Photo of St. Joseph Mission, Kamalo, Molokai, taken in March. To the right is a statue of St. Damien, its builder. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
St. Joseph, Kamalo, Molokai
The tiny mission on topside Molokai was one of several churches constructed by Father Damien
During this “Year of St. Joseph,” why not try and visit one of the St. Joseph churches in Hawaii. This issue’s spotlight is on Molokai’s St. Joseph Mission. Read about St. Joseph, Kaupo, on Maui here.
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
In 1873, Father Damien volunteered to serve the Hansen’s disease patients isolated on the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai’s rugged north coast. But he did not stay only in that settlement.
“His burning zeal and strong constitution welcomed the opportunity to undertake regular climbing trips over the mountain to attend to the Catholics of leeward Molokai,” wrote the historian priest, Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs, in his 1978 book, “Pioneers of the Faith.”
Although another priest, Sacred Hearts Father Andrew Burgermann, was assigned to topside Molokai in 1874, Father Damien continued to make visits via the cliffside trails connecting the peninsula to the rest of the island.
He also put his carpentry skills to use when no Sacred Hearts brothers were available to build chapels for the growing number of Catholic faithful of Molokai. First came Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in Kaluaaha, which Father Damien finished in 1874. Two years later he built St. Ann in Halawa, St. John the Evangelist in Moanui, and St. Joseph Church in Kamalo.
The small, white, wooden church in Kamalo is located toward the front “sole” on the shoe-shaped island, facing south toward neighboring Lanai. Father Damien (baptismal name Joseph) built it in the Rural or Carpenter Gothic style popular at the time in North America, with a tall steeple, vaulted ceiling and ornate windows.
At one time, the area from Kamalo to Waialua was the most populated part of the island. It had a busy harbor and a sugar plantation. Field workers and other residents added to the sizable congregation for St. Joseph Chapel.
“The parishioners that attended Mass here when Damien served it would often prepare special foods for the Kalaupapa patients,” according to damienchurchmolokai.org. “After Sunday Mass, they would hike back over the pali with Father Damien to the Kalaupapa peninsula and the patient community there. While there, the ‘topside’ parishioners assisted Father Damien in his health care ministry.”
“St. Joseph’s Chapel at Kamalo still stands, next to the main road, ever watching over the sleeping faithful in her graveyard,” as “Pioneers of the Faith” put it.
St. Joseph is the third oldest church on the island, according to St. Damien of Molokai Parish’s website, and is on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places. Sacred Hearts Father John Van Gils led a major restoration of St. Joseph in 1971, and more repairs were made in 1995 around the time of St. Damien’s beatification and return of his relic to the island. A 2010 storm toppled its high spire, which was replaced with a shorter one.
In 2013, a 2,000-pound, seven-foot-tall marble statue of Joseph Dutton, who assisted Father Damien in his final days on Kalaupapa, was installed next to the church. Dutton is depicted as a Civil War Union soldier, which he was.
The church is now a mission of St. Damien of Molokai Parish in Kaunakakai. Sacred Hearts Father Brian Guerrini, the pastor, lives at the parish rectory in Kamalo. During the pandemic shutdown of in-person liturgies, he celebrated many solo Masses in the historic chapel and the rectory that were livestreamed to the parish’s YouTube channel.
Mass is celebrated at St. Joseph on the first Saturday of the month at 7 a.m.
Sourcing for this story came in part from “Pioneers of the Faith” by Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs, the Hawaii Catholic Herald’s editor from 1936-1943, and “A Pilgrimage Through Time” edited by Dominican Sister Malia Dominica Wong.
