First Mass

July 1827

Photos

Documentation

• Charlotte M. Kelly, "The Church in Hawaii," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, vol. 37, no. 147 (Sept. 1948), pp. 333-341

Notes

Per Charlotte M. Kelly, "The Church in Hawaii" (Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Sept. 1948, p. 335), the first Mass was said by Fr. Alexis Bachelot, Prefect Apostolic of the first Sacred Hearts ("Picpus Fathers") mission to Hawaii, in a grass hut not far from the site of the present cathedral in Honolulu -- the mission (Bachelot, Frs. Armand and Short, and two Brothers) had arrived aboard the French ship La Comete on July 7, 1827, and this was the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts' very first foreign mission anywhere. Kelly does not give an exact day for the Mass itself, so this entry is dated to the month only rather than picking between the July 13/14 dates that circulate on secondary web sources without citation -- Kelly is the best-sourced account found and she simply does not specify. One small oddity worth flagging: Kelly calls the nearby church "the Cathedral of Our Lady of Grace," while Honolulu's cathedral today is the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace -- possibly an error in the 1948 article, or a name that changed since; not resolved here.