The Maronite Eparchy of Australia have last month celebrated the feast of its spiritual father St Maroun on 9 February 2023, at St Maroun’s Cathedral in Redfern.
The feast was marked by the welcoming of the relics of Saint Maroun, with the relics of Saints Charbel, Rafqa and Nehmetallah and Australia’s first and beloved Saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop, as the Eparchy also launched its Golden Jubilee Year.
Maronite Eparchy of Australia Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay said that at the beginning of this Jubilee Year, the diocese can look back with gratitude.
“So much has been achieved in the past 50 years of the Eparchy, noting that the history of the Maronites in Australia is much older,” Bishop Tarabay said.
“It goes back more than 150 years. For more than 100 years, pioneer priests and religious sisters embedded the seeds also planted over 1600 years by St Maroun and his disciples,” he said.
“We can say these have come to fruition in this land enabling the establishment of an Eparchy led by a Bishop and making it possible for the Maronites of Australia to accomplish all that they have.”
In 1973 and with the arrival of the first Bishop, Abdo Khalife in July of that year, the newly formed Diocese had four priests, and three religious sisters.
In 2023, the Eparchy has 58 priests and 20 religious sisters.
In 1973, there were only four Maronite parishes, two of which were parish communities without a parish Church, and one school.
In 2023, the Eparchy has 21 churches and chapels, eight schools, five aged care centres; and a future vision reflected in its pastoral priorities (2021-2027) plan.
The relics, held in a reliquary designed specifically on the occasion of the Eparchy’s Golden Jubilee by sculptor Toufic Mourad, will visit all Maronite Catholic parishes and organisations in the coming year.
The reliquary, which is carved in one piece, is in the shape of a ship, with a phoenix at the head symbolising immortality, resurrection and life after death; Christ’s Resurrection.
The ship’s sail features the map of Australia and incorporated within it, the map and a cedar tree of Lebanon – representing holiness, eternity and peace – the roots of which are spread across Australia and reaching the Southern Cross and therefore all of Oceania.
The relics of the five saints are contained in small holds where the oars – propelling the ship forward – would typically be, representing the saints whose holiness is a force of good among us, and a source of energy that is driving us forward on our journey to heaven.
Bishop Tarabay added the relics of our saints are for the Maronite Eparchy a concrete reminder of the fact that although they seem to belong to a higher world than this earth, they really did exist.
“They were ordinary men and women of flesh and blood, just as we are,” Bishop Tarabay said.
“The fact that we do revere their relics today reminds us of their sanctity, a sanctity which can be reached by any and all with sincere and simple hearts, burning with an ardent desire to serve and worship God.
“We have certainly been blessed in this country Australia. Our growth is a sign of hope and strength for the Church in our homeland, the source of our spirituality and religious heritage and traditions.