Awtel

Saint Awtel, also known as Mar Awtel, Mar Awtilios, Saint Aoutel, Saint Autel is a monk of the first centuries of Christianity venerated in the Middle East. He is celebrated on the 3rd of November (by Maronites particularly), and on the 9th of October. A church is dedicated to him in the village of Kfarsghab in North-Lebanon where his feast day is celebrated on the 3rd of June and also on the 27th of August.
==Life==
There are several versions of the life of Mar Awtel. This is the version of the Maronite book of saints (Sinksar) along with the versions presented by Youakim Moubarac.Moubarac, Youakim - Pentalogie antiochienne / Domaine Maronite - Tome II - Volume I - pages 17-18 - éditions du Cénacle Libanais - Beyrouth - 1984 
Saint Awtel is celebrated by the Byzantines, the Jacobites and the Maronites. His place and date of birth vary according to the sources. From an unknown place in modern Turkey for the Maronite Sinksar and born in the Third Century AD, he is from Lycia for the other sources and he lived during the Sixth Century AD. His feast day varies also according to the different traditions. But most sources have corroborating deeds: he escaped a forced marriage arranged by his family, spent some time in Byzantium, delivered his fellow passengers during a severe storm, went back to his place of birth after the death of his parents and finally became a monk then a hermit.
==Version of the Maronite book of saints (Sinksar)==
Mar Awtel was born in the middle of the Third Century. As a youth he was converted to Christianity and baptised. He pledged his virginity to God but his father wanted him to marry and thereby break his pledge of celibacy. To escape he left for the city Byzantium.
 
While travelling on route in a boat he encountered a severe storm endangering the boat and all on board. He prayed for deliverance and the boat was saved and as a consequence those on board were converted to Christianity and baptized.
He remained for 20 years in Byzantium until his father died, whereupon he returned to his home and became a monk. He performed many miracles, one of which was the cure of a pagan man. This cure was the reason for the conversion and baptism of ten thousand pagans. After being a monk for 12 years he became a hermit until he died in 327.
==References==
 
==See also==
The village of Kfarsghab, Lebanon
==External links==
*/ The tradition of Mar Awtel, saint patron of Kfarsghab
Category:250 births
Category:327 deaths
Category:Maronite Church
Category:Syrian saints
Category:Syrian Roman Catholic saints
Category:Lebanese saints
Category:Lebanese Roman Catholic saints
Category:Anatolian Roman Catholic saints
Category:Saints from Anatolia
Category:Eastern Orthodox saints
Category:Eastern Catholic saints
Category:Oriental Orthodox saints
Category:4th-century Christian saints
fr:Mar Awtel