Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Holy Ghost Catholic Church

Portuguese began arriving in Hawai‘i in large numbers to work on plantations in 1879. Many continued to be employed by the plantations even after their contracts had been fulfilled. Others, however, sought to take up independent work and on Maui turned especially to farming and ranching. The middle slope of Haleakala is an exceptionally fertile region and many people of Portuguese ancestry settled here, some homesteading the land.

Before long, this growing Catholic community felt the need for a priest. In 1882 James Beissel, a priest from Prussia, was assigned to Makawao, and his district extended from Ulupalakua around to Huelo. At some time between 1894-1897, he designed the Holy Ghost Church in Kula and supervised its construction (the only known nineteenth-century octagonal-shaped building in Hawai‘i). The two acres of land on which it was built were donated by Louis and Randal von Tempsky in Waiakoa, and the building was financed by weekly auctions of cattle by local ranchers.

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St Martin de Tours Chapel

Catholic Christian worship in Hilo was as early as 1839. The first chapel located on bay front was made from pili grass and was called Saint Martin de Tours. By 1848 the small grass chapel was replaced by a new wooden structure. In 1862 the parish of St. Martin de Tours had once again outgrown its place of worship.

A new larger church was built in the area of Kalākaua Park on Keawe and Waiānuenue Avenue; on July 9, 1862 Bishop Louis Maigret, Bishop of Honolulu dedicated the new church to Saint Joseph. By 1911, A new, larger church was needed in Hilo – the cornerstone was laid in 1917 and the church was dedicated at its present location in February 1919.

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Star of the Sea

Belgian Priest Father John Berchmans Velghe came to the Islands in 1899; he served in South Kona and built, and painted, what is known as the ‘Painted Church’ in Honaunau. His health deteriorated and he had to return to Belgium in 1904, he was never able to finish the church. Even throughout his last years he continued to paint and teach. While teaching at the Sacred Hearts’ Apostolic School at Aarschot, Belgium, in around 1924 or 1926, he met the young student Matthias Gielen, who was to become Father Evarist of Hawai‘i. Father Damien Joseph DeVeuster (now Saint Damien) preceded Father John and Father Evarist to the Island of Hawai‘i (he came in 1857.) He is credited with building the first Catholic place of worship for the Puna district.

Sometime in the early 1900s, Father Ulrich Taube, built a wooden church in Kalapana, closer to the villagers and Father Evarist replaced that church, close to the beach and villagers. The church was blessed on April 19, 1931 and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Star of the Sea. Father Evarist painted stories of the Bible on the walls, columns and ceiling of the Star of the Sea Church; he painted to instruct his parishioners (many could not read.) On January 3, 1983 the Pu‘u ‘O‘o eruption on the east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano began. Almost lost was Star of the Sea. As the lava approached, church parishioners decided to move the building to safety.

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Sisters of Charity

The first shipment of lepers landed at Kalawao (Kalaupapa) January 6, 1866, the beginning of segregation and banishment of lepers to the leper settlement. In January 1883, Walter Gibson, Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the Board of Health, appealed to obtain Sisters of Charity from one of the many sisterhoods in the US to come and help care for leprous women and girls in the Islands. One of the prime supporters of this action was the Mother Superior, Mother Marianne Cope.

On January 11, 1884, Mother Marianne arrived in Hawai‘i with Sister M Bonaventure Caraher, Sister Crescentia Eilers, Sister Ludovica Gibbons, Sister M Rosalia McLaughlin, Sister Renata Nash and Sister Mary Antonella Murphy. On April 22, 1885, a second group of sisters arrived from Syracuse as reinforcements. This included Sister Leopoldina Burns, Sister Carolina Hoffmann, Sister Martha Kaiser and Sister Benedicta Rodenmacher. Shortly after, Sister Antonia Brown, Sister M. Vincentia McCormick, Sister M. Irena Schorp and Sister Ephrem Schillinger. (More came later.)

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St Mary’s – St Joseph’s

About the beginning of February, 1842, the Catholic mission was established at Hilo; with the arrival on March 26, 1846 of five priests, two catechists and three lay-brothers, more support was provided. On April 1, 1869, a small parish school was established for the purpose of teaching English to the native Hawaiians. Father Pouzot wrote in January 1870, “I have only three now, for want of means to keep more.”

It grew with “much improved accommodations and new school rooms and dormitories.” The schools were separated and moved to different campuses in 1875; the boys to a site on Waianuenue Street and the girls on Kapiʻolani Street. In 1885 the Marianist Brothers came to Hilo to run the boys’ school and renamed it St Mary’s School. Parish staff and lay persons taught the girls at St Joseph School. In 1948, St Mary’s and St Joseph’s were consolidated into a co-educational institution.