Saint Raphael Catholic Church

Saint Raphael Catholic Church holds the distinction of being the oldest Catholic church in Hawaii, founded in 1841 to serve the plantation workers and their families in the Koloa area. The current stone church dates from 1856, built from local lava rock and coral. It's still an active parish and the grounds include the historic cemetery, which is one of the most affecting sites in the Koloa area: the grave markers reflect the full ethnic mix of the plantation workforce, a tangible record of the immigration waves that shaped modern Hawaii.

The church is a short drive south of Koloa town. The building is simple and handsome, nothing like the great churches of Europe, but the age and setting — palms overhead, the old cemetery beside it, the plantation history all around — give it a weight out of proportion to its size. It's open to respectful visitors; check whether services are in progress before entering.

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When Father Robert Walsh built the first structure here in 1841, he used coral stones pulled from the nearby reef as mortar — a technique borrowed from the Hawaiian builders who had been constructing with coral for centuries. The cemetery attached to the church tells the whole story of the plantation era in miniature: Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, and Hawaiian names crowd together on headstones spanning from the 1840s to the present.

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