Face mask with St. Damien and St. Marianne fabric by Wendy Wylder(Photo courtesy of Wendy Wylder)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
“This project has been the most spiritually rewarding that I have encountered in my 76 years,” said Wendy Wylder who has been sewing face masks with the aloha-print fabric images of Hawaii’s two saints.
Ever since the Hawaii Catholic Herald ran a story last month about the Waialua parishioner using her talents as a vestment designer to make the protective attire to guard against the coronavirus, she has been getting orders from across the state and the Mainland.
The idea of being shielded by two saints who cared for the patients of the infamous Hansen’s disease quarantine of more than a century ago resonates with people.
Wylder said she has been edified “reading all the reasons why Catholics want to be protected by Damien and Marianne.”
“Many requests have been from adult children and military sons who have had me mail masks to mothers in other states as Mother’s Day gifts,” she said.
“Knowing that Damien’s feast day coincides with Mother’s Day (this year) makes the masks even more special,” she said.
A mother with two sons and a grandson who are firefighters wanted masks to protect them.
A woman in Oregon wanted one for her 99-year-old mother who lives with her and who once worked in Kalaupapa.
“Several priests from other states have placed requests,” she said.
Wylder said the Diocese of Syracuse wanted “up to 400 masks.” With Tori Richard St. Marianne fabric stored in Syracuse, she asked the nuns there to fill orders.
The Hawaii Catholic Herald also has been getting calls from people wanting to place orders.
Among the fabric sources are the aloha-wear companies of Reyn-Spooner and Tori Richards who had designed commemorative shirts and muumuus for the canonizations of St. Damien and St. Marianne.
The fabric designs are discontinued — Damien was canonized in 2009, Marianne in 2012 — so Wylder has had to depend on donations of recycled clothing.
“Each time I deplete my fabric pieces someone donates a no-longer-needed muumuu or shirt with Damien and Marianne images,” she said.
Father Pascal Abaya, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace also sent her the last seven yards of the church’s 175th-anniversary fabric with images of the two saints.
Among the fabric donations was a dress that had belonged to LaVona Schlicker, the organist for the Hawaii Damien canonization choir, who died last year at age 94. She played the organ in the islands for more than 45 years.
From that cloth, “I was able to make 24 masks for Damien canonization choir members,” Wylder said.
As of May 3, she has made 420 masks.
Wylder accepts donations, which have ranged from $20 to $100, which she gives to Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Waikiki, for that parish’s Damien and Marianne Education Center.
“I am still able and willing to produce these masks as long as there is a need for them,” she said.
