Compiled from the writing of Father Louis H. Yim, Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs and the website of the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace
July 7, 1827: The first Catholic missionaries arrive in Hawaii.
July 14, 1827: The first recorded Mass on Hawaiian soil is celebrated in a grass hut on a rented lot in Honolulu.
January 1828: Hawaii’s first Catholic church is built on land granted by Kamehameha III where the sanctuary of Our Lady of Peace Cathedral stands today.
June 22, 1840: The Hawaii mission’s first bishop Stephen Rouchouze signs a contract with Honolulu businessman Francis J. Greenway for the building of a coral block cathedral at a cost of $15,000.
Aug. 6, 1840: The cathedral’s cornerstone in laid and construction begins.
Jan. 3, 1841: Bishop Rouchouze leaves for France to procure personnel and supplies for the Hawaii mission. On the return trip in 1943 his ship is lost at sea. Besides the bishop, the mission loses six priests, one subdeacon, seven lay brothers and 10 sisters.
Aug. 15, 1843: After financial difficulties and construction delays, the cathedral is finally dedicated on the feast of the Assumption. At 7 a.m., three Masses are celebrated simultaneously at the main altar and two side altars. At 10 a.m. a High Mass is offered. Combined Oahu choirs sing. About 800 people receive Communion that day.
Aug. 30, 1846: Pope Pius IX appoints Father Louis Maigret the second vicar apostolic of Hawaii. He was consecrated bishop on Oct. 31, 1847, in Santiago, Chile.
c.1847: The cathedral receives a pipe organ, Hawaii’s first, a French instrument with one keyboard and a half dozen sets of pipes.
c.1852: The cathedral installs its clock, now considered the oldest tower clock in Hawaii.
May 21, 1864: Damien de Veuster, Clement Evrard and Livinus Vanherens are ordained priests for the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in the cathedral.
May 2, 1876: The cathedral’s second pipe organ arrives from London.
c.1870-1880: Bishop Maigret, inspired by his experience at the First Vatican Council, oversees a major renovation of the cathedral. The walls and the bell tower are raised four feet, a new roof built and a vaulted ceiling with gold leaf decorations installed. Casement windows with stained glass are put in. Two second floor side galleries increase the seating capacity. Thirty-six statuettes of saints are set above the gallery railings. A Calvary setting is placed above the altar, topped by life-size gilded statues of the Blessed Mother and her parents. Outside, the church’s exposed coral blocks are stuccoed over and pilasters added to the walls. A humble island church is turned into an impressive European-style cathedral.
January 19, 1881: In the cathedral, prayers for safe travels are offered for King Kalakaua the day before he departs on his historic trip around the world. Upon his safe return nine months later, he attends a thanksgiving ceremony in the cathedral led by coadjutor Bishop Herman Koeckemann.
June 11, 1882: Bishop Maigret, builder of the cathedral, dies after 42 years of service in the Hawaiian Kingdom, 35 years as bishop. After his funeral in the cathedral, his body is carried in procession to the King Street Cemetery, but he is not buried there. His final resting place goes unrecorded for 100 years until 1981 when, during renovations, his tomb is discovered under the cathedral’s sanctuary.
Nov. 8, 1883: St. Marianne Cope and six sisters of St. Francis from Syracuse, N.Y. arrive in Honolulu to assist the Hansen’s disease patients at the Branch Hospital in Kakaako. Their first stop is the cathedral where a thanksgiving service is offered by Bishop Koeckemann.
Feb 19, 1888: St. Marianne attends the funeral of Hawaii’s former prime minister, Walter Murray Gibson in the cathedral. As president of the board of health, Gibson was the Franciscan Sisters’ primary sponsor and patron in Hawaii.
1910: Bishop Libert Boeynaems considers a major renovation the cathedral but does not follow through except to add an impressive, gothic front to the church, replace the wooden floor with a cement one, add new pews and a communion railing, and replace the termite-eaten steeple.
1927: Bishop Stephen P. Alencastre buys 81,000 square feet on the slopes of Punchbowl to build a new cathedral to replace the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. But the ambitious plan does not survive the devastating financial depression of 1929. Instead, other central Honolulu churches and a three-story chancery and clergy residence on Bishop Street are built.
1929: Bishop Alencastre takes down the gothic front and puts up the simple doric pillars seen on the cathedral facade today. The exterior plaster is replaced with cement.
February 3, 1936: Hawaii pays its final tribute to the earthly remains of St. Damien in the cathedral at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Alencastre. That same day, the remains, which had been exhumed in Kalaupapa on Jan. 27, 1936, begin their journey back to Belgium as requested by the Belgian government.
1940: Concrete buttresses, steel tie rods and steel trusses are added to strengthen the cathedral structure.
Nov. 9, 1940: Bishop Alencastre dies on the passenger liner Matsonia while returning to Honolulu from Los Angeles. The Maritime Union, which the bishop helped during a devastating shipping strike in 1936, erected a plaque on the cathedral to “their benefactor” with the accolade, “Labor never forgets.”
1956: Bishop James J. Sweeney makes significant changes to the cathedral’s interior including the installation of a baldachino over the altar, a bronze tabernacle and new light fixtures.
1967: Following the liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council, the communion rail is removed and a large marble altar constructed.
1981: A new cathedral rectory and chancery building is built, replacing the structure that had extended behind the cathedral to Bishop Street.
1993: Marking the cathedral’s 150th anniversary, restoration of the stained glass windows and clerestory statues of the saints begins. A eucharistic devotional area is created around the tabernacle and separated from the rest of the church by a semitransparent screen. The pews are re-arranged to face each other, monastery-style, left and right of the widened center aisle where the altar and ambo are positioned.
May 10, 2014: The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments declares the cathedral a minor basilica.
September 6, 2015: Phase one of the newest renovation project begins. It includes the repair and reinforcement of the upstairs galleries, or balconies, which had extensive termite damage.
November, 2015: Phase one of the renovation is completed.
January, 2018: Phase two of the cathedral renovation begins.
August 16, 2018: The cathedral’s phase two renovations will be blessed.