Hawaii’s Maryknoll Sisters will celebrate the order’s 90th anniversary of mission presence in the Islands at a thanksgiving Eucharist liturgy, 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 7, in the Maryknoll School Community Hall, 1402 Punahou Street, Honolulu. Msgr. Gary Secor will be the celebrant.
Ten Maryknoll Sisters came to Hawaii from New York on Sept. 5, 1927, at the invitation of Bishop Stephen Alencastre, to serve as Catholic school teachers. Four went to St. Ann School in Heeia on Oahu’s windward side, and six opened Maryknoll School, the parish school for Sacred Heart Church, Punahou.
Soon the sisters were running seven elementary schools and assisting at the hospital stations for Hansen’s disease patients in Pearl City and Kalihi.
In 1944, Bishop James J. Sweeney again turned to the Maryknoll Sisters to establish a diocesan department of social services, the predecessor of Catholic Charities Hawaii. In 1945, more Maryknoll Sisters came to open the office for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD), today called the Office of Religious Education.
At their peak in the early 1960s, Maryknoll had 165 sisters in Hawaii staffing seven elementary school, three high schools, Catholic Social Services, the Catholic Schools Department, the CCD office and other diocesan departments.
Over the years Hawaii contributed at least 15 women to their ranks.
Today, 11 Maryknoll Sisters serve in the Islands.
