hundreds of people Sunday. Chamoun got up from his wheelchair and walked on his feet beside his wife Fadwa and his son Joseph, who said the old man has been crippled for seven years after a surgery he underwent.
Chamoun then walked from the old church where Our Lady of Beshwat appeared to the people, to the new church where he explained what happened to him and how he saw a light.
"I saw a light in front of me and I was compelled to walk," he said, "I tried to walk and I could do it."
Thousands flocked to the old church on Sunday. Traffic came to a standstill on the Baalbek-Deir al-Ahmar main road, prompting visitors to use the Bsharri-Cedars-Ainata road, Hermel and other roads to reach the church. However, some people even came on foot.
Civil Defense personnel and municipal police ensured the safety of worshippers, while in Deir al-Ahmar, residents offered coffee, cold water and bread to people.
News of patients being cured and the movement of the statue of the Virgin started emerging two weeks ago, after a 10-year-old boy who came from Jordan with his family on a pilgrimage claimed that he saw the phenomenon.