Our Purpose.

The purpose of the Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center is to assist each person who comes to the Center, in person or online, to develop an interior spiritual life based on the teaching and example of the great mystics of the Church.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center will be affiliated with the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn.

A Director, Board of Advisors and Financial Advisory Council will constitute the Center’s governance under the direction of the Eparchial Bishop.

The Center was originally designed by the late Fr. Adrian van Kaam and Dr. Susan Muto as a Center for spiritual formation, with 10,000 books on spirituality and a sterling reputation for fidelity to Church Teaching and Doctrine.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center will continue their formative work - now with a distinct Maronite flavor, combining the best of Catholic studies East and West on the interior life.

Saint Sharbel’s intercession will be actively sought, not just for favors asked and for miracles, but also to ask this great wonderworker of the Church to help deepen our own interior lives as we grow in the universal call to holiness.

The Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center is located on over 3 acres adjacent to Our Lady of Victory Maronite Parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Center has meeting and conference rooms, a chapel, library, offices and places for quiet prayer.

Bishop Gregory John Mansour

Gregory John Mansour was born on November 11, 1955, in Flint, Michigan, the eldest of six children of George and Gloria (Farhat) Mansour. His ancestors trace their heritage from Ehden, Tibneen, and Damour in Lebanon, from Nazareth in Palestine (now Israel), and from Damascus, Syria.

He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Health Education from Western Michigan University in 1977. He entered Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Seminary in Washington, D.C., later that year. In 1981 he received a Post Graduate Degree in Theological Studies (STB) from Catholic University of America.

On September 18, 1982, he was ordained to the Priesthood by Bishop John Chedid at Our Lady of Lebanon Church, Flint, Michigan. After studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, he completed his Degree in Spiritual Theology (STL) in 1983.

In October of 1983 he became Pastor of Saint George Church in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Between 1987 and 1994 he was responsible for Deacons and Subdeacons in the Diocese of Saint Maron – USA.

In 1994 a second Maronite Eparchy, Our Lady of Lebanon, was established in the United States. Bishop John Chedid was made its first Bishop, and he asked Fr. Mansour to serve as the Vicar General, Chancellor and Financial Officer of the new Eparchy located in Los Angeles, California.

Father Mansour was ordained to Chorbishop on January 21, 1996, by Bishop John Chedid. Between 1998 and 2001, he attended U.C.L.A. as a graduate student in the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures program with special emphasis on Islamic Studies.

In March 2001, at the request of Bishop Robert Shaheen, the second Bishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, Chorbishop Mansour relocated to Saint Louis, Missouri remaining in his post as Vicar General, Chancellor, and Chief Financial Officer, and assuming the additional role as Rector of Saint Raymond Cathedral. He also taught Spiritual Theology at the Saint Louis Archdiocese Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in 2002 and 2003.

In January 2004, Pope John Paul II named him third Bishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn. Bishop Mansour was ordained in Lebanon by Patriarch Nasrallah Peter Cardinal Sfeir on March 2, 2004, and was installed as Bishop in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon on April 27, 2004.

Bishop Mansour has served on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Pro Life, Catechesis, Evangelization, and Family Life Committees, He serves as Catholic Co-Chair of the Catholic-Oriental Orthodox Dialogue.

He had also served as Secretary for Christian Arab and Middle Eastern Churches Together (CAMECT) he was a member of the Board of Trustees for The Catholic University of America, was the Board Chair for Catholic Relief Services, and currently serves on the Boards of Aid to the Church in Need, Caritas Lebanon and Telelumiere/Noursat, and In Defense of Christians (IDC) to support and advocate for persecuted Christians. Bishop Mansour is also an active member of the Maronite Synod of Bishops that meets every year in Lebanon.

The Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn is composed of 46 parishes and missions, a Seminary in Washington D.C., a Convent for 3 nuns in Dartmouth, Mass, and a Monastery for 18 monks in Petersham, Mass.

Vincent Michael

Vincent Michael is a subdeacon from St Teresa of Calcutta Maronite Mission in Baden PA, and a native of Western Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Grove City College and the Catholic University of America and has had a long interest in the Syriac heritage of the Maronite Catholic Church.

Dr. Anne Borik

Dr. Anne Borik is a Catholic medical physician and is board certified in Internal Medicine. She is founder of the worldwide prayer group called the Saint Sharbel Global Prayer Net.

Dr. Borik was the lead physician investigating the miraculous healing of the blind woman who fully regained her sight through the intercession of St. Sharbel in 2016 at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Phoenix, Arizona. She has led many retreats across the country and is excited to be the Director of the Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

Paul Kengor Jr.

Paul Kengor Jr. is a graduate of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania where he studied philosophy, and spent a brief time in seminary with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie. He worked as a teacher for the Great Hearts Academies in Texas before beginning work at the Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center in Pittsburgh, PA.