The Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa is a 19th-century monastery located on the slopes of Mount Carmel. The current church and monastery was opened in 1836. Three years later Pope Gregory XVI bestowed the title of Minor Basilica on the sanctuary, and it is now known “Stella Maris”, meaning Star of the Sea. For much of the 20th Century it was occupied by the Military, first the British, and later the Israeli, but at the end of their lease it was handed back to the Carmelites.