In his spartan hermitage several kilometers up a narrow footpath in northern Lebanon’s Qadisha Valley, only one trait remains from Dario Escobar’s previous life — a love of soccer.
The 75-year-old recluse hails from a wealthy Colombian family and lived a life of ease before withdrawing from the world when he arrived nine years ago at the stone-built Hawka monastery, located inside a cave.
“We lived in a comfortable house in a fashionable neighborhood. I was a fortunate man,” said Father Dario, whose only possession now is a worn-out hand-me-down black cassock.
PHOTO: AFP
The family, comprising his parents and his six brothers and sisters, lived in Medellin in northwest Colombia, though the priest denies any link with the notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, who hailed from the same town.
“Money never made me happy. On the contrary, it brought me headaches. I gave up everything and heeded God’s call,” said the hermit, who sports a long gray beard and has a deeply creased gentle face. “Anyone who has tried this life would not want any other.”
Qadisha, nicknamed Valley of the Saints because of its many convents and hermitages, “is the ideal place for prayer and solitude,” Father Dario said.
He said he arrived in Lebanon in the early 1990s after meeting a Lebanese priest in the US who boasted about the natural and spiritual beauty of the country.
He spent several years in various monasteries and hermitages throughout Lebanon before choosing Qadisha as his new home.
A rambler walking far along a rocky, steep trail in the region’s lush glades may sometimes catch a glimpse of his ascetic, ghostlike silhouette.
“Here, I find an inner peace which I would not give up even for the greatest of fortunes,” the hermit said.
Father Dario’s pillow is a lump of stone and a wooden board covers a thin mattress, while a cross, a candle and an alarm clock are the ornaments in his tiny bedroom.
“I can no longer sleep on a pillow,” he said. “I eat what I grow. Anything I cannot prepare here they bring me from the nearby convent.”
His vegetarian menu boasts beans, onions and potatoes all grown in a kitchen garden sometimes raided by squirrels and wild boar.
Father Dario used to be a lecturer in theology, psychology and Biblical Greek, but now “as a hermit, I live in absolute poverty and I am happy like that. No newspapers, no telephone, no television, no radio and of course no Internet or Facebook.”
He has not returned to his country, nor seen his family in 20 years.
“I don’t want them to come here and I pray for Colombia, but I don’t want to go back there,” he said.
Apart from a few monks, hikers wandering near his hermitage are his sole contacts with the outside world.
“Usually, I speak to no one, though sometimes people who think a hermit must know the future come and ask me: ‘Will I find a husband? A job?’” he said.
His passion for soccer no longer plays any part in his daily routine comprising 14 hours of prayer, three of cultivating his garden, two of reading mystical books and five of sleep.
“I am not allowed to sleep longer than that ... nor to cut my beard in accordance with Vatican rules,” the recluse said.
In his office, a skull stands over a bookcase full of lives of the saints.
“It is to prepare for death,” he said.
Despite his life of silence, Father Dario says he is never bored and even claims that others have a more ascetic lifestyle.
“There is another hermit in the valley, but he never talks to anyone. He hasn’t for years,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese