Biography

​Rafqa in Himlaya (1832 - 1859)

Saint Rafqa was born in Himlaya, one of the villages of Northern Metn near Bikfaya in Lebanon, on June 29, 1832.
She was the only child of Saber El-Choboq Al Rayess and Rafqa Gemayel.
On July 7, 1832, she was baptized and named Boutroussieh.
Her parents taught her to love God and pray daily. At the age of seven, she suffered her first great loss with the death of her mother.
In 1843, her father experienced financial difficulties and sent her to work as a domestic servant for four years in Damascus in the house of Assaad Al-Badawi, of the Lebanese Nationality. Rafqa became a beautiful, pleasant, humorous young woman, pure and tender with a serene voice.
In 1847, she came back home to find that her father had remarried. His new wife wanted Rafqa to marry her brother. A conflict developed when her aunt tried also to arrange a marriage between her son and Rafqa.
Rafqa asked God to help her and clear her thoughts. Thus, her decision, to devote her life to Jesus Christ and to become a nun was her greatest joy.

Rafqa in the Congregation of the Mariamettes (1859 - 1871)

At that time, Rafqa felt drawn to the religious life and asked God to help her achieve her desire. She decided to go to the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Bikfaya. There, she joined the Mariamette Order, founded by Father Joseph Gemayel.
When she entered the convent church, she felt deep joy and happiness. One look at the icon of Our Lady of Deliverance was enough to confirm God’s voice who told her to enter the religious life: "You will become a nun". The Mother Superior accepted Rafqa with no questions asked. Rafqa entered the convent, and refused to go back home with her father and his wife, when they came to discourage her from becoming a nun.
Following her postulate, Rafqa wore the congregation’s robe of novice on the feast of St. Joseph on March 19, 1861. A year later and at the same date, she pronounced her temporary vows.
She was sent to the seminary in Ghazir to take charge of the kitchen services. Among the seminarians were Elias Howayek, who became a Patriarch, and Boutros El- Zoghbi, who became an Archbishop.
Rafqa studied in her free time Arabic, calligraphy and arithmetic and also helped aspiring girls to join her congregation.
In 1860, Rafqa was sent to Deir El Qamar to teach catechism. There, she witnessed the bloody clashes that occurred in Lebanon during that period. On one occasion, she risked her own life by hiding a child under her robe and saving him from death.
After a year in Deir El Qamar, Rafqa returned to Ghazir. In 1863, she was sent to teach in a school of her congregation in Byblos. One year later, she was transferred to the village of Maad. There, with another nun, she spent seven years establishing a new school for girls, this was made possible through the generosity of Mr. Antoun Issa.