REVEREND FATHER JOSEPH HALLIT

1917 - 4/12/1960

 Father Hallit was born and educated in Rayak, Lebanon. At 16-years-old he joined the Basilian Chouerite Order of St John the Baptist in Khonshara, Lebanon. Father Hallit studied theology, philosophy, French and Arabic at St Joseph University, Beirut―founded in 1875 by French Jesuit missionaries.

In 1945, he was ordained and received the religious name, Joseph. Father Hallit served throughout Lebanon, including as Superior of St Elias Monastery in Zahlé.

By the late 1950s, Monseigneur Economos Chahoud was ederly and unwell and requested the assistance of a priest. In 1959, Father Hallit arrived.

He was welcomed at Sydney Airport by Monseigneur Economos Chahoud, the Church trustees and his brother, George. 

Father Hallit ministered the Arabic communities in New South Wales, Adelaide, and Victoria. In 1960, Father Hallit was killed in a car accident, when driving back to Sydney from a pastoral visit to the Melkite community in Albury NSW. He served our community for only one year. He was posthumously knighted by the Lebanese Government. 

Father Hallit died aged 43 and is buried in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney.