St. Nimatullah Kassab

Who they were

Nimatullah Kassab, called Al Hardini after his village of Hardine, was a monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order at Kfifan: professor of moral theology, three times assistant general of his order, and a scholar whose manuscripts and teaching formed a generation of Maronite clergy. His nights were spent before the tabernacle, and he died holding an icon of the Virgin, entrusting his soul to her.

His most consequential act sat unnoticed on a classroom roster. Among his students at Kfifan was a young monk named St. Charbel Makhlouf. He died of a winter fever in 1858 in the middle of the teaching term, was found incorrupt at reburial, and was canonized in 2004.

Why people turn to St. Nimatullah Kassab

Teachers whose fruit is their students: every formator, catechist and mentor hoping to matter through somebody else. Lebanese and Maronite families, whose shelf now stands at five with Charbel, St. Rafqa, St. Mariam Baouardy and St. Marie-Alphonsine Ghattas.

How to ask their intercession

For a student by name, and for the thing Hardini actually got: that someone in your classroom outgrow you gloriously and everyone remember them first.