The under-construction Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. The project is the vision of St. Augustine Parish and its pastor, Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, pictured standing towards the right of the construction wall.
A new center in the hub of Waikiki aims to educate locals and visitors about St. Damien, St. Marianne and the people they served
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Sandwiched between an ABC store and an aloha shirt-souvenir shop, a new building is going up on Kalakaua Avenue that also hopes to attract tourists, but not to buy trinkets and sunscreen. Instead the new edifice will “sell” an education on Hawaii’s two saints and Molokai’s Kalaupapa peninsula to visitors and locals alike.
The two-story Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center fills a narrow space fronting St. Augustine Church property. Where there used to be a driveway, parking area and small courtyard, there’s now a brick edifice and tower that mirrors the design of the A-frame church. (It will be painted white and green like the church when it’s done.)
A temporary construction barrier separates the in-progress center from the heavy foot traffic on Kalakaua and Waikiki Beach just across the street. A quote from St. Damien runs along the wall. “Turn all your thoughts and aspirations to heaven,” it says, a religious message amid the tourism advertising.
Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, St. Augustine’s pastor, said that the new education center’s prime location in the heart of Waikiki means many people will learn Hawaii’s Hansen’s disease story and how Sacred Hearts Father Damien de Veuster and Franciscan Sister Mother Marianne Cope dedicated their lives to helping them. It’s difficult to get to the remote Kalaupapa peninsula, where those suffering from what was once known as leprosy were forcibly sent from the late 1800s until the mid-1900s. Many Hawaii visitors and residents who will never make it to Molokai will be able to visit the Waikiki museum.
“The vision of the center is keeping sacred and really sharing that story of Damien and Marianne to the world,” said Fay Pabo, St. Augustine’s administrative assistant.
Once it opens in early 2020, the $6 million, 5,900-square-foot Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center will be open six days a week with a small admission charge. A few paid staffers along with volunteer docents will run the museum and guide visitors. The center will also be available to host events for outside groups in the building and at an adjacent reflection garden.
People walk past the under-construction Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center on Aug. 12. (HCH Photo: Anna Weaver)
Chapel and gift shop
The groundbreaking for the project was April 15, 2018, with construction starting several months later. The building should be completed this fall with interior and exhibit design coming next.
Planned displays will include photos and artifacts relating to Sts. Damien and Marianne and the Kalaupapa residents along with written content, videos and interactive exhibits. A small chapel and a gift shop complete the space.
Among the initial artifacts showcased at the center will be a chalice, walking sticks and carpentry tools belonging to Father Damien and that are a part of the Sacred Hearts order’s archives. Rotating exhibits will supplement the center’s permanent displays.
St. Augustine Parish has spoken with the National Park Service in Kalaupapa about using some of its extensive patient collections in the future as well. Father Akiona also hopes to travel to St. Damien’s home country of Belgium in October and speak with curators of the saint’s collections there about the potential for a future artifact loan program. Much of St. Marianne’s artifacts are in Syracuse, New York, where her Franciscan community is based and the hope is for more collaboration there too.
Father Akiona says the center will be working with the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in encouraging visitors to head to the downtown Honolulu cathedral where St. Damien was ordained a Sacred Hearts priest and where there are first-class relics of the Belgian saint and St. Marianne.
Clockwise from left: A guava walking stick used by Father Damien de Veuster is one of the items from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts U.S. Province collection that will be displayed at the new education center. Sacred Hearts congregation archivist Stuart Ching shows old photos of Kalaupapa churches to Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona. A photo of Brother Damien de Veuster, taken prior to his departure for Hawaii in 1863. (Photo from the Patrick Boland Collection, Congregation of the Sacred Hearts U.S. Province.) A chalice from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts U.S. Province collection belonging to Father Damien de Veuster that will be displayed at the education center. A carpentry molding plane used by Father Damien that will also be on display. Sister Elizabeth Gomes with girls at Bishop Home in Kalaupapa. Photo by Father Joseph Julliotte, 1901-1907, from the Collection of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts U.S. Province.
Reaching more people
A need to better tell the story of Father Damien and Mother Marianne has long existed. Plans on how to do so accelerated after Damien’s canonization in 2009 and Marianne’s in 2012.
A Damien and Marianne Heritage Center above the ABC Store in the building that fronts St. Augustine lasted from 2010 to 2013, closing due to a rent hike. Prior to that, a Damien Museum at St. Patrick Monastery in Kaimuki and then at St. Augustine showcased some photographs and artifacts relating to Father Damien.
Father Akiona knew there was plenty of demand for a new museum since the previous heritage center saw about 40,000 visitors a year with minimal advertising and a lot of foot traffic off Kalakaua Avenue.
“I think for me the excitement is the fact that it’s now reality, it’s happening,” he said of the new building. Being from Molokai and a member of the same religious order as St. Damien adds a personal dimension to his investment in the project.
But he emphasized that the Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center has long been a vision of members of St. Augustine Parish. Repeat visitors to the parish over the years have been tracking the project too.
“It’s really fulfilling a goal that we had set as a parish community,” Father Akiona said.
He has also talked with surviving Kalaupapa Hansen’s disease patients who support the project and want more people knowing about Hawaii’s saints.
“One of the things that they were appreciative of was that Damien and Marianne really showed that they cared for them,” he said. “The ones still alive today were young children when their elders would tell them stories about Damien and Marianne.”
And now those patients want more people to know their story and the story of Hawaii’s saints.
Funding the center
An additional $3 million still needs to be raised to cover the cost of the Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center’s interior design and exhibit space. In order to help accomplish this, donor remembrance tiles are being sold for $1,000-3,000. The tiles will frame two mosaics of Kalawao and Kalaupapa that are being made by local artist Leah Rigg. To order a tile, go to damienandmarianne.org or call 926-0803.
There’s also the annual St. Augustine Church Gala, 5:30-9 p.m., Aug. 28 at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. This year’s gala is called “Ho‘ohali‘a” (A Fond Reflection) and focuses on “Celebrating our past, forward in mission.” It marks the 165th anniversary of the parish and the upcoming opening of the Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center. To buy tickets, call the parish office at 923-7024.
