Chasing Domes in Hawai'i, Part Two: Fr. Wenceslas Hucaluk, ss.cc.

This is being published in advance of the Chicago Eparchy's clergy retreat at St. Anthony's Retreat Center in Kalihi (Honolulu) the week of September 18th. St. Anthony's is a former orphange where Fr. Wenceslas Hucaluk served for a decade and his father also lived in his retirement.

As shared in Part One, the HF Glade finally arrived in Honolulu on July 25, 1897 after a four-month, ardous journey that embarked from Bremen, Germany.

After a two-day quarantine, most of the Ukrainians went to sugar plantations on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Also arriving on that ship were a few families, including Toma (30), Kateryna (29), and Damian (5) Hucaluk from Kosiv.

They settled north of Hilo on Big Island and were at Paʻauhau Mill Camp near Honoka’a. Their son John was born there in 1899 and sometime shortly thereafter Kateryna died.

Sugar cane plantations workers on the Big Island.

Toma, like the other Ukrainians, he signed a three-year contract for work on Hawaii’s vast sugar plantations. These contracts turned out to be one-sided and led the workers into a form of indentured servitude. Workers and their families experienced harsh conditions and were treated as slaves. After the three-years were fulfilled, most of the Ukrainians left for Canada, the US, or Brazil. Toma Hucaluk and his two boys remained, and Toma was a blacksmith and harness maker at various plantations.

Damian graduated from St. Joseph School in Hilo and then St. Louis College in Honolulu. From there he

joined The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SS.CC.), who are also known as the

Sacred Heart or Picpus Fathers.

The Sacred Heart Fathers arrived in Hawaii in 1825 and effectively established Catholicism in the Islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, and across the South Pacific. They built the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in 1843-- which still stands to this day in downtown Honolulu. This Cathedral was where the most famous Sacred Heart priest, St. Damien de Vuester, was ordained to the priesthood in 1864. He spent the entirety of his

priesthood in Hawaii-- his 18 final years at the leper colony on Molokai.

Damian Hucaluk left for Europe and made his temporary vows in Fuenterrabia, Spain, in September of 1918. He made his perpetual vows in October of 1921 and was ordained a priest on December 31, 1923 at Tournai, Belgium. He was given the name Wenceslas and he was sent to the South Pacific.

After a little over a year of service in Tahiti, Fr. Wenceslas arrived in Hawaii on April 1, 1925. He then served for 10 years in Waiohinu near the southernmost tip of the Big Island. While most of the Ukrainians had left Hawaii, those who remained largely lived south of the Hilo area not far from Waiohinu.

Funeral of Nykola Holowaty in 1932 with Fr. Wenceslas officiating. Nykola Holowaty came to Hawaii on the HF Glade during the same voyage as the Hucaluks and numerous other Ukrainians. Image from Michael Ewanchuk’s seminal book Hawaiian Ordeal: Ukrainian Contract Workers 1897 - 1910.

During his decade on the Big Island, his father Toma lived with him.

In 1935 Fr. Wenceslas was sent to Oahu and brought his father with him. Fr. Wenseslas became a naturalized citizen in 1941.

Photo of Fr. Wencelas on his naturalization application. Courtesy of Congregation of the Sacred Hearts USA Province.

His father lived at St. Anthony’s Orphanage in Kalihi, the location of the Chicago Eparchy clergy retreat, and passed away in November of 1945 at the age of 77.

St. Anthony's Orphanage Chapel in Kalihi (Honolulu). It's now a retreat center.

Grounds of St. Anthony's Orphange which is now a retreat center 15 minutes from Honolulu.

Tom Hucaluk's headstone at Diamond Head Memorial Park in Honolulu.

Fr. Wencelsas served in Oahu for the remainder of his life and was pastor at St. Anthony’s Orphanage from 1953 – 1963. He reposed in the Lord on April 24, 1991 at the age of 98.

Fr. Wenceslas is buried at Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kaneohe, just a ten-minute drive from St.

Anthony's Orphanage.

Grave of Fr. Wenceslas in the Sacred Hearts Fathers section at Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kaneohe.

Mahalo nui loa to Staurt Ching, Provincial Archivist of Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Honolulu and to Nicole Garcia of the Honoka'a Heritage Center on the Big Island.