The original 500-year old statue of Our Lady of Peace enshrined in the Sacred Hearts Congregation’s convent chapel in Paris.
The story of how a 500-year-old wedding present came to determine the name of the Honolulu cathedral
July 9 is the feast of Our Lady of Peace, the patroness of the Diocese of Honolulu after whom the Hawaii cathedral is named.
Our cathedral in downtown Honolulu is named after a little statue of the Blessed Mother carved from an unknown dark hardwood in the early 1500s in France.
The story is told that a certain Jean de Joyeuse presented the statue as a wedding gift to his young bride, Francoise e Voisins. Excluding its pedestal, the figure stands only 11 inches tall, and is fashioned in the Renaissance style of the period. Mary is depicted as a dignified Grecian matron with the Christ Child on her left arm and an olive branch in her right hand.
The statue was known as the “Virgin of Joyeuse” and became a cherished heirloom of the Joyeuse family through the years that followed. Our account of this little Madonna is derived from scattered historical conjectures.
This article’s author, left, and a friend decorating Honolulu’s statue of Our Lady of Peace on the eve of her feast, probably around 1950.
In the 1570s, the statue was passed down to Henri Joyeuse, a grandson of Jean de Joyeuse. After Henri’s young wife Catherine died early in their marriage, Henri made a significant personal decision that would determine the destiny of the “Virgin of Joyeuse.” Around the year 1588, he joined the Capuchin Franciscans in Paris and, under the religious name Brother Ange, faithfully served this religious community for the remainder of his life.
When Henri entered the monastery, he brought the family statue with him. And here with the Capuchin community she would remain for the next 200 years.
Through these two centuries this sacred figure was venerated and invoked by the people of the region. In time she was bestowed with an appropriate name. With the olive branch in her hand and the Prince of Peace on her arm, she was acclaimed Notre Dame de Paix … Our Lady of Peace! Her popularity increased. In 1657 the Capuchin community erected a larger chapel to accommodate the growing number of faithful who sought her intercession. That year, before a large crowd which included King Louis XIV, the papal nuncio to France blessed and solemnly enthroned the Blessed Mother’s statue. The date was July 9. Pope Alexander VII would later designate this date for the Capuchin community to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Peace.
The French Revolution
The French Revolution, which erupted in 1789, added a major twist to the continuing saga of Our Lady of Peace. Amid the political upheaval the relentless attacks on the Catholic Church drove the Capuchin Franciscan monks from their monastery. They took with them their beloved Madonna to prevent her destruction by the ransacking rebels. Our Lady would quietly remain hidden throughout this chaotic period of France’s history.
When peace had been restored in the land, a certain pious woman, Madame Coipel, brought the statue out of hiding and entrusted it to her spiritual director, a priest in Paris. The priest gave the statue to a nun who, on May 6, 1806, enshrined it in a convent chapel in the Picpus district of Paris. The priest’s name was Father Marie-Joseph Pierre Coudrin and the nun was Mother Henriette Aymer de la Chevalerie. Together they were the co-founders, in the year 1800, of a community of sisters, brothers and priests — the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The members were also known more simply as the Picpus or Sacred Hearts religious.
A new era had begun for the statue of Our Lady of Peace. For well over 200 years she has found a welcome home in this convent chapel in Paris. On July 9, 1906, celebrating her centennial year there, Our Lady was honored by the Archdiocese of Paris. In a formal ceremony, Archbishop Leon Adolphe Amette placed golden crowns on the heads of the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child. The old olive branch in her hand was replaced with one made of glistening gold.
In 1954, during the Marian Year, another honor was bestowed on her. Our Lady of Peace, along with Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, both from Paris, were privileged to join the assembly of “crowned Virgins” of the world in a celebration at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Today the little Madonna continues to stand tall in a high niche of an elaborate shrine in the convent chapel on Rue de Picpus (Picpus Street) in Paris.
To the Islands
Called to preach the Catholic faith in Hawaii, the Sacred Hearts missionaries brought with them their devotion to Our Lady of Peace. In 1843, they dedicated and named the cathedral in Honolulu after her. Half a century later, in 1893, they erected a magnificent statue of Our Lady of Peace on the venerable Fort Street mission grounds near the cathedral. The statue was not exactly a copy of the little Madonna in Paris. Our Lady in Honolulu was a Grecian mother fashioned in classic Renaissance mode but, cast in heavy bronze, she was an impressive life-size figure placed high on a pedestal under a bright blue Hawaiian sky.
Hawaii’s Bishop Gulstan Ropert had set the blessing of the statue for Christmas Eve. The local newspaper, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, published its account in the Dec. 26, 1893, edition: “At 2:30 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, His Lordship, assisted by the clergy, unveiled the statue of Our Lady of Peace, patroness of the church. A large crowd of people were present.”
The large crowd was made up of mostly Portuguese Catholics from the city’s growing Punchbowl district. Also present was a multitude of school children from two nearby thriving Catholic institutions, Sacred Hearts Convent on Fort Street and St. Louis College on River Street.
After the unveiling of the statue, the bishop spoke of the struggling days of the Catholic persecution in Hawaii. He recalled the unforgettable Christmas Eve of 1831 when Father Alexis-Jean Augustin Bachelot, Hawaii’s first Catholic missionary, was forced from the Fort Street mission compound and, “escorted by a soldier beating a drum,” led to the Honolulu wharf to be banished from the islands. Those difficult years, thanks be to God, have passed, Bishop Ropert said. Today, he concluded, we pray for the Lord’s continued blessings and Our Lady’s intercession for the mission in the days ahead.
We have come to the end of our story on Our Lady of Peace. But one final word needs mentioning. The Hawaiian word for peace is “malu.” “Maria o ka malu” is one of the names inscribed in the statue’s pedestal. Peace is normally defined as the “absence of war” or the “ending of hostilities.” “Malu” also means that, but the basic meaning of this Hawaiian word is much broader. The Hawaiian dictionary defines “malu” as “shelter,” “protection,” “safe.” Applying this understanding to our Lady of Peace, then truly she is our Blessed Mother who shelters and protects and cares for us her children.
Maria o ka malu … e pule o no makou. Mary of peace … pray for us.
Father Yim, a retired priest of the Diocese of Honolulu, is a historian specializing in the Catholic Church in Hawaii.
