84-5140 Painted Church Road, Captain Cook, Hawaii (HI) 96704
St. Benedict Catholic Church has its roots in the small chapel named after St. Francis Regis on the shores of Honaunau Bay near the ancient City of Refuge (Pu’uhonua O Honaunau). The original congregation drew native Hawaiians from fourteen different villages in South Kona. In 1846, Father Joachim Marechal, SS.CC., was assigned as the first priest to serve South Kona as well as the Kau district, where he lived. With Marechal responsible for such a large territory, the congregation in Honanau primarily supported itself by a committed group of native lay catechists who ran a Catholic school and cared for the chapel.
After Father Marechal’s death in 1859, priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts regularly served Honaunau while on their circuit in North and South Kona. The first priest assigned full-time pastoral duties at St. Francis Regis Chapel and exclusive care for the Catholics of South Kona was the newly ordained Belgian priest Father Aloys Lorteau, SS.CC., who arrived in 1896. The popular Father Lorteau died from influenza after only two years in 1898.
Father John Berchmans Velghe, SS.CC, a 41-year-old Belgian priest of the Sacred Hearts Congregation, arrived in Honaunau in 1899 to replace Father Lorteau. Prior to coming to Hawaii, Father Velghe had already served missions in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.
By the mid 1880’s, most inhabitants of Honaunau had moved inland to the more fertile land along the leeward slopes of the volcanic mountain Mauna Loa. When Father Velghe arrived, he followed his congregation and relocated Saint Francis Regis Chapel piece-by-piece using donkeys two miles toward its present location. After some repairs and additions, including a belfry and lattice entry, the reconstructed church was consecrated in August 1902 by Bishop Gulstan Ropert, SS.CC., and renamed after St. Benedict.
Father Velghe was a self-taught artist and often painted pictures to teach his congregation about Catholic beliefs. Between 1902 and 1904, Velghe painted an array of richly colored murals depicting biblical scenes and the lives of the saints covering the interior wooden walls of St. Benedict’s. Using ordinary house paint, Velghe hoped to emulate the gothic cathedrals of Europe, in particular the vaulted nave of the Burgos Cathedral in Spain.
Soon the “Painted Church” began attracting visitors from all over the Island. Father Velghe also painted the inside of the old stone church of Maria Lanakila (Our Lady of Victory) built in 1860 in Kealia, but the building was destroyed during an earthquake in 1950.
Due to poor health, Father Velghe returned to Belgium in 1904 to teach at the seminary and train future missionaries. One of Velghe’s pupils, a future Hawaiian missionary named Evarist Gielen, later continued the artistic tradition and is responsible for the two other “painted churches” on the island of Hawaii at Star of the Sea in Kalapana and St. Theresa Church in Mountain View.
For the next nine years, a series of priests served short stints in the South Kona region. In 1913, Father Eugene Oehmen, SS.CC., became pastor of St. Benedict’s and the other South Kona churches and held the position until his death in 1951. During his pastorate, Oehmen witnessed four volcanic eruptions and the destruction of a number of chapels in the district.
Oehmen’s death marked the parish’s transition to Diocese of Honolulu’s administration. In August of 1951, Bishop James J. Sweeney appointed the Maryknoll Fathers with the care of St. Benedict’s Church and assigned Father Francis G. Kelliher, M.M., as pastor.
From 1973 to 1985, during the pastorate of Maryknoll Father Ralph W. Sylva, St. Benedict’s added a large social center and undertook a complete renovation of the 82-year-old church structure, including a full restoration of the paintings. Another restoration project occurred during the parish centennial in 2002.
In 1979, Saint Benedict’s Catholic Church was listed on the Hawaii State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the “Painted Church” remains a popular tourist attraction of the Kona Coast and holds a unique place in the history of American folk art.
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