Estephan El Douaihy
Maronite Patriarch, Historian
Feast: 3 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 14 March 2024 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2024)
Who they were
Stephen Douayhy was born at Ehden, in northern Lebanon, on 2 August 1630, and was orphaned at three. A precocious scholar, he was sent at eleven to the Maronite College in Rome; almost total blindness threatened his studies until he was healed after praying to Our Lady.
Back in Lebanon he taught poor children and orphans, was ordained in 1656, and became Maronite Patriarch of Antioch. He wrote important works on Maronite liturgy and history and on the Catholic faith, and lived in poverty and detachment. He died on 3 May 1704.
The miracles
A mother of three — Lebanon — from 2010
A married woman born in 1958, mother of three, suffered from 2010 with painful rheumatic polyarthritis. A neighbour and members of a lay fraternity took her to a statue of the Patriarch near their homes and prayed to him; following a local custom, her friend gave her a coffee with a little earth from the foot of the statue mixed in, which she drank with great faith. She felt a strong burning, stood up, and walked by herself to the statue to thank him. Her healing was instant, complete and lasting.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a mother of three was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 14 March 2024, opening the way to beatification.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Stephen Douayhy, with the miracle
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q1369889 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Estephan El Douaihy (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.