Year of St. Joseph pilgrimage: St. Joseph Parish, Makawao

Rooted in Portuguese immigrant heritage

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

During this “Year of St. Joseph,” why not try and visit one of the St. Joseph churches in Hawaii. In this issue, we head to Makawao, Maui, for that island’s second St. Joseph Church. Read our other St. Joseph church profiles here.

The central Maui parish of St. Joseph in Makawao owes its beginnings to a large number of Portuguese settlers on the island.

Before their arrival, “In the 1840s and 1850s Makawao was almost unknown” outside the area, according to the book “Pioneers of the Faith,” by the late Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs. Most references to Catholic activity in the area in that period focused on Ulumalu and Haliimaile. The first recorded baptism in Makawao wasn’t until Aug. 24, 1851.

As upcountry Maui’s sugar cane and pineapple plantations developed, laborers were brought in from Portugal. Some became ranchers and farmers and most were Catholic. As their numbers grew in Makawao, the priest assigned to Wailuku could no longer manage both areas alone.

The first permanent priest in Makawao was the German-born Sacred Hearts Father James Beissel who arrived in 1882. (He would also build Holy Ghost Church in Kula.) He was young and active and got local men to help him build chapels and churches which “popped up like mushrooms” all over the Makawao district, according to “Pioneers of the Faith.”

It isn’t clear what exact year the first permanent Catholic church went up in Makawao but it’s likely to have been in the early 1880s. That church was described as “a handsome if small frame church just above the present Catholic cemetery.” It was a 6-7-foot wood-frame church on top of a rock wall with no rectory. That didn’t bother Father Beissel as he traveled so much throughout the area. Instead, he stayed in a room attached to the church’s sacristy that served as an office and bedroom. A meeting hall and workshops were later added.

What was the draw to the church for the Portuguese immigrants? They had to “get used to a strange country, adapt themselves to many new ways and to their new surroundings and daily activities, rub elbows with a variety of nationalities, and face many strange views on religious matters,” according to “Pioneers of the Faith.”

“All these difficulties made their church and its basement-hall very dear to the immigrants from Portugal. It was the only place outside of their homes where they could meet old friends and make new ones, reminisce about the old country and share together the news from friends and relatives from whom they were separated by two immense oceans.”

The number of Catholics in the parish kept growing. According to the parish history on St. Joseph’s website, from 1906 to 1913, about 6,000 Portuguese immigrants arrived in Hawaii. And so a second priest was assigned to the district. Dutch Sacred Hearts Father Justin Van Schayk was based at St. Joseph.

Immigrants welcomed

Father Beissel and Father Van Schyak actively welcomed the Portuguese immigrants to Makawao and St. Joseph. Father Van Schyak became so fluent in Portuguese that he was considered a resident expert. He also learned Hawaiian and built a cottage to live in by the church.

But the parish needed a bigger church for its increasing congregation. The perfect spot for that seemed to be where the nearby plantation’s blacksmith shop was located on a “high and dry” and big plot of land. Initially, the manager there didn’t want to let go of the spot. But, according to parish lore, after Father Van Schayk helped get his car unstuck from a deep mud pile during a rainstorm, the manager agreed to it.

That Gothic-style church, which remains to this day, went up in 1911 and was designed by an experienced builder and Sacred Hearts Father John Couturiaux, who came over from Kauai to manage the project. The bell tower for the church took more than a decade longer to build due to a lack of funds. Finally, the parish priest at the time, Sacred Hearts Father James Beynes, got his wealthy parents to pay for it.

“Now engulfed by parking lots, St. Joseph’s presides over a still spacious front lawn with a cypress-lined walkway stepping up from Makawao Avenue,” wrote Don J. Hibbard for the Society of Architectural Historians. “A nicely proportioned reinforced-concrete Academic Gothic Church, its basilican plan, strong corner tower, buttresses, arched stained glass windows, and heavy portico are characteristic of its era.”

A permanent rectory went up in the mid-1930s. Sacred Hearts Father Louis Boeynaems, the nephew of Hawaii’s Bishop Libert Boeynaems, added a gymnasium to increase recreational options for youth in the area.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange came to work at the new parish school in 1945 and stayed until 1968. In that year, the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary from the Philippines took over teaching at St. Joseph School. In 1986 the seventh and eighth grades shut down but a preschool started. Grade 6 phased out by 2007 and the entire elementary school closed in 2010. The St. Joseph Early Learning Center continues.

The parish also has long been known for its annual Holy Ghost/St. Joseph feast and festival, including a cattle auction.

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, “A Pilgrimage Through Time” edited by Dominican Sister Malia Dominica Wong.