Kneeling, postulant Tiffanie Han, Sister Angelica Guevarra. Back row, Sister Mary Francis Apordo, Sister Elizabeth de Jesus, Mother Agnella Iu, Mother Mary Elizabeth “Liza” Sedo, Sister Leslie Watanabe, and Sister Anne Therese Ocampo. Sister Assumpta John Theresa Macapanas returned to the Philippines in 2021. (Courtesy photo)
Hawaii’s only contemplative monastery celebrates a half century in the Islands
By Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Special to the Herald
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” wrote the 6th century Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Fifty years ago, on Oct. 25, 1973, seven Carmelite nuns took that single step leaving the familiarity of their monastery walls in Stanley, Hong Kong, to answer Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 9:19, “everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.” Some 5,544 miles later, across the Pacific Ocean, Mother Mary Agnes Tse, Sister Mary Angel Wong , Sister Teresita Tam, Sister Caroline Chow, Sister Marie Tang, Sister Agnes Marie Wong and Sister Agnella Iu arrived in Honolulu to found Hawaii’s Carmel of the Holy Trinity.
Establishing a Carmel — as Carmelite monasteries are called — in Hawaii was not the original plan of the seven nuns. But God has God’s plans. The Diocese of Honolulu’s Bishop John J. Scanlan wanted badly to establish a contemplative monastery in the islands to serve the diocese with their apostolate of prayer. His prayers were answered when the group of Carmelites, who were already waiting for their immigration papers to enter Canada at the invitation of Bishop Remi J. DeRoo of Vancouver Island in Victoria, changed their plans and chose Hawaii instead.
Sister Agnella chronicled the details of those early days in a recording she dictated in 2017.
“Bishop John Scanlan loved us very much. He allowed our Chinese friends who lived in Hawaii to plan to have a fund-raising dinner.
Bishop John Scanlan greets the Carmelites at the Honolulu International Airport on Nov. 8, 1973. From left, Sister Mary Angel Wong, Sister Agnella Iu, Sister Marie Tang, Sister Teresita Tam, Mother Mary Agnes Tse, Sister Agnes Marie Wong and Sister Mary Caroline Chow. (Courtesy photo)
“Among our friends from the Chinese Catholic Club were Jimmy Wong, Uncle Ching Hwo-Chung, Violet Holeso and her husband George, and Gertrude Yee and her husband Frederick. I remember the Yees talking to us in our parlor at Hong Kong Carmel. They helped to arrange our going to Hawaii.”
Hearing the news that a group of Carmelites was leaving Hong Kong for Hawaii, two Hong Kong-based Maryknoll priests, Father Jack Sullivan and Father Edward Krumpelmann, stopped in Hawaii and took pictures of the monastery-to-be. The convent was located on the windward side of Oahu nestled on the slopes of the Koolau mountains on the property of St. Stephen Seminary. The Marist Missionary Sisters, who had previously lived there in their service primarily as cooks for the seminarians and seminary faculty, had vacated the building following a decline in the number of seminarians and the close of the seminary high school.
For moving the sizeable amount of luggage packed for the long journey, Father Krumpelmann enlisted the help of an old war transport ship. The essentials, such as a chalice, ciborium and vestments for the chapel, were carried with the nuns on the plane.
Sister Agnella recounted a twist in the adventure.
“The ship later disappeared, for almost two years! (As Carmelites) we decided we must be detached from everything. One day we got the news that the ship was in Hawaii and the container was brought to our entrance door. Our priests here, Sulpician Fathers Richard Cullinan and Eugene Konkel, Msgr. Daniel Dever and Father Pat Freitas were very excited to see what was in the big container. The first thing to come out was … a broom! It seems they were things that we use daily, for the kitchen, for the chapel and some heavy instruments.”
Three Carmelites kneel on the edge of one of their fish ponds, from left, Sister Mary Carolyn Chow, Sister Teresita Tam and Sister Agnes Marie Wong. (Courtesy photo)
Fishponds and beehives
One of the first persons to greet the Carmelites at St. Stephen’s was Robert Murakami, groundskeeper and handyman at St. Stephen Seminary. He quickly offered his and his wife Laura’s services to help the nuns shop for groceries, learn how to cut grass and chop down bananas, and even how to make cement paths as they tried to create a garden out of the wild yard that surrounded the convent.
Msgr. Dever, Father Cullinan and a few seminarians went to work digging in the yard to channel the water from Koolau springs to create the first streamlet on the property that later became the monastery ponds.
On Christmas day in 1973, Father Dever called the nuns outside and presented a Christmas gift which they called, “Little Bridge and Flowing Water.”
“Later, Father Dan Dever and all the others helped us build fish ponds,” Sister Agnella said. “He said, ‘Oh, you are seven. So, I will build seven ponds.’ So, we had to put together little stones, while Father Dever found great rocks. We helped them with the cement work.”
They completed a total of eight ponds in which catfish and tilapia were raised for food.
Tending their own beehives, the nuns made honey candy, cookies, fried walnuts, peanut brittle and hanging baskets to earn money to buy gravel, sand and tools needed to make cement. Later, their handiwork expanded to include chocolate fudge, nougat, and delicate paintings on chinaware.
Because the nuns did so much manual labor, when the time came to process their naturalization, four of them strangely did not have fingerprints. Immigration realized that it was because of their work with the cement. Fortunately, the naturalization process went on, and they got their certificates.
In 1983 the nuns broke ground for a new chapel. It was dedicated in 1985. A Belgian friend of a local Marist priest Father Paul Flynn donated the chapel in memory of his mother, Antoinette.
“For the dedication, Sister Agnes Marie, with Carmelite friends Virginia Lippy and Catherine Donovan, found koa and monkeypod wood for chapel furnishings. Using the koa, sculptor Luis Beneto carved the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the crucifix. The monkeypod was used for the altar.
Carmelite Sister Teresita Tam tends the bee hives in an undated photo. (Courtesy photo)
Supportive sisters
Many Hawaii congregations of religious women helped the Carmelites during their first months adapting to the new mission. The Maryknoll Sisters provided pots and pans. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet made their first Hawaiian Christmas and New Year’s memorable with beautiful Christmas stockings and firecrackers. The Sisters of the Holy Family brought goodies and donations along with offers of help. The Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary provided chain-link fencing and a workman to make an enclosure wall. And the Sacred Hearts Sisters were always available to consult regarding religious vocations.
“As we settled down here, we became good friends with our Franciscan Sisters,” Sister Agnella said. “Every time we had to go to the hospital, especially Mother Mary Agnes who always had poor health, the sisters would take very good care of us.”
“We really felt that here in Hawaii, all are very kind, gentle and loving. We really shared in the aloha spirit.”
At the crossroads
A number of local and international prospective Carmelite candidates knocked on the doors of Carmel over the years. However, a vocation to Carmel requires not only a love of God, but good health and a proper spirit to live the monastic life in enclosure for the rest of one’s life.
On March 7, 1999, the Hawaii Carmelites suffered their first major loss with the death of Mother Mary Agnes Tse. She was the mother foundress, mother prioress and novice mistress in the early years. While at St. Francis Hospital, Sister Agnella recalled whispering to Mother Mary Agnes a Latin phrase she learned from her: “In sinu Patris.” “Mother, you are always in the bosom of the Father.”
Over the next 18 years, five more would pass away. Here are the dates of their deaths:
- Mother Mary Agnes Tse, March 7, 1999
- Sister Mary Angel Wong, July 13, 2004
- Mother Agnes Marie Wong, October 13, 2014
- Sister Mary Caroline Chow, October 13, 2014
- Sister Teresita Tam, August 19, 2015
- Sister Marie Tang, June 30, 2018
By 2014, with the passing of a majority of their community, the future of Hawaii’s Carmel was at risk. To be a fully functioning Carmelite monastery, Carmelite rule required at least six fully professed members. The group did add one local vocation, Sister Mary Elizabeth de Jesus, but she had only made her first vows on July 16, 2013.
Philippine recruiting
In 2017, U.S. Carmelite Father Daniel Chowning, Carmelite definitor (delegate of the Carmelite superior general in Rome) recommended that the monastery be closed. The only alternative was to find at least five nuns from other monasteries willing to come together to re-found Carmel in Hawaii. Bishop Larry Silva and Sister Agnella took up the challenge. Through much prayer and consultation, deliberation and discernment, five nuns from five different Carmelite monasteries across the Philippines responded to the call. Carmelite Sister Mary Bernard Tescam, a member of Carmel of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Quezon City, Metro Manila, was most instrumental in their recruitment.
On Nov. 26, 2018, Sister Mary Angelica Guevarra, Sister Assumpta John Theresa Macapanas and Sister Mary Francis Apordo arrived and were met by Bishop Silva and representatives of Hawaii’s women religious at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. On May 16, 2019, Sister Mary Elizabeth “Liza” Sedo and Sister Ann Therese Ocampo arrived, completing the needed quorum of fully professed Carmelite nuns.
Re-founding and elections
In joyful anticipation of the needs of the new Carmelite community, 400 friends and supporters of Carmel held a fundraiser on Jan. 12, 2019, at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa parish hall. The funds collected helped cover re-founding expenses, including travel, immigration fees, medical insurance and living expenses.
Hawaii’s Carmel of the Holy Trinity was officially re-founded on Aug. 9, 2019, with the reception of the five new permanent members and the choosing of new leadership. Mother Agnella Iu was elected as the prioress. Sister Mary Elizabeth (Liza) Sedo was elected as sub-prioress and first councilor. Sister Mary Angelica Guevarra was elected as the second councilor. Bishop Silva and Father Chowning presided over the elections.
With the re-founding, Sister Elizabeth de Jesus was permitted to pronounce her solemn vows, which she did on Oct. 15, 2019.
Another chapter was ushered in on Aug. 15, 2022, with new community elections. Sister Mary Elizabeth “Liza” Sedo was elected mother prioress. Sister Angelica Guerrara was elected first councilor and Sister Agnella Iu was elected second councilor and novice mistress.
Of her election, Mother Liza said, “The gift I bring to Carmel? My hidden life is spent in prayer for the salvation of souls.”
Fifty years after their establishment in Hawaii, the Carmelites of the Holy Trinity celebrate with joy the inscription from the book of Jeremiah, carved along with images of grapes into the koa entrance door of the chapel: “I will lead you to the land of Carmel and eat the fruit therein.”
Carmel of the Holy Trinity Carmelite monastery on the grounds of St. Stephen DIocesan Center is shown in this Hawaii Catholic Herald file photo (HCH file photo)
Scents from the kitchen
The monastery walls now echo with singing and the playing of instruments — talents the new nuns have brought. From the kitchen rise the delicious scents of cookies, breads, organic dried bananas and rum balls. Fruitcake and peanut brittle are in the works. The nuns also continue the fine art of painting on chinaware.
Another local vocation has also been added to the fold. Sister Leslie Watanabe entered in 2021 and is now a novice. Of the love she brings to Carmel, she said, “I will never say ‘No,’ to anything asked.”
And postulant Tiffanie Han, who entered Carmel in 2022 from California, said of her life’s decision: “May my whole being resound with the doing of the will of God.”
The Carmelite nuns of Hawaii express their deep gratitude to all who have filled their lives with the spirit of aloha along their path leading to the ascent of Mount Carmel, union of the soul with God. They offer you their love and prayers.
Letter from the Carmelites to the people of Hawaii
With grateful hearts, we thank our bishop, all priests, religious sisters, friends and benefactors far and near; especially all the people in Hawaii who share their material and spiritual goods with us; who support us during our difficult times; who whole-heartedly shared with us their joys, hopes, sorrows and concerns.
May our Triune God grant you all you need and bless you with abundant grace that you may always experience His loving Presence. Amen.
