Bishop rededicates rebuilt church
(Maui News, May 21, 1938)
KAUPO, Maui, May 16—Kaupo had its first church fair Saturday and Sunday when Bishop Stephen Alencastre visited Kaupo to rededicate the 75 year old St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic church.
The community entered into the spirit of the occasion with a will and gross receipts totaled more than $1,000.
The program opened Saturday evening when the concessions opened. Gasoline lanterns furnished illumination, which was augmented by a bright moon. A slight drizzle failed to keep the crowd away, as everyone in the district was on hand for the celebration.
Mass was celebrated at 6:30 a.m. Sunday in the parish house next to the church. At 9:30 a.m. the bishop arrived with the Rev. Father Lawrence of Paia and was met at the church gate by a cordon of church officers and members of the Holy Name societies of the Hana district who escorted him to the church for the rededication ceremony.
After the re-dedication, High Mass was celebrated with Bishop Stephen as celebrant. A feature of the service was the singing of unaccompanied Gregorian chants by the people of the Hana and Kaupo districts.
In his sermon, Bishop Stephen recalled the days of his youth when, as an altar boy, he made the rounds of the district with the fathers and made frequent calls at Kaupo.
He paid high tribute to the faith of the Kaupo founders, who clung to their religion in the face of bitter persecution. He declared that in the early days, churchmen were arrested for their religion and marched all the way to Wailuku for trial. The longest route was elected to give the people an opportunity to gather along the highway and jeer the prisoners.
All of the faithful in the community would join the procession as a gesture of protest. So impressed was the Wailuku judge with this example of faith that he usually dismissed the prisoners.
After the service concessions were re-opened. A luau was served at noon Sunday. Bishop Stephen left Kaupo Monday. Just as he left, a group of Kaupo residents gathered and sang ‘Aloha Oe.’
The May 13 issue of the Catholic Herald has the following about the Kaupo church:
“Traveling on through the Hana district, past the beautiful valleys of Lelekea, Kalepa and Nuanualoa, one soon reaches the plains built by ancient lava flows at the foot of the Kaupo gap of Haleakala crater. On the highest spot as a beacon of faith pointing heavenward, stands the church built in 1863 by zealous Father Gregory Archambeau and his Hawaiians. This church constructed of lava stone, coral and native wood replaced two former chapels of Nuu and Halepulepalani—built in 1845 by Helio Koaeloa the famous apostle of Maui, who had instructed a flourishing congregation of Christians before the arrival of the first Catholic priests on that Island in 1846. In 1854 Maui was divided into three districts and Father Gregory placed in charge of Hana. He built stone churches in Puuiki (1859), Keanae (1860), Kaupo (1863). This last structure is now 75 years old and needed urgent restoration. The people of Kaupo following the example of their forefathers hauled gravel and stone and sand for a distance of five miles or more. The church was repaired and, except for the walls, everything is new and calculated to stand the ravages of time and weather."
The original church was built of hand hewn koa timbers brought from the mountains on the backs of the parishioners. Cement was made from coral. Water was hauled from a pool two miles away in kerosene tins suspended, Chinese fashion, from the ends of a pole. No nails were used, wooden dowels serving the purpose.
Age and termites took their toll, and when it became necessary to recondition the building, the present-day residents of Kaupo followed the example of their forebears, doing the construction work themselves. The wooden floor was replaced with one of concrete. A new roof was built, and other improvements made. The form of the building was not changed.
While he was in Kaupo, the bishop was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph V. Marciel at their beautiful valley home.
The celebration was under the direction of Antone Marciel, and the entire community cooperated in planning and conducting the fair.
Donors included Dwight H. Baldwin, Hymie J. Meyer, Sheriff Clem C. Crowell, K. Takitani, Mr. and Mrs. John Kamaka, W. A. Clark, Harry Ikeda, K. K. Kam, Mr. and Mrs. John V. Marciel, Mrs. Herman Lake, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lake, Mrs. Becky Mountcastle, Charles Smith, Bishop Stephen, Father Bruno, Father Jules and a group of Wailuku friends who furnished 100 loaves of sweetbread.
