The remains of the body of Bishop Abd'Allah Qarali from Aleppo. The founder of the Maronite Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1695 in the Holy Valley (Qadisha) in Jibbi, North Lebanon.
Qarali, along with three other Maronite Catholic young men from Aleppo, Bishop Farhat, rev.s Y. El'Bitin and G. Hawwa started the 1st Catholic religious order in the Middle East after the Western model, wherein several religious, priests and friars live under one rule, striving to follow Christ the Lord, through prayer and service of the neighbour. Consarating their life to serve God in his people, professing the vows of 1) obedience to the Church, the rules of the order and their elected superiors, 2) pauverty and 3) chastety that liberates them from being attached to the earthly desires that could prevent them from serving God in his people.
I took this picture on Jan. 17th, 2007, the feast of St Anthony the Great, so called also the father of monastic life. The pic. was taken in the Monastery of Our Lady of Louaize (OLL), Zouk Mosbeh, Kiserwan, Mt. Lebanon. Which celebrates this year its 300 years anniversary for joing OMM. The remains of A. Qarali, later bishop of Beirut, were taken out of the tomb in OLL chapel, cleaned and set back in a new casket before retured in a solemn religious celebration to rest to the left of the altar in the same chapel.