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Holy Ghost Catholic Church (Kula, Hawaii)
1894

Holy Ghost Catholic Church, also known as Holy Ghost Mission, is an historic octagon-shaped Roman Catholic church building located at 4300 Lower Kula Road in Waiakoa in the Kula district. It was designed by Father James Beissel and built by his parishioners who were Portuguese from the Azores and the Madeira Islands who had come to work on the local sugar plantation. The first mass was celebrated in it in 1895. It was consecrated in 1899 by Bishop Gulstan Ropert, the third vicar apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands — now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

On April 29, 1983, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It may be the only historic octagonal building in Hawaii.

In 1991 the building was closed for a year in order to undergo a major restoration. Holy Ghost Mission is still an active Roman Catholic congregation, which annually at Pentecost celebrates the Portuguese Holy Ghost Festival.



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