In 1843, her father experienced financial difficulties and sent her to work as a servant for four years in Damascus at the home of Assaad Al-Badawi.

In 1860, while still stationed in Ghazir, Rafqa's superiors sent her on a temporary posting to Deir-el-Qamar, in Mount Lebanon - Shouf, where she helped the Jesuit mission.

[6] Sister Rafqa's first assignment in the congregation was in charge of the kitchen service in the Jesuit school in Ghazir, where she spent seven years.

She was placed in charge of the workers and had the task of giving them religious instruction in a spinning mill in Scerdanieh, where she remained for two months.

[8] In 1871, the "Mariamettes" religious institute merged with another to form the Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

[8] On July 12, 1871, at the age of thirty-nine, Rafqa began her novitiate into the new monastery and then on August 25, 1873, she "professed her perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the spirit of the strict Rule of the Baladita Order".

'"[6]Rafqa continued in her account to her superior, the next night after the prayer "At the moment of sleeping I felt a most violent pain spreading above my eyes to the point that I reached the state you see me in, blind and paralyzed, and as I myself had asked for sickness I could not allow myself to complain or murmur.

Upon the persuasion of the priest Estefan, Rafqa consulted a visiting American doctor who strongly suggested that the affected eye be removed.

Estefan later recounted, "Before the operation I asked the doctor to anesthetize the eye so that Rafqa would not feel any pain but she refused.

She continued to experience intense pain in her head, but considered this an opportunity to share in Jesus' Passion.

Due to the harsh winters at the Monastery of St. Simon, Rafqa was permitted to spend the coldest months on the Lebanese coast as a guest of the Daughters of Charity and then of the residence of the Maronite Order.

Unable to observe the Rule at these locales, Rafqa asked to be taken to the Monastery of St. Elias at El Rass, which belonged to her order.

In 1897, the Lebanese Maronite Order decided to build a monastery of St. Joseph al Dahr in Jrabta, Batroun.

[13] On June 9, 1984, the vigil of Pentecost, in the presence of the Pope John Paul II, the decree approving the miracle of Elizabeth Ennakl, who was said to have been completely cured of uterine cancer in 1938 at the tomb of Rafqa, was promulgated.

On November 16, 1985, Pope John Paul II declared Rafqa Al Rayess a Blessed, and on June 10, 2001, he proclaimed her to be a saint at a solemn ceremony in the Vatican.