K2) A Pilgrimage Site as a Votive Offering: The Cases of the Giant Statues of Mar Charbel in Faraya And Hammana (Lebanon)

Lebanon is located at the extreme east of the Mediterranean Sea and sandwiched between Syria and Israel/Palestine. What make this small country different from the others in the region are the close distances between the mountains, the sea and the green landscapes in the middle of deserted plains as well as its religious diversity with eighteen different communities. The constant evolution of sacred geography in Lebanon testifies to the importance of Christian and Muslim religious markers in the landscape. The different communities have never stopped developing and building churches, monasteries, mosques, maqams and oratories. We have also seen that in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the development of gigantic Christian projects, statues of saints and crosses. In a recently published article, I propose a reflection on this trend linked to the desire to develop religious tourism, as well as to the feeling of some Lebanese Christians of being threatened by a growing Muslim population, but also to the faith of the faithful who, in order to show their gratitude to a saint, following a miracle, dedicate a shrine to him. This chapter will focus on the construction of places of worship or sanctuaries as a votive object to ask for or thank for favors. We will pay particular attention to the two votive sanctuaries of Faraya and Hammana dedicated to St Charbel (a national icon but also a miraculous saint worldwide), which illustrate the importance of the materialization of faith as well as the desire to impregnate the territory with oversized religious markers. Both were built by devotees following miraculous healing. We will also look at the contribution of these shrines to the development of religious tourism that supports the economy of local communities.