St Charbel's Monastery, Punchbowl

Sydney's Maronite shrine, parish, and college — and the home of Saint Charbel's relics

On 6 February 1972, a small group of Lebanese Maronite monks stepped off a plane in Sydney and set about building a church to a hermit who had not yet been canonized. Half a century later, that church at Punchbowl is one of only two shrines in the world dedicated to Saint Charbel, and the spiritual heart of the largest Maronite community in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is the full story of St Charbel's Punchbowl: the monastery, the parish, the college, and the day in 2024 when the saint's relics came to stay. For the wider picture, see our overview of the Maronite community in Australia and the parishes of Maronite Sydney.

The Lebanese Maronite Order arrives, 1972

The Lebanese Maronite Order of Monks (the Order that Saint Charbel himself joined at Annaya) came to Australia in early 1972 to serve a Lebanese community that was growing fast. Cardinal James Freeman, then Archbishop of Sydney, gave the monks permission to establish a mission.

They found premises on Highclere Avenue in Punchbowl, in Sydney's south-west, and began construction. Barely six months after arriving, the first chapel and altar dedicated to Saint Charbel were blessed. It was the first church dedicated to him outside Lebanon, built at a time when he had been beatified but not yet declared a saint.

Saint Charbel was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977. The present Church of St Charbel and the monastery buildings that stand today were completed in 1978, the year after his canonization. What began as a modest mission had become a permanent home for Maronite monastic life in Australia.

The Church and the monastery

The monastery at Punchbowl is a working religious community, not a museum. The monks pray the Divine Office, celebrate the Maronite liturgy in Syriac, Arabic, and English, and care for the thousands of families who make the parish one of the busiest in the eparchy.

The parish sits within the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney, the diocese that oversees Maronite Catholics across Australia. Alongside Our Lady of Lebanon in Harris Park and Saint Maroun's Cathedral in Redfern, Punchbowl is one of the three great pillars of Maronite life in Sydney.

The complex has grown over the decades to include the church, the monastery, the college, and St Charbel's Care Centre, which serves the elderly of the community. In 2022 the parish marked fifty years since the monks first arrived, and the jubilee celebrations carried through the following years.

Saint Charbel's College

Education was part of the mission from the start. The monks understood that a diaspora keeps its faith by teaching it, and in 1984 they founded Saint Charbel's College.

The college opened its doors on 1 February 1984 with just 78 students. It grew steadily: the secondary school for Years 7 to 10 was completed in 1991, and senior years 11 and 12 were added by 1994. Today the college enrolls close to 1,000 students from Kindergarten to Year 12.

That makes Saint Charbel's College one of the largest Maronite schools anywhere in the diaspora. Generations of Lebanese-Australian children have passed through it, learning arithmetic and English alongside the prayers, the feast days, and the Syriac chant of their grandparents.

Devotion to Saint Charbel at Punchbowl

Punchbowl draws pilgrims because Saint Charbel draws pilgrims. He is Lebanon's most beloved saint: a hermit monk whose body was found incorrupt after death, from which a healing oil is said to have flowed, and to whom more than 30,000 miracles have been attributed at his tomb in Annaya.

The parish keeps the rhythms of that devotion. The novena to Saint Charbel is prayed here, most intensely in the nine days leading to his feast on 24 July. Blessed oil is distributed to the sick. Families come with petitions written on paper, with candles, and with the quiet hope that has followed this saint across continents.

Because of a famous healing in 1993, when a Lebanese woman named Nohad El Shami reported being cured after the saint appeared to her on 22 January, many devotees honor Saint Charbel on the 22nd of every month. To understand why the faithful travel so far to be near him, read about the life of Saint Charbel and the miracles attributed to him.

The relics arrive, May 2024

On 8 May 2024, the streets of Punchbowl closed for a procession the community had waited fifty years to see. Relics of Saint Charbel had come to Australia to stay.

More than 70 white-clad pallbearers carried a glass-topped replica of the saint's tomb, weighing roughly 110 kilograms, set on a bed of more than 2,500 roses. Inside lay a first-class relic, a bone of Saint Charbel, together with a replica of his body dressed in a cassock he had worn in life.

The procession began at Punchbowl train station and moved for more than a kilometre over nearly an hour and a half. A marching band led the way. Four men swung grand incense burners. Locals lit candles in their front yards, the streetlights were dimmed, and the crowd sang hymns and prayed the rosary as they walked the tomb to its resting place at the parish.

With the relics installed, Punchbowl became the second shrine in the world dedicated to Saint Charbel, after Annaya itself. For the Maronites of Sydney, the saint who had watched over them from Lebanon was now, in a real and physical way, home.

Punchbowl and the Lebanese community

The monastery did not appear in a vacuum. Punchbowl and the surrounding Bankstown area became a heartland of Lebanese settlement through the postwar migration and the arrivals of the civil war years, when tens of thousands of Christians fled the conflict in Lebanon.

Today the neighborhood carries that heritage openly: Arabic signage, Lebanese bakeries and grocers, and the sound of the language on the street. The church anchors it. On feast days the community spills out of the monastery grounds, and the traditions carried from the villages of Mount Lebanon are lived out in full view, generation after generation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is St Charbel's Church in Sydney?

St Charbel's Monastery and Church is on Highclere Avenue in Punchbowl, in Sydney's south-west, part of the wider Bankstown area. It is served by the Lebanese Maronite Order and sits within the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney.

What is St Charbel's Monastery Punchbowl?

It is the monastery, parish, and religious complex founded by the Lebanese Maronite Order of Monks after they arrived in Australia on 6 February 1972. It includes the Church of St Charbel, the monastery community, St Charbel's College, and a care centre. The first chapel dedicated to Saint Charbel there was blessed in 1972, and the present church and monastery were completed in 1978.

Are there relics of Saint Charbel in Australia?

Yes. On 8 May 2024, relics of Saint Charbel arrived permanently at Punchbowl. A first-class relic and a replica of the saint's body were placed in a glass-topped replica of his tomb, weighing about 110 kilograms and set on a bed of more than 2,500 roses. More than 70 white-clad pallbearers carried it in procession before thousands of faithful. Punchbowl is one of only two shrines in the world dedicated to Saint Charbel.

What is Saint Charbel's College?

Saint Charbel's College is a Kindergarten to Year 12 Maronite Catholic school in Punchbowl, established by the Lebanese Maronite Order in 1984. It opened with 78 students and now enrolls roughly 1,000, making it one of the largest Maronite schools in the diaspora.

How do I pray the novena to Saint Charbel?

The novena to Saint Charbel is a nine-day prayer for healing and intercession. Many devotees pray it from 15 July to finish on his feast day, 24 July, though it can be prayed at any time. Because of a famous 1993 healing, many also honor Saint Charbel on the 22nd of every month.