TAMPA
Charbel Khashram will turn 2 next month. His parents call that a miracle. Doctors told them their child wouldn't live past two weeks after he and twin brother Issa were born 11 weeks prematurely in 2014.
That miracle, parents Falamina and Elias Khashram believe, came from St. Charbel Makhlouf, the Lebanese monk known as the "Wonderworker."
Issa was healthy, but Charbel couldn't breathe. So the parents prayed to St. Charbel and chose to name their sick son after the monk whom Catholics credit with medical miracles from across the globe.
The next day, Charbel Khashram started breathing.
Now the Tampa family plans to visit St. Charbel — or rather, his relics — which will be on display this weekend at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
The saint's bones will be at the church at 6201 Sheldon Road from noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and then on Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon. Tampa is the latest stop for the exhibit, which is visiting churches across the eastern United States.
The glass box containing his bones is being carried from church to church in a wooden replica of the saint's casket at St. Charbel Monastery in Annaya, Lebanon.
Father Paul Damien, priest of the church, said he expects the church to be filled with people praying and hoping for the healing powers of St. Charbel. The relics only leave Lebanon once every 50 years.
"My phone is nonstop ringing," he said. "Other Catholic churches are putting the information out, and people are coming from all around."
Rather than praying for a miracle, the Khashrams said they'll be there to thank St. Charbel for healing their son.
• • •
Charbel and his twin brother Issa were welcomed into the world after being carried by their mother for only 25 weeks and four days. Falamina Khashram said doctors saw the danger signs early during her second ultrasound.
"The doctor said he was worried one of the babies wouldn't be okay. I got so scared," she said. "That is when we prayed to St. Charbel, and that is when we decided to name our sick baby after him."
The next several weeks were filled with more less-than-hopeful ultrasounds, intravenous fluids, pain and bed rest. Later, after four weeks of round-the-clock care, doctors had to act.
The mother underwent an emergency C-section, and Charbel spent his first two weeks in the world attached to a ventilator in the neonatal intensive-care unit.
He suffered from a life-threatening condition called hydrocephalus, which involves a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Doctors told the Khashrams they had two choices: keep their son, or let him go.
"The doctor recommended to let him go," Falamina Khashram said. "He said he would have no quality of life. He would be a human being, but wouldn't eat, walk, talk — nothing."
With just one day to make a decision, the infant's parents prayed to St. Charbel.
"We went to the church, and we were praying and praying and praying and crying," the mother said. "You cannot believe how much we prayed. All I knew is that I could not exist in this world without my baby."
Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines
Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter
You’re all signed up!
Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Explore all your optionsThe next morning, she called the doctor to check on Charbel.
"The doctor said, 'It is a miracle. He is breathing on his own, off the machine,' " she remembered. "It was unbelievable. It is something no one can do but St. Charbel."
• • •
St. Charbel died in 1898, yet believers say his powers remain as strong as ever.
"People go to visit him before they go to visit their parents," Damien said. "It is like we are longing to go there."
However, not many have the opportunity to visit St. Charbel's relics in the Middle East. So twice a century, the relics go to the people.
Dany Sayad, head of the church council, said the church will hand out small pictures, necklaces and oils to be blessed by touching them to the box holding the relics.
"We believe he is the saint of the sick people," he said. "You never know if something can happen, you just have to believe."
Contact Megan Reeves at mreeves@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4153. Follow @mreeves_tbt.