ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER Saints celebrated on the 14th of December WELCOME! SAINT NIMATULLAH KASSAB, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR Youssef Kassab was born in 1808 in Hardine, Lebanon. His parents, George Kassab and Marium Raad, had seven children altogether. As a boy, Youssef attended the school run by the monks of the Lebanese Maronite Order at the Monastery of St Anthony in the village of Houb. After he finished his studies there in 1822, he entered the Monastery of St Anthony in Qozhaya, entering the novitiate of the Order which had taught him. He took the monastic name of Nimatullah, which means "the grace of God". Kassab learned bookbinding to begin with. After the priestly training, Nimatullah was ordained in 1833. He was then assigned by the abbot to teach at the Order's seminary. Among his students was a famed member of the order, Charbel Makhlouf, now widely venerated by the entire Catholic Church. Nimatullah spent his entire life in prayer and the se...