A Maronite monk was beatified by the Vatican on Sunday before a huge gathering of the faithful in northern Lebanon, an AFP reporter said. Archbishop Angelo Amato, special envoy of Pope Benedict XVI, read the papal decree bestowing the title of “blessed” on Estephan Nehmeh (1889-1938), who devoted his life to “meditative prayer and unlimited service to the poorest.”

The beatification of the monk, a member of the most powerful Christian church in Lebanon, was approved after doctors appointed by the Holy See in 2007 certified the “miraculous” cure of his niece, Sister Marina, from cancer. The bedridden Sister Marina, 95, attended Sunday’s ceremony. Sick for 30 years, it was she who prayed to her dead uncle to intercede for her.

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir presided over the ceremony at the Saint Justine and Saint Cyprien monastery at Kfifan, where Nehmeh’s mummified body is displayed in a glass coffin. President Michel Sleiman, who is also Maronite, and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, attended, along with other political figures and a huge crowd estimated by the organisers at more than 100,000.

Blessed Estephan Nehmeh’s (1889-1938) mummified body is displayed in a glass coffin at a monastery in Kfifan