Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 110

October 12, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Asa and Lucy Thurston Get Married

“… two of similar aspirations, introduced at sunset as strangers, to separate at midnight as interested friends.”

Let’s look back …

For a while, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) prohibited unmarried persons from entering the mission field. The Board believed that married missionaries could cope better with hardships and resist sexual temptations.

Thus, they required young men to be engaged at least two months before entering the mission field. To help the would-be missionaries find wives, the ABCFM had an ongoing list of “missionary-minded” women who were considered “young, pious, educated, fit and reasonably good-looking.” (Christian History Institute)

“Three weeks have elapsed since the departure of my sister Persis. Yesterday, during my noontide intermission, I received, at my boarding house, an unexpected call from cousin Wm. Goodell.“

“He gave me information that a Mission to the Sandwich Islands was to sail in four or six weeks, dwelt upon it with interest and feeling, and notwithstanding his efforts to assume his usual cheerfulness, now and then I saw the tear start in his eye. His conversation and appearance made me tremble.”

“At length, having prepared my mind, the proposition was made. ‘Well Lucy, by becoming connected with a missionary now an entire stranger, attach herself to this little band of pilgrims, and visit the far distant land of Obookiah?’”

“Now I feel the need of guidance. Oh, that Persis were here! Never did I so much long to see her.”

“The gentleman proposed as the companion of my life is Mr. Thurston, member of the Senior Class, in Andover Theological Institution. He had recently become an accepted missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, soon to sail for the Sandwich Islands.”

“This has all come suddenly upon him. Now that he knows the situation he is called to fill, he has no personal knowledge of one who is both willing and qualified to go with him to a foreign land. Some of his classmates were admitted to his private confidence.”

“One of them, in passing back and forth, had been entertained at Dea. Goodale’s. He spoke of his daughter Lucy, as being fitted for such a position. It proved a hinge to act upon. They knew that Goodell of the Middle Class was a relative of the family. They admitted him into their counsel to speak of the missionary qualifications of Lucy Goodale.”

“Most closely and seriously, during the last year, he has pressed the subject on my consideration, of personally engaging in the missionary enterprise. In his very last letter, recently received, he wrote thus:”

“‘When I say I hope cousin Lucy will be of the next company that go to the heathen, instead of imputing it to any desire of never seeing her again, she will rather think, that I believe her to adopt from the heart the favorite language of Spencer,—‘Where He appoints, I’ll go.’”

“The result of the whole matter was, that Wm. Goodell was appointed to obtain permission for a personal interview. So here he was, delivering his message ; adding, ‘Rebecca said, I will go.’”

“What could I say? We thoroughly discussed the subject, after which I gave permission for a visit.”

“Next week on Thursday is the anticipated, dreaded interview of final decision. Cousin William walked with me, and, as we approached the school house, bade me good-bye. I immediately entered the school, but how I longed to find my chamber, that I might give vent to the feelings of an almost bursting heart. Last night I could neither eat, nor close my eyes in sleep.”

“The subject has been to my mind utterly overwhelming, and I all alone during this season of conflict. Situated six miles from my father’s, I have no confidential friend near me to whom I can unfold my feelings.”

“Wm. Goodell fully informed my family that the waters were troubled. During the week, my two sisters from home, Eliza and Meliscent, called on and comforted me with their sympathy’ and affection. I have received, too, communications from my father.”

“But they all leave me to myself, to act agreeably to my own judgment and inclination.”

“Dear to my heart are my friends and country. Yet, all this side the grave, how transient! The poor heathen possess immortal natures, and are perishing. Who will give them the Bible, and tell them of a Savior? Great as must be the sacrifices, trials, hardships, and dangers of such an undertaking …”

“… I said, ‘If God will grant His grace, and afford an acceptable opportunity, Lucy and all that is hers, shall be given to the noble enterprise of carrying light to the poor benighted countrymen of Obookiah.’ After this decision, I could contemplate the subject with a tranquil mind and unmoved feelings.”

“The close of this day brought our expected Andover friends, Wm. Goodell and Mr. Thurston to our door, and established them in our parlor. That was a strictly private family interview. I returned home, and alone entered the house the night before. Our dwellings was completely isolated from neighbors, and not a word had been dropped of expected company.”

“We were alone in our little world. There were my father and my two brothers and their wives, all belonging to the house. There, too, was uncle Wm. Goodell, cousin William’s own father, who had lived with my father for several years, and who was in sympathy and confidences as one of us.”

“Wm. Goodell had now accomplished his mission.”

“Under the most favorable circumstances, he had opened the way and brought Mr. Thurston to Dea. Goodale’s, brought Lucy to her father’s house to interview the stranger in the bosom of her own family, amid a band of six close confidential friends, where no prying eyes or ready tongues were admitted to give intelligence to the outside world.”

“The early hours of the evening were devoted to refreshments, to free family sociality, to singing, and to evening worship. Then one by one the family dispersed, leaving two of similar aspirations, introduced at sunset as strangers, to separate at midnight as interested friends.”

“In the forenoon, the sun had risen high in the heavens, when it looked down upon two of the children of earth giving themselves wholly to their heavenly Father, receiving each other from his hand as his good gift, pledging themselves to each other as close companions in the race of life, consecrating themselves and their all to a life work among the heathen.”

“And it came to pass after that decision, that there met together a committee of Ways and Means. The first thing to be fixed upon was a programme. That was Friday, Sept. 24th.”

“Sept. 26th, Oct. 3d and 10th, would furnish three Sabbaths for publication. Then the 11th was Monday, not a convenient day, but the 12th, Tuesday, was fixed upon as the day of the wedding, and after the ceremony, the party was to proceed directly to Boston.” The image shows the Thurstons in their later years. (All from Life and Times of Mrs Lucy Thurston; Lucy Goodale Thurston)

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Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

October 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First American Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe

Jeanne Baret, a French woman from the Loire Valley, and her lover, botanist Philibert Commerson, implemented an elaborate plot so she could join him on a French expedition around the world, led by explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville.

Just before Bougainville’s ship, the Etoile, set sail in December 1766, Baret dressed as a man and showed up on the dock to offer her services – introducing herself as “Jean.”

They set sail, and over the couple of years amassed more than 6,000 plant specimens – including one they named for the expedition’s commander, bougainvillea. Although later found out to be a woman, and disembarked along the way, she later made it back to France – the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. (Cohen)

The credit of first American woman to circumnavigate the globe is given to Lucia Ruggles Holman – like Jeanne Baret’s, her trip around the world had its complications.

The 1819 departure of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to the Islands missionary was in danger of indeterminate delay because they lacked a physician.

One in the company, Samuel Ruggles, thought of Lucia, his sister, and her suitor, Thomas Holman, a physician practicing in Cooperstown, New York. If the doctor could be persuaded to join the missionary cause, events could proceed on schedule.

Ruggles thought Lucia and Thomas could marry, and then he would have the company of kin on this endeavor. However, Holman, a recent graduate of Cherry Valley Medical School in New York could not marry due to the debts incurred by the doctor’s unsuccessful practice. Then, a solution appeared in the guise of becoming missionaries.

The Prudential Committee acting on behalf of the American Board assumed the debts, purchased the necessary medical books, instruments, drugs, and supplies, and sent Holman to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall for training. (Wagner-Wright)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands.

Dr Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia joined two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

After rounding Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America) and 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawai‘i’s “Plymouth Rock” is about where the Kailua pier is today.

On April 11, King Kamehameha II gave the missionaries permission to stay. However, “The King gives orders that Dr. H. and our teacher must land at Kiarooah – the village where he now resides, and the rest of the family may go to Oahhoo, or Wahhoo.”

“(H)e wanted the Dr. to stay with them, as they had no Physician and appeared much pleased that one had come; as to pulla-pulla (learning), they knew nothing about it. Consequently it was agreed that Dr. H. & Mr. Thurston should stay with the King and the rest of the family go to Oahhoo.” (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

Things did not go smooth for the Holmans and the rest in the mission – it started on the trip over – “Long before the close of the voyage this little community began most sensibly to feel the unpropitious influence of a most refractory spirit in (Dr Holman) …”

“… (who declared) determination not to comply with the principles established by the Board, & expressed to us in the instructions of the prudential committee, for the regulation of our economical policy.”

“Both the Dr. & his wife spoke often of acquiring personal wealth & returning early if they should succeed, to their own country. The Dr. objected to subscribing to our byelaws founded on the above named principles, because he said they cut him off from his original plans.”

“He wished to acquire the miens of returning at pleasure to America, & to educate his children there &c. … When he was referred to the general tenure of our instructions, he replied … that he had not subscribed them all &c. Sister H. too, from the time of leaving Boston repeatedly talked loudly of returning to her friends.”

“He has now received the 2nd admonition – Br. Thurston says ‘it is most manifestly our duty to proceed in our course of discipline with him even to excision if he does not confess his faults & evidence repentance future amendment’”. (Bingham to Samuel Worcester, October 11, 1820)

Dr. Holman, contrary to the unanimous advice and request of the brethren, left them, and went to reside on the island of Maui, more than 80 miles from any of them. This they considered an abandonment of the mission.

“The subject is too painful to dwell on, except when imperious duty demands – All the mission family is exhausted with it and with one voice, much as they need a physician, they would desire the Dr & his wife were safely landed on their native shore.” (Bingham to Evarts, November 2, 1820)

After only four months in the islands, the Holmans had not adjusted to the spirit of the mission. (Kelley) He withdrew from the mission on July 30, 1820 and returned to the US with his family (including Lucia Kamāmalu Holman born in 1821).

On October 2, 1821, Dr. Holman and family accepted free passage home on the Mentor, a whaleship, via China and the Cape of Good Hope. Mrs. Lucia Ruggles Holman is believed to be the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe. (Portraits)

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Thomas and Lucia Holman-Samuel_Morse-400

September 29, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

When Hiram Met Sybil

“Missionaries are ambassadors of Jesus Christ, beseeching people to be reconciled to God. Their business is not with believers, but unbelievers; they are not pastors or rulers, but evangelists.”

“Their first duty is to gather a local congregation. They will be spiritual leaders to it, but will leave it to a native minister and move on to preach the gospel in some other place. The sole exception is when a church is organized and there is no suitable native pastor available.”

“The missionary should raise up ministers and give them responsibility. Too many missionaries in any area will retard the development of the churches. Missionaries should be married, and their home will be a model of Christian family life.” (Legacy of Rufus Anderson; Beaver)

“How to improve the social life of a nation so demoralized and degraded, was a problem not easy of solution. Uncouth manners were to be corrected, and modes of dress and living to be improved. Only married missionaries could do this. Living models of domestic Christian life were indispensable.” (Anderson, 1872)

Augustine George Hibbard, in his history of the town of Goshen (where the ordination took place), notes the description of the time that Hiram met Sybil (his future wife), at the ordination (September 29, 1819) of then-single missionary Hiram Bingham (as told by Reverend AC Thompson).

“Nor was there wanting a touch of romance. Next to the singing of Melton Mowbray, the incident which lingered most vividly in the recollections of the people is one which they rightly regarded as a marked interposition of God’s good providence.”

“Oral traditions in regard to it have so many slight variations of detail, that I give what will be accepted as authentic and final, an extract from a letter written, at my request, by Mr. Bingham, many years since:”

“On leaving Andover, at the close of my course there, I took a rough journey to Goshen, and as the friends were gathering thickly there, in the afternoon previously to my ordination, Mr. Thurston and myself submitted to the requisite examination which was somewhat extended to meet the rising interest in the cause of our contemplated mission.”

“I was quartered at the Rev. Mr. Harvey’s. He and others attended, in the evening, a Bible Society meeting; but fatigued with closing all up at Andover, my journey and examination, I chose to stay quietly at the house of Mr. Harvey.”

“In the course of the evening, a gentleman, Rev. Mr. Brown, called and asked for lodgings for himself and a young lady, whom he had brought with him from the valley of the Connecticut. I stepped over to the meeting, and privately asked Mr. Harvey what should be done with them.”

“He replied laconically, and with little interruption to the routine of Bible meeting business, ‘Take them to Deacon Thompson’s.’ I offered, therefore, to accompany them thither.”

“Mr. Brown went to the public house, and brought out the young lady, introduced her to me, and took us into his vehicle, and, at my direction, drove to Deacon Thompson’s.”

“I had taken cold by a night’s ride over the mountains, and I wrapped a handkerchief about my neck, chin, and mouth, that cold evening, and this awakened ready sympathy in the sensitive heart of the young lady, who had for years been warmly interested in the missionary cause.”

“Mr. Brown had introduced her as Miss (Sybil) Moseley, the name of a lady teacher at Canandaigua, NY, whom Rev. Levi Parsons had mentioned to me as a most amiable, and thoroughly qualified companion for a missionary.”

“During the whole interview, the ride, and the call at your father’s, my mind was intently querying whether this could be the very same.”

“When introduced by your kind parents into the parlor, and seated by a hospitable fire, we sat and conversed for a few minutes. I measured the lines of her face and the expression of her features with more than an artist’s carefulness, and soon took leave of her, and Mr. Brown, and the family, receiving some very generous cautions from her respecting my cold.”

“The next day I learned that she was the young lady of whom Brother Parsons had spoken so highly. I saw her in the course of the next day most intensely interested in the missionary cause, and learned a good deal about her from Mr. Harvey, Brother S. Bartlett and wife, and Brother Ruggles and wife, about to embark for the Sandwich Islands.”

“I mentioned the case to Dr. Worcester, Mr. Evarts, and my brother, and asked their counsel. A prayer-meeting was arranged at Mr. Harvey’s while I authorized Dr. Worcester to ascertain from her whether a private and special interview with me would be allowed.”

“He saw her while prayers were offered for Divine guidance. He stated my case, held up the great work at the Islands with which her soul was already filled, and left her with the words, ‘Rebecca said, I will go.’”

“Returning to Mr. Harvey’s, he told me I could see her. I gave her some account of myself, put into her hands a copy of my statement to the Prudential Committee, in offering myself to the work, asked her to unite with me in it, and left her to consider till the next day whether she could give me encouragement, or not.”

“The next day she said she would go with me to her friends, and, if they did not object, she thought she should not. It was arranged for us to ride in a chaise to Hartford. The result you know (they married less than 2-weeks later).” (Hiram Bingham)

On October 23, 1819, Hiram and Sybil, and the rest of the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries, set sail on the Thaddeus for Hawai‘i. By the middle of the trip, four of the wives were pregnant.

Sybil was pregnant when they arrived at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820. That first child of Hiram and Sybil, Sophia Mosely Bingham, is my Great-Great Grandmother.

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Portraits_of_Hiram_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

September 17, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pua‘aiki

“The truth here stated, that there is evermore a law of compensation and equipoise running through all things, has its comment and corroboration in the character and history of a remarkable man, through the earthly scene of whose labours I once passed, in order to reach the eastern extremity of the Island of Maui.” (Cheever)

“He is poor and despised in his person, small almost to deformity; and in his countenance, from the loss of sight, not prepossessing.”

“Still, in our judgment he bears on him the image and superscription of Christ; and if so, how striking an example of the truth of the Apostle’s declaration …”

“‘God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen: yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence!’” (Cheever)

The Pioneer Company of missionaries arrived in the Islands “early found among the thousands of their degraded inhabitants, a poor blind man, almost destitute of clothing, habitation, and friends. He was born at Waikapu … probably about the year 1785.”

“His barbarous mother, following many of her unnatural and murderous countrywomen, attempted to bury him alive in his infancy; but he was rescued by a relative; and surviving the ravages of pestilence, war, and private violence, he reached the years of maturity.”

“Like many of his countrymen of that dark period, he received a diminutive, degrading name, and was called Pu-a-a-i-ki, (Poo-ah-ah-ee-kee, little hog,) no faint shadow of his gross mind, his neglected childhood, and unrestrained youth.”

“In some of the Hawaiian arts he was, before the loss of his sight, more skilled than many of his countrymen. He was taught the lua – an art professed by a small class, by which a proficient, it was believed, could, without weapons or bonds, seize and hold a lonely traveller unacquainted with this art, break his bones, and take the spoil.”

“He learned also the hula … In the rehearsal or cantilation of these songs he excelled, and he often employed his skill in singing, drumming, and dancing for the amusement of the king and chiefs, by which he procured the means of subsistence”. (Bingham)

“Having a shagged head of black hair, unshielded by a hat from tropical suns and showers, and, at middle age, a beard growing at full length under the chin, the rest being plucked out, he roamed shoeless, without moral or mental culture, without hope, and without a Saviour.” (Bingham)

“In these circumstances, he attracted the notice of Kamāmalu, the favourite Queen of LIholiho, or Kamehameha II., who afterwards died in England.”

“His skill in the hula, or native dance, his being a hairy man, and other reasons not easily known at present, recommended him to the favour of the chiefs; not, indeed, as a companion, but as a buffoon. When sent for, he made sport for the Queen and other chiefs, and received in return a pittance of food and of his favourite awa.”

“On the arrival of the pioneers of the mission at Kailua, in the spring of 1820, Puaaiki was there with the chiefs, but he probably knew nothing of them or of their errand.”

“Having given permission to the missionaries to remain at the Islands for a season, the King and chiefs sailed for Oahu. Mr. Bingham accompanied them, and the blind dancer followed in their train.”

“On arriving at Honolulu, he had a severe fit of sickness. In addition to this, his disease of the eyes became much aggravated; so that, shut up in darkness, and unable to make his accustomed visits to the Queen, he was well nigh forgotten, and in danger of perishing.” (Cheever)

“He was visited by John Honolii, a native youth educated at Cornwall, Connecticut; who, seeing Puaaiki lying in this pitiable situation, was touched with.”

“Christian compassion, and spoke to him of the great and good Physician, who alone could heal his maladies and restore his sight. Puaaiki seemed to rouse up on hearing tidings of so unwonted a character, and he eagerly inquired, ‘What is that?’”

“On being again directed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Physician of souls, he said at once that he would go and hear of him. As soon as he was able to crawl out of the house, he accompanied Honolii to the place of worship, and heard for the first time the glad tidings of great joy to all people, that the Son of Man had come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Cheever)

“As the claims and proffers of the gospel were made known to this man, he was led to see that not only his life of idolatry and the indulgence of heathen passions and appetites was a course of heinous sin, but that when the forms of idolatry and the love of it were laid aside, his heart was still vile, and that he needed the washing of regeneration and the blood of Christ for cleansing.”

“This poor man did not wait for the king and chiefs to mark out for him his new and wiser course; but he took it contrary to their choice. He took it, in his poverty and weakness, at the hazard of offending them, of losing his maintenance, and encountering the sneers of his associates.”

Before any of us regarded him as a true Christian, and, as I think, before he believed himself to be such, like many of his countrymen in later years, hopefully converted, and like the early converts at Jerusalem, as he beheld and admired the new and heavenly light, he began early to recommend to others a serious attention to the word and kingdom of God.” (Bingham)

“While he cherished a desire to be a doer of the word, the grandeur of the objects and the force of the truths presented to him in the gospel, helped him successfully to cultivate his mental powers. Unattracted by the objects of sight in public worship, he heard perhaps better than others; and having more leisure through the week, he reflected more.” (Bingham)

“That man was the first convert to Christianity at these Islands, and the first who received the Christian ordinance of baptism, formally introducing him to the fellowship of the universal Church, under the Christian name of Bartimeus, on the tenth day of July, 1825.”

“His name is on heavenly records, and it is familiar to the ear of Protestant Christendom, as the Blind Hawaiian Preacher, or Bartimeus L Pua‘aiki.”

“Though derided, it does not appear that he was opposed in any way, or prevented from seeking instruction; and some of the chiefs themselves, for whom he had made sport, soon after became kindly disposed to the new religion, and all of them, at length, friendly to the Mission.” (Cheever)

“Regarding himself as a sinner, and relying alone on the merits of Christ for justification, Bartimeus was distinguished for uniform humility, notwithstanding the deference of the people, the esteem of his brethren, the confidence of the missionaries, and the respect of the chiefs, that were shown him.” (Bingham)

“Residing chiefly at Wailuku for some two years, he itinerated and preached at many villages around the island, generally about three Sabbaths in a month at out-stations from five to twenty miles distant.”

“In the early part of 1842, our collective mission … say, “Bartimeus the blind preacher of Maui is regularly licensed as a preacher, and labors both abundantly and successfully in the wide and destitute regions of that island.”

“As a preacher generally solemn in his manner, Bartimeus made free use of the very language of Scripture with striking appositeness, quoting verbatim, and often book, chapter, and verse, with great accuracy and astonishing facility.”

“The verse-system, so useful to the Hawaiians, of committing to memory a verse a day of the sacred oracles, and reciting seven verses a week at the Sabbath-school, doubtless contributed materially to his familiarity with the Bible, and his readiness to aid in Sabbath-school labors, and more generally to instruct and guide those who were ready to hear him.”

“Grace, that had rescued, sanctified, and borne him thus far, sustained him as he was stepping down into the valley of the shadow of death. His conversation was in heaven.”

“Calmly and peacefully he leaned upon his Saviour, whom for twenty years he had endeavored to serve; and on Sabbath evening, September 17, 1843, he surrendered his liberated spirit into his gracious hands.” (Bingham)

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Bartimeus of the Sandwich Islands-Bingham

September 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Holy Ghost Catholic Church

Elizabeth (Isabel) was a Spanish princess who was given in marriage to King Denis of Portugal at the age of twelve. She was very beautiful and very lovable. She was also very devout, and went to Mass every day. (Catholic-org)

Queen Elizabeth died on July 4th, 1336. She was 65 years of age, perhaps somewhat older, and had incorporated into her passage through this earth prayers, sacrifices, interventions for peace among monarchs, acts of worship, and works of mercy too numerous to mention in this brief piece.

Almost three centuries after her death, His Holiness Pope Urban VIII inexplicably broke his reported vow that there would be no canonizations during his Pontificate: He canonized St. Elizabeth of Portugal on Holy Trinity Sunday, May 25th, 1625. (SaintsCatholic)

Centuries later, 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. (NPS)

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. (Kula Catholic Community)

The octagonal shape of the structure, according to local belief, derives from the fact that it corresponded with the shape of a replica of the crown of Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, which the church housed.

The crown of St. Elizabeth plays an important role-in the Portuguese community’s Holy Ghost celebration. According to folk beliefs in the Azore Islands, from which many of Hawaii’s Portuguese population immigrated, Queen Elizabeth gave the Catholic Church her crown after she had prayed to the Holy Ghost and her people were delivered from famine. (NPS)

The richly decorated altar and the Portuguese language Stations of the Cross were commissioned by Father Beissel in 1895 and were carved by the famous artisan and master woodcarver, Ferdinand Stuflesser, from Groden, Tirol, Austria.

Shipped in nine separate crates around the Cape of Good Hope to Hawai‘i, the altar and stations were hauled by oxcart from Kahului Harbor to Waiakoa and reassembled by the faithful members of the parish.

They are recognized now as examples of museum-quality ecclesiastical art of that time. In January of 1899 Bishop Ropert Gulstan of Honolulu arrived to officiate at the formal dedication the church. (Kula Catholic Community)

This frame church, the only known nineteenth-century octagonal-shaped building in Hawai‘i, is approximately sixty feet in diameter. Its steep, corrugated-metal hipped roof is surmounted by a mock clerestory with a blind arcade and terminates with a steeple supported on a round-arched arcade with a balustrade.

Tuscan columns serve as corner posts for the eighteen-foot-high, tongue-and-groove walls, six of which have round-arched stained glass windows. The interior is a large octagonal space with the chancel at the north end opposite the entrance and choir loft.

Four central Tuscan columns carry an octagonal rib-vaulted, tongue-and-groove ceiling. The stations of the cross are unusual in that they are inscribed in Portuguese rather than Latin or English. (SAH Archipedia)

In 1991, under the leadership of Father Michael Owens, a major restoration of the church and altars was initiated, requiring the closure of the church for about one year. In 1995, the parish was able to celebrate its Centennial year in its resplendent, restored condition.

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