Qadisha Valley loses its Colombian hermit: Father Escobar dies at 92

Father Dario Escobar, a Colombian hermit who became an emblematic figure of the Qadisha Valley in northern Lebanon, has died at age 92, several local media outlets reported Monday.

Originally from Medellín and born into a wealthy Colombian family, the former professor of theology, psychology and biblical Greek abandoned his former life, his fortune and his family — including six siblings — to embrace an ascetic life in Lebanon, where he settled in the early 2000s.

He took refuge in one of the hermitages of the “Valley of the Saints,” a major spiritual site carved into the mountainside and dotted with monasteries. There, he lived in near-total solitude, maintaining contact with the outside world only through occasional visitors, mainly hikers and monks.

His daily routine followed a strict discipline: 14 hours of prayer, three hours of gardening, two hours of reading and five hours of sleep. He ate only what he cultivated himself — beans, onions and potatoes — and lived without modern comforts, including television, radio, a telephone or the internet. He slept on a simple mattress covered by a wooden board and used a stone as a pillow.

In a 2009 interview with AFP from his hermitage in Hawqa, Escobar said: “I live in absolute poverty and I am happier this way. Anyone who experiences this life would want no other.”

He described the Qadisha Valley as “the ideal place for prayer and solitude,” saying he had found an inner peace there that he “would not trade for any fortune.”

“I was a wealthy man ... Money never made me happy. On the contrary, it gave me headaches. I left everything behind,” he said.

In his small office, a skull rested atop a bookshelf filled with books about the lives of saints.

“It is to prepare for death,” he explained at the time.