Clockwise from top: The Sacred Hearts archives includes many personal items belonging to St. Damien including his pipe (at top left), glasses, and part of a red handkerchief he used as an arm sling at the end of his life. (HCH photos|Anna Weaver)
The Kaimuki archives of the Sacred Hearts fathers and brothers has many tales to tell
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
On his weekly volunteer day at the archives of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Kaimuki, Sacred Hearts Father Ed Popish climbs the stairs to the second-floor of St. Patrick Monastery and enters the three-room, climate-controlled space that contains a wealth of objects, books, manuscripts and photographs.
Stuart Ching shows the collection’s digital catalog. (HCH photo|Anna Weaver)
There he sits for several hours, pouring over handwritten documents left by previous congregation members. Father Popish, who speaks French, is gradually translating French-language journals and documents left by the French-speaking members of the order, which first came to Hawaii in 1827. He also helps with some Italian and Spanish documents.
“Fragile paper, fading or bleeding ink and illegible handwriting make the typescripts a formidable task,” the retired priest wrote in an email. “The work progresses slowly.”
But he enjoys it all the same. The journal of Father Wendelin Moellers, who was “quite a character,” according to Father Popish, was particularly fun to work on.
A stole belonging to Bishop Libert Boeynaems. (HCH photo|Anna Weaver)
The archives offers both the “memory of the missions” of Sacred Hearts and a “rounding out of the history of Catholicism in these areas,” he said.
Father Popish is one of several regular volunteers at the modern archives, which includes a full-time archivist and an in-progress digital catalog. The archives uses up-to-date storage and preservation methods and equipment to beat back the humid Hawaiian climate outside the archives’ doors.
“The archives is a real look into our past, but it’s more than that,” said Father Herman Gomes, provincial of the Sacred Hearts order in the U.S. “It’s actually capturing the moments of our history so that we can keep it alive for the future.”
Long history
The France-based Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary came to Hawaii in 1827 and was the first order to set up a permanent Catholic mission in the islands.
Later on, the order settled on the East and West Coasts of the United States and elsewhere in the world from its European base. It left behind a long and rich bank of records.
Woodworking tools used by Father Damien. (HCH photo|Anna Weaver)
In Hawaii, those were stored in several locations in the islands until 2001, when a central archive was created at the Our Lady of Bethany Monastery in Kaneohe. It was headed up by Religious of the Virgin Mary Sister Maria Rita C. Ferraris for a year, though it was without an archivist for the next decade, until 2010 when Stuart Ching was hired.
Ching splits his role as archivist between the Sacred Hearts archives and St. Augustine Parish in Waikiki, where the Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center is in the works. He’s previously worked in archival roles at Mission Houses Museum, Iolani Palace and Bishop Museum.
“The history of the Sacred Hearts is the history of the … Catholic mission of Honolulu,” Ching said.
The goal is to consolidate all of the Sacred Hearts archives from the USA East and West provinces and India province that have merged with the Hawaii province. The East coast province’s archival materials have now been transferred to Hawaii.
“My focus is to make the items accessible to the public,” Ching said.
The collection
A journal belonging to Bishop Louis Maigret. (HCH photo|Anna Weaver)
In the collection are scrapbooks and rare manuscripts, including from the first Catholic mission press. There are also general interest books plus records of where priests and brothers are buried, photographs of clergy and religious, and also personnel records that aren’t public.
Glass plate negatives, sheet film, loose photographs, 35mm film and slides are part of the collection, too. Close to 1,900 images have been digitized.
The archive recently received a grant to purchase a scanner that will create high-quality scans of images and documents in the collection. Eventually the digital images will be available online.
Of note in the collection are many objects connected to perhaps the most famous member of the Sacred Hearts congregation, St. Damien of Molokai. Housed there are, for example, Father Damien’s pipe, glasses, woodworking tools, prie-dieu (prayer kneeler), chalice and one of his chasubles.
Father Gomes used Father Damien’s chalice at a Mass at the annual priest convocation a few years ago and the priests were very interested to see it. Because of the continued devotion to and example of St. Damien, the order wants to continue to make relics related to his life available to the public.
Qualified volunteers
Besides Father Popish, Ching has recruited a well-qualified set of volunteers — and sometimes interns — to help catalog, translate and organize the collection.
Ruth Horie has been cataloguing the archives’ book collection over the last three years. In particular she’s used her Hawaiian language skills to record some of the rare books in that language.
“Some of the materials that they have at the Sacred Hearts archives are unique, that very few other libraries have,” said Horie, who is a retired University of Hawaii catalog librarian.
Betty Lou Kam, a retired Bishop Museum collections manager, focuses on cataloging photos and glass plate negatives.
Maria Borges previously worked at Iolani Palace and Rowena Kekua is a retired library technician.
While the collection isn’t often displayed in public, some of the archives’ objects will be available for viewing at the Damien and Marianne Catholic Conference at the Hawaii Convention Center in October.
Pilgrimage, school and church groups can come in for tours. There are also relatives of the Sacred Hearts brothers and fathers who sometimes come to find out more about their family member and where they are buried.
The collection’s effect
One man who came in to the archive said that when he was a little boy, he remembered receiving holy cards at Christmas from his great-uncle who was a brother serving in Hawaii. “That’s why he wanted to see where he worked and where he was buried,” Ching said.
One of Ching’s favorite pieces in the collection is the large handkerchief that Mother Marianne gave Father Damien to use as an arm sling at the end of his life. (It’s seen in some of the famous photos of Damien in his last days). The handkerchief was later given back to Mother Marianne after Father Damien’s death. She cut it up and gave pieces of it out as “mementos of the saintly priest.”
“That’s an important thing because it connects the two saints,” Ching said.
Ching also loves it when he can find a name, date and place for a photograph that previously was either partially or totally without information.
“That’s always rewarding because then I have a complete caption for each photograph.”
Ching, who is not Catholic himself, says that he hopes that when people view the collection “that they will be inspired by what they read or what they see.”
He said when he talks to Sacred Hearts fathers and brothers about what inspired them to join the congregation, they often say that as children they read a book about Father Damien’s life and were inspired to become a priest or religious.
“By making the history of the Sacred Hearts available, maybe it will inspire a little child to become a priest, or a brother, or a sister,” Ching said. “And it would help perpetuate these very noble institutions.”
TO SEE THE ARCHIVES: Access to the Sacred Hearts fathers and brothers archives can be set up by appointment only by emailing Stuart Ching at ssccusarchives@gmail.com or calling (808) 282-8308.
