This circa 1867 photo of Honolulu’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace shows the coral blocks that make up its walls. (HCH file photo)
The research for this story is primarily the work of historian Father Louis Yim, retired priest of the Diocese of Honolulu.
Honolulu’s Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace on the Fort Street Mall is undergoing a major restoration in preparation for the 175th anniversary of its dedication next year Aug. 15.
Since it first opened its doors on Aug. 15, 1843, the cathedral, which claims to be the oldest Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States, has seen its share of renovations. It is the oldest building in downtown Honolulu and the oldest Catholic church in Hawaii.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States on Aug. 7, 1972 and listed on the State Register of Historic Places in Hawaii on July 5, 1981. On May 10, 2014, it was given the title of minor basilica.
Today it houses the relics of two saints who had prayed under its roof, St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope.
Hawaii’s first Catholic missionaries, members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, arrived in Honolulu from France on July 7, 1827. They celebrated the first recorded Mass on Hawaiian soil on July 14 in a grass hut on a rented lot in Honolulu. The celebrant was most likely Father Alexis Bachelot, the group’s leader.
On Aug. 30, 1827, the missionaries acquired a royal land grant from 14-year-old King Kamehameha III. On this property, in January 1828, the “Palani” (Frenchmen) erected Hawaii’s first Catholic church. It stood where the sanctuary of the cathedral is today.
When the Catholic priests were expelled from the islands during the “dark decade” of anti-Catholic persecution, 1829-1839, this pioneer church suspended its religious services.
Return of religious freedom
Religious freedom returned to Hawaii in the summer of 1839. On May 13, 1840, Bishop Stephen Rouchouze, the first vicar apostolic of the Catholic missions in the eastern Pacific, arrived in Honolulu from the Marquesas with Sacred Hearts Father Louis Maigret.
On June 22, 1840, the bishop signed a contract with Honolulu businessman Francis J. Greenway for the building of the cathedral at a cost of $15,000. It would be a coral block structure similar to the Protestants’ Kawaiahao Church then under construction a short distance away.
Construction began on Aug. 6, 1840, with the placing of the cornerstone by the bishop in the presence of Kamehameha III.
Bishop Rouchouze left for Europe on Jan. 3, 1841, to procure personnel and supplies for his Hawaii mission leaving Father Maigret in charge of the mission and the cathedral construction.
On April 7, 1842, Greenway announced bankruptcy, leaving the church unfinished with only its massive walls standing. Meanwhile, Bishop Rouchouze would never return to the Islands. On Dec. 15, 1842, he departed France with a boatload of missionaries and supplies. The ship was lost at sea.
Cathedral construction resumed from November 1842 through July 1843. On Aug. 15, 1843, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace was officially dedicated.
On Aug. 30, 1846, Pope Pius IX made Father Louis Maigret a bishop, the second vicar apostolic of the Sandwich Islands.
Over the years, the cathedral enjoyed additions and improvements, big and small.
Around 1847, the church became the recipient of Hawaii’s first pipe organ, imported from France. This simple instrument would be replaced later by two more elaborate ones.
The cathedral clock, installed in 1852, is considered the oldest tower clock in Hawaii. It is still keeping time.
The Catholic mission received a big tower bell from France around 1854 to replace three small bells used by the cathedral since 1843.
Reports from the mid-1800s described a church with no pews because the Hawaiian congregation preferred sitting on the floor on lauhala mats.
Old photos show that the rooster weather vane now sitting on the cathedral’s tower has been twirling around at least since 1866.
On May 21, 1864, three members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, Damien de Veuster, Clement Evrard and Livinus Vanherens, were ordained priests in the cathedral.
On May 2, 1876, a new pipe organ arrived from London.
Decade of major renovations
From 1870 to 1880, the church underwent a major renovation and a transformation of the church gradually took shape. The walls and the bell tower were raised four feet. A new roof was built. The lofty vaulted ceiling was paneled with gold leaf decorations. Two second-floor side galleries increased the cathedral’s seating capacity.
Thirty-six statuettes of saints were perched high above the gallery railings. Colorful stained glass of geometric designs filled the windows. A poignant Calvary scene was positioned in the niche above the altar. Topping the sanctuary, at the apex of the altar wall, were placed life-size gilded statues of the Blessed Mother and Child and her saintly parents at her side.
The cathedral’s exterior received the final touch of this major renovation when the rough coral block facade received a smooth stuccoed finish and pilasters were placed on the outer walls.
It had taken Bishop Maigret 40 years to build Our Lady of Peace. The humble island church had now turned into an impressive and distinctive European-styled cathedral.
On Nov. 8, 1883, seven sisters of St. Francis from Syracuse, N.Y., arrived in Honolulu on the steamship Mariposa. They had come to assist the Hansen’s disease patients at the Branch Hospital in Kakaako, Oahu. The nuns were taken by carriage to the cathedral for a thanksgiving service offered by Bishop Herman Koeckemann. Their leader was Mother Marianne Cope, who 129 years later would be canonized as Hawaii’s second saint.
Considering a gothic face
In the early 1900s, Bishop Libert Boeynaems was considering a major cathedral renovation. He wanted to change the church exterior into a gothic edifice. He may have been motivated by what the Anglicans were building nearby on Beretania Street, constructing their St. Andrew Cathedral into a classic English gothic structure.
Bishop Boeynaems got prominent Honolulu architect Harry Livingston Kerr to design the building. In 1910, the first segment of the remodeling was done — the plain facade of the church was turned into a simple, yet impressive, gothic porch with three pointed-arch entranceways.
Local Catholics were impressed and looked forward to more impressive changes. But to the surprise of many, nothing else followed. Bishop Boeynaems’ renovation had ended. The gothic porch stood for 19 years.
Perhaps pressing priorities had compelled the bishop to change his plans. In 1912, the cathedral’s wooden floor was replaced with a cement one. New pews and a communion railing were added. The steeple, severely damaged by termites, was replaced in 1917 with the tower that stands today.
In 1919, the Catholic mission’s celebrated kiawe tree was cut down to make way for the three-story Columbus Welfare Association building on Fort Street mauka of the cathedral, financed by the Knights of Columbus to assist the needy in the Honolulu community.
Bishop Boeynaems died on May 13, 1926. In 1929, the new vicar apostolic, Bishop Stephen P. Alencastre, quietly took down the gothic porch and put up the simple doric pillars that we see fronting the cathedral today.
Plan to build a new cathedral
On Jan. 7, 1927, the Honolulu Advertiser ran this headline on its front page: “Catholics Pay $85,000 For Land.” Bishop Alencastre had plans to build a new cathedral on an 81,000 square-foot parcel on the slopes of Punchbowl. Bounded by Lunalilo, Emerson and Green Streets and what is now Ward Avenue, the spot ensured that the church would command an imposing presence on the hill above Honolulu.
The Advertiser described some of the bishop’s vision: “a beautiful cathedral of Moorish style of architecture … and other buildings for the use of the church, including a home for the bishop and for the fathers.”
The old Fort Street cathedral would remain as a parish church for the downtown population.
But new cathedral was never built and a new Catholic center never established. The Catholic mission’s plans could not survive the devastating depression of 1929. Through the 1930s, instead of a magnificent new cathedral, the bishop built in Honolulu St. Theresa Church, Kapalama (1931), St. Stephen Church, Nuuanu (1932) and Blessed Sacrament Church, Pauoa (1938), to serve the Catholic needs in the growing city.
In May 1941, a house on nearby Thurston Avenue became the bishop’s residence. At Fort Street, a three-story concrete rectory and chancery was constructed in back of the church extending to the newly opened Bishop Street.
At least two other notable cathedral renovations followed, one in the 1960s and one in the 1980s, both to bring the church up to date with the liturgical changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council.
