Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 118

January 20, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Painted Church

O ke kea hemolele ko‘u malamalama
Hele oe pela i Satana
He poino kou mea i ninini mai ai
Aole o Satana ko’u alakai
Ua oki oe me kou mea pau wale
Nau no e inu kou poino

The Holy Cross be my light
Begone, Satan
You have poured forth trouble
Satan is not my guide
Stop with your perishable things
Drink your own misfortune

Mottoes of St Benedict’s medal in Hawaiian, painted on the ‘Painted Church’.

“He held the brush almost to the end of his life, until the day when his poor eyes refused their service. When he realized that, even with the strongest glasses, he could no longer command the brush as he wished …”

“… he understood that God demanded of him a huge sacrifice which he dreaded.” (Father John, Congregation of the Sacred Hearts at Rome; NPS)

This is a story about a Belgian Priest Father John Berchmans Velghe and a church he built, and painted, in Honaunau, South Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i.

The history of the Church began early in 1842. At that time, Father Joachim Marechal, SS.CC. was assigned to care for both South Kona and Ka‘u Districts.

He set his residence and first chapel on the border of the two Districts. Within a short time, due to Father Joachim’s zeal and zealous work and teaching of several lay catechists, the Church was firmly established in South Kona.

The first Catholic school in the area opened at Honaunau beach village under the care of Serapia, a catechist, and Clement Hoki, a school teacher, the missionary priests lived in South Kona only intermittently until about 1859.

The original chapel, located on the shore of Honaunau Bay near the Puʻuhonua o Honaunau (City of Refuge) was known as St Francis Regis Chapel.

Father Joachim died unexpectedly April 12, 1859. Father Aloys Lorteau, SS.CC., his successor, took up residence in Honaunau and served there for 37 years until 1898, when he died aboard the vessel, Maunaloa, on Easter Monday on his way to Honolulu for medical and hospital attention.

By the mid-1880s most of the Honaunau people had moved away from the beach area to more fertile soil about two miles up the slopes. Father John became resident priest who replaced Father Aloys in December, 1899.

Father John was born in Courtrai, Belgium, July 14, 1857. His baptismal name was Joseph Velghe. He attended the academy at Sarzeau in Brittany and became a novice at Mitanda de Ebro in Spain.

He studied at the Sacred Hearts’ Scholasticate in Louvain, where on June 29, 1888, he was ordained a priest. Velghe was a member of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Society, familiarly known as the Picpus Fathers; Father Damien was a member of this Society.

At the ordination Joseph Velghe took the name of Father Jean Berchmans Velghe after a sixteenth century Belgian who had been canonized a Saint.

Father John was sent to the Marquesas and remained there until a tropical fever forced him to leave in 1899. He was then instructed to go to South America.

However, a yellow fever epidemic blocked the sea lanes and he was re-assigned to the district of South Kona and put in charge of the Catholic Churches and parishes from Honaunau to Hoʻopuloa.

Then he began the task of building a new church; he moved what he could of St. Francis Regis Chapel to upper Honaunau. Saint Benedict’s Church was built between 1899 and 1902. It is a small rectangular structure with a vaulted interior ceiling.

Although the structure he built does not present anything innovative architecturally, its interior space is both artistically and architecturally important, for the artwork serves as an extension of the architecture. (NPS)

The structure is “a little masterpiece of imaginative functionalism, of unity between structure, adornment, and architectural purpose.”

The columns within the structure are the trunks of painted coconut palm trees, and the altar wall, with carefully illusionistic perspective, transfers the soaring reaches of the Burgos Cathedral in Europe to Honaunau. (NPS)

Father John had no formal training as an artist, natural talent shines through his work. It is even more remarkable that his materials were ordinary building wood and regular house paint. Even that was not easy to come by at the time of construction.

Designed, constructed and painted as a miniature European Gothic Cathedral by Father John, St. Benedict Church is now considered to be rather unique in the annals of American Art.

An excellent teacher and self-taught artist, Father John painted the interior walls of the church with some striking scenes of the Bible which depict various important religious truths. His biblical murals soon became famous, and St. Benedict Church came to be known as “The Painted Church.”

It has become a major tourist attraction of the Kona coast, and thousands of visitors come to see it every year. It is listed in the Hawaii State Register of Historical Places and the National Register of Historical Places.

Father John’s health deteriorated and he had to return to Belgium in 1904, he was never able to finish the church. He went to the scholasticate in his place of birth, Courtrai, for two years.

Then he lived for short periods in the monasteries of the Sacred Hearts, residing in a number of their establishments in the Low Countries.

Even throughout his last years he continued to paint. A few of his works are still preserved in Europe – such as his “Seven Sorrows of Mary”, copied from the like-named series of pictures by the noted Belgian painter Joseph Janssens, in the Church of Saint Anthony in Louvain. (NPS)

As a teacher, 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, the artist who did the churches at Mountain View and Kalapana on the Island of Hawai‘i.

With advancing age, and unable to care for himself, Father John was placed in a Sanitarium at Lierre, Belgium in 1935; he died there on January 20, 1939, at the age of eighty-one. (Lots of information here is from NPS and Painted Church.)

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Inside_view_of_the_Painted_Church-WC

Temptation of Jesus. The devil is being cast down along with a crown, a sceptre and bags of money

St Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata

Cain and Abel-with great anguish and violence

The Hardwriting on the Wall at the Feast of King Belshazzar

Hell

Detail_of_palm

A Good Death-notice the rays of hope

St_Benedict’s_Painted_Church_-_Exterior-WC

January 16, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Do not forsake me and let me perish”

Gerrit P Judd was a physician with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM.) He later left the mission to accept an appointment serving the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Simon P Kalama, a land surveyor by profession, and also later an elected representative to the legislature, earlier served as an assistant to Dr Judd.

On January 16, 1841 Kalama saved Judd from death in the crater of the volcano Kilauea. (Twain)

“The visit of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1840, ’41, and ’42, with sixty officers and a scientific corps, men of rare talents and polished manners, was no common event in our isolated kingdom.”

“Commander Wilkes set up his observatory on shore and occupied for some months the house and premises of the Premier. The scientific gentlemen pursued their researches in their several departments with indomitable energy …”

“… surveying our coasts and harbor, measuring the heights of the mountains, penetrating the deep glens of the forests for rare plants, scaling precipices for birds, and diving into ocean’s depths for specimens of its varied and beautiful tenantry.”

“The crowning exploit of the expedition was the ascent of Mauna Loa on Hawaii, for making observations on the vibrations of the pendulum. Choice and heavy apparatus, house material and food for the party were transported sixty miles on men’s shoulders, and up a high mountain of rugged lava. Dr Judd accompanied the expedition as interpreter and overseer of the natives.” (Laura Judd)

“So striking was the mountain, that I was surprised and disappointed when called upon by my friend, Dr. Judd, to look at the volcano of Kilauea; for I saw nothing before us but a huge pit, black, ill-looking, and totally different from what I had anticipated.”

“There were no jets of fire, no eruptions of heated stones, no cones, nothing but a depression, that, in the midst of the vast plain by which it is surrounded, appeared small and insignificant.”

“We hurried to the edge of the cavity, in order to get a view of its interior, and as we approached, vapor issuing from numerous cracks showed that we were passing over ground beneath which fire was raging. The rushing of the wind past us was as if it were drawn in wards to support the combustion of some mighty conflagration.” (Wilkes)

“We pitched our tents in full view of the volcano … At the edge of the pool, or lake of fire, the light was so strong that it enabled me to read the smallest print.”

“The day we remained at the volcano was employed by the natives in preparing their food, by boiling it in the crevices on the plains from which the stream issues: into these they put the taro, &c., and closed the hole up with fern-leaves, and in a short time the food was well cooked.”

“About four o’clock a loud report was heard from the direction of the boiling lake, which proved to have been caused by a large projecting point of the black ledge near the lake which we had visited the evening before, having fallen in and disappeared.”

“The crater of Kilauea offered one of the most interesting scenes witnessed during the voyage; and after our long residence in the cold regions, we enjoyed the prospect of fully exploring it in the actual survey of its limits.”

“The large sulphur bank to the north was the first to claim our attention. We descended into the chasm of some forty feet in depth, out of which steam and the vapors of Sulphur were issuing, as far as the heat would permit, and in the cavities we
obtained some beautiful specimens of crystallized sulphur of large size.”

“Dr. Judd volunteered to head a party to go in search of some specimens of gases, with the apparatus we had provided, and also to dip up some liquid lava from the burning pool.” (Wilkes)

“I went down into Kilauea on the 16th to collect gases, taking a frying pan, in hopes of dipping up some liquid lava. Kalama went with me to measure the black ledge, and I had five natives to carry apparatus and specimens.” (Judd)

“After making various unsuccessful attempts to collect gases and obtain specimens, he came to one of the small craters, and thence passed up a considerable ascent, towards the great fiery lake, at the southern extremity, which had been formed by successive overflowings of the lava.”

“This rock, or rather crust, was almost black, and so hot as to act on spittle just as iron heated to redness. On breaking through the upper crust, which was somewhat brittle, and two or three inches thick, the mass beneath, although solid, was of a cherry red.”

“The pole with which the crust was pierced took fire as it was withdrawn. It was not deemed prudent to venture nearer; although the heat might have been endured, yet the crust might have been too weak to bear the weight, and to break through would have been to meet a death of the most appalling kind ; they were therefore compelled to return and seek another spot.”

“We descended the black ledge, placed the tube for gases, and went in search of liquid lava. As we passed a small crater, quite cool apparently, I observed a quantity of ‘Pele’s hair’ on the sides, and stopped to gather it. I stepped by degrees from one stone to another, gathering and handing the specimens to Kalama, till I had passed quite under the ledge.” (Judd)

“While thus advancing, he saw and heard a slight movement in the lava, about fifty feet from him, which was twice repeated; curiosity led him to turn to approach the place where the motion occurred.”

“In an instant, the crust was broken asunder by a terrific heave, and a jet of molten lava, full fifteen feet in diameter, rose to the height of about forty-five feet, with the most appalling noise.”

“He instantly turned for the purpose of escaping, but found he was now under a projecting ledge, which opposed his ascent, and that the place where he descended was some feet distant.”

“The heat was already too great to permit him to turn his face towards it, and was every moment increasing; while the violence of the throes, which shook the rock beneath his feet, augmented. Although he considered his life as lost, he did not omit the means for preserving it, but offering a mental prayer for Divine aid, he strove, although in vain, to scale the projecting rock.” (Wilkes)

“The heat was intense. I could not retrace my steps and face the fire, so I turned to the wall, but could not climb over the projecting ledge. I prayed God for deliverance, and shouted to the natives to come and take my hand, which I could extend over the ledge so as to be seen.”

“Kalama heard me and came to the brink, but the intense heat drove him back. ‘Do not forsake me and let me perish,’ I said.” (Judd)

“(He) saw the friendly hand of Kalumo (Kalama,) who, on this fearful occasion, had not abandoned his spiritual guide and friend, extended towards him.”

“Ere he could grasp it, the fiery jet again arose above their heads, and Kalumo (Kalama) shrunk back, scorched and terrified, until, excited by a second appeal, he again stretched forth his hand, and seizing Dr. Judd’s with a giant’s grasp, their joint efforts placed him on the ledge. Another moment, and all aid would have been unavailing to save Dr. Judd from perishing in the fiery deluge.”

“The rest of the natives were some hundred yards distant, running as fast as their legs could carry them. On calling to them, they returned and brought the frying-pan, by which time the crater was full of lava, and running over at the northern side, where Dr. Judd was …” (Wilkes)

“The crater filled up in a few minutes, and I took the frying pan, which was lashed to a long pole, and dipped it full, but finding it imperfect, emptied it, procured another …” (Judd)

“He now found he had no time to lose; the lava was flowing so rapidly to the north, that their retreat might be cut off, and the whole party destroyed. Dr. Judd was burned severely on each wrist and on his elbows, and Kalumo’s (Kalama) face was one blister.”

“The eruption from Judd’s crater was great in the evening; the lava was flowing as fluid as water over the whole of the northern portion of the bottom. The most brilliant pyrotechnics would have faded before it.” (Wilkes)

Here is a brief video showing Moses Goods portraying Kalama and describing his rescue of Judd:

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Kilauea-Wilkes-Expedition-1845

January 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1840s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1840s – first Hawaiian Constitution, the ‘Paulet Affair,’ Whaling and Great Mānele. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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January 7, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Palapala

“Perhaps never since the invention of printing was a printing press employed so extensively as that has been at the Sandwich islands, with so little expense, and so great a certainty that every page of its productions would be read with attention and profit.” (Barber, 1833)

The members of the Sandwich Islands Mission sent from Boston by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) had in their collective mind it was absolutely essential to have printed material available as soon as possible to reinforce their efforts in disseminating the gospel across the Islands.

The missionaries began their printing activities even before they had settled on a standard alphabet and spelling for the previously unwritten Hawaiian language.

So they set to work almost immediately and in only two years completed the complicated task of developing a preliminary written language. However, the final decisions in choice between ‘t’ and ‘k,’ ‘b’ and ‘p,’ ‘r’ and ‘l,’ ‘v’ and ‘w’ were made later.

Only after prolonged discussion among the members of the group and their native informants. Agreement was reached in 1826, when the Hawaiian alphabet was established with twelve letters: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p and w.

“The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the brig Thaddeus, at Honolulu …. It was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin, and was set up in a thatched house standing a few fathoms from the old mission frame house”. (Hunnewell; Ballou)

On Monday, January 7, 1822, an event took place that would have enormous importance for the Islands. Standing beside a printing press in a grass-roofed hut, and observed by an American printer, shipmasters, missionaries, and traders, Chief Ke‘eaumoku put his hand on the press lever, exerted pressure, and printed wet black syllables in Hawaiian and English. (HHS)

At this inauguration there were present his Excellency Governor (Ke‘eaumoku (Gov. Cox,)) a chief of the first rank, with his retinue; some other chiefs and natives; Rev. Hiram Bingham, missionary; Mr. Loomis, printer, (who had just completed setting it up); James Hunnewell; Captain William Henry and Captain Masters (Americans.) (Ballou)

These were the first printed pages created in Hawai‘i for an eight-page speller to be used in Hawaiian schools sponsored by the Protestant Mission. (None of which now survive.)

“We are happy to announce to you that, on the first Monday of January (1822), we commenced printing, and, with great satisfaction, have put the first eight pages of the Owhyhee spellingbook into the hands of our pupils”.

Native Hawaiians immediately perceived the importance of “palapala” – document, to write or send a message. “Makai” – “good” – exclaimed Chief Ke‘eaumoku, to thus begin the torrent of print communications that we have today. (HHS)

Thereafter, printing on the first press, a second-hand Ramage, went on continuously for six years, until in 1828 an additional press was sent from Boston. The original press was acquired by the missionary school at Lahainaluna on Maui in 1834.

“… until March 20, 1830, scarcely ten years after the mission was commenced, twenty-two distinct books had been printed in the native language, averaging thirty-six small pages, and amounting to three hundred and eighty-seven thousand copies, and ten million two hundred and eighty-seven thousand and eight hundred pages.”

“This printing was executed at Honolulu, where there are two presses. But besides this, three-million three-hundred and forty-five-thousand pages in the Hawaiian language have been printed in the United States (viz. a large edition of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John) …”

“… which swells the whole amount of printing in this time, for the use of the islanders, to thirteen-million six-hundred and thirty-two thousand eight hundred pages.”

“Reckoning the twenty-two distinct works in a continuous series, the number of pages in the series is eight-hundred and thirty-two. Of these, forty are elementary, and the rest are portions of Scripture, or else strictly evangelical and most important matter, the best adapted to the condition and wants of the people that could be selected under existing circumstances.” (Barber, 1833)

In the meantime, a Wells-model press arrived at Lahainaluna in 1832 and it carried the major load of the printing there. Elisha Loomis, a member of the Pioneer Company, was the first printer of Hawaiian material. With the help of native apprentices, he worked at his trade in Honolulu until 1827, when, health failing, he returned to America.

The presses of the Sandwich Islands Mission in Honolulu and Lahainaluna were the major printers of books in Hawaiian in the Islands until 1858, when the work of printing for the Mission was handed over on a business basis to Henry M. Whitney, a missionary son.

He continued to handle the Hawaiian language books for the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, which had superseded the Sandwich Islands Mission in 1854.

The Bible was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew by the combined efforts of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston of the Pioneer Company, Artemas Bishop and James Ely of the Second Company, William Richards, Lorrin Andrews, Jonathan Green, and Ephraim Clark of the Third Company, and Sheldon Dibble of the Fourth Company.

Although the work was begun in 1822, the first segment of the Bible, the Gospel of Luke, did not come off the press until 1827. The rest of the New Testament was completed by 1832 and the Old Testament in 1839 (although the date given on the title page is 1838).

The mission press printed 10,000-copies of Ka Palapala Hemolele (The Holy Scriptures). It was 2,331-pages long printed front and back.

The mission press also printed newspaper, hymnals, schoolbooks, broadsides, fliers, laws, and proclamations. The mission presses printed over 113,000,000 sheets of paper in 20 years. (Mission Houses) (Lots of information here is from Mission Houses, Barber and Judd.)

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Ramage Press replica at Mission Houses

Honolulu-Mission-Houses-Press-Interior

Honolulu-Mission-Houses-Press-Sign

NORTH ELEVATION – Mission Printing Office-(LOC)

Lahainaluna_seminary_workshop,_mechanical_printing_press_and_movable_type_in_type_case_in_background,_ca._1895

Hale_Pai

Maui-Lahaina-Halepai-entrance

Hale_Pai

January 5, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hunnewell and the Missionaries

“It is indeed with a kind of melancholy pleasure I have sat down to write. There is a satisfaction in reflecting on the endearing relation which you sustain towards me that I would not part with for worlds; but when I consider the distance that separates us and the time that has and will elapse before we meet my feelings are overpowered.”

“Instead of becoming habituated to your absence by length of time I seem everyday less reconciled to it & “still alone” seems stamped on everything around me.” (Susannah Hunnewell to her husband James, November 6, 1820)

For all but seven months of the first eleven years of their marriage, James Hunnewell was living in the Pacific, Susannah was in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

On Monday, December 8, 1817, James Hunnewell, officer of the brig Bordeaux Packet, agreed with Andrew Blanchard, master, to remain at Honolulu after the sale of the vessel. (Thrum)

He would dispose of the balance of her cargo and invest and forward the proceeds. This was the beginning of the long business career of Hunnewell connected with the Islands, and his first act in settling there. (Thrum)

“The name … James Hunnewell was early associated with the commercial interests of these Islands, and his long and useful life was marked by such constant goodwill to my kingdom, that I shall always cherish his memory with sincere regard.” (Kamehameha V to Hunnewell’s son; Thrum)

Hunnewell first came to the Islands aboard the ‘Packet’ in October 1816. He agreed to stay and traded his boat and cargo for sandalwood, “We were the only traders on shore at Honolulu that had any goods to sell.” There was no currency at the time, so they generally traded for sandalwood. (Hunnewell, The Friend)

After trading sandalwood in China and then back to the northeast, Hunnewell returned to the Islands in 1820 on the ‘Thaddeus,’ “This was the memorable voyage when we carried out the first missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands.” (He was the person who first announced to the missionaries, that the Tabus were broken, and idolatry abolished. (The Friend, July, 1870))

He stayed … “it was urged by some of the chiefs that knew me on my previous voyage that I should remain instead of a stranger to trade with them.” (Hunnewell)

On January 7, 1822, a small group gathered to print the first work from the press, “Lesson in Owhyhee syllables.” Keeaumoku, a Hawaiian Chief, who had learned the alphabet, was given the honor of striking the first impression off the press, after which Loomis printed the second and Hunnewell the third.

It is a sheet four by six inches, headed “Lesson I,” beneath which are twelve lines, each having five separate syllables of two letters. This was certainly the first printing at the Hawaiian Islands, and probably the first on the shores, of the North Pacific Ocean.

The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the Thaddeus. It was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin, and was set up in a thatched house standing near the old mission frame house (but was not put in operation until that January 1822 pressing.) (Hawaiian Club, 1868)

Later, in 1825, he negotiated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, “to take the missionary packet out, free from any charge whatever on (his) part for sailing and navigating the vessel – provided the Board would pay and feed the crew, and allow (him) to carry out in the schooner to the amount (in bulk) of some forty to fifty barrels”. (Hunnewell)

Hunnewell decided to return home on the continent (November 20, 1830) and left his partner in charge; Hunnewell thought he would come back to the Islands, but never did. Hunnewell decided to remain at home – the company he formed, was later known as C Brewer (one of Hawaiʻi’s ‘Big Five’ companies.)

Kekela, born at Mokuleʻia, Waialua, Oʻahu was a beneficiary of Hunnewell’s generosity – Kekela attended and graduated from the Lahainaluna Seminary, at the expense of Hunnewell. In recognition of his great obligation to his benefactor, he adopted his name and was ever known as James Kekela.

On December 21, 1849, he was ordained to the Christian ministry, being the first native Hawaiian clergyman, and became the pastor of the native church at Kahuku, Oahu. (The Friend, May 1, 1920)

Later, Kekela saved an American in the Marquesas; President Abraham Lincoln learned of the dramatic circumstances of the rescue and had presented a total of 10-gifts to the rescuers.

Most interesting among the gifts was a large gold watch the President gave to Kekela (a similar watch was given to Kaukau, Kekela’s associate in the rescue.) The inscription on it is translated from Hawaiian as follows:

“From the President of the United States to Rev. J. Kekela For His Noble Conduct in Rescuing An American Citizen from Death
On the Island of Hiva Oa January 14, 1864.”

Here’s a link to a prior post on the Kekela watch:
http://wp.me/p5GnMi-iz

“This discourse was delivered by the Rev. James B. Miles, pastor of the first parish church, Charlestown, Mass., and is commemorative of Mrs. S. L. Hunnewell, widow of the late Captain James Hunnewell. This friend of Oahu College, and of Hawaiians, died May 2nd, 1869, and the death of his beloved wife followed on the 20th of February, 1870.”

“If Mr. Hunnewell had survived a few months longer, their golden wedding would have been celebrated; but now both have passed away. They were long united in their lives, and in death they were not divided.” (The Friend, July, 1870)

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