The original painting is small, only 9×12″. It can be reproduced up to 14×18″. Any larger please consider commissioning a larger, original painting.

Siloama Church was established in 1866 only months after the first people were forcibly relocated to the Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokai. Exiled during Hawaii’s Hansen’s disease crisis (formerly called leprosy) people were left to their own devices to survive. Found in the settlement of Kalawao, the name means “Church of the Healing Spring,” offering spiritual solace for congregants amidst a period of immense physical suffering and societal abandonment.

Deeply rooted in the community the church and grounds served both patients and Protestant missionaries. The original building fell into disrepair, but was meticulously reconstructed in 1966 in honor of the centennial of the settlement. Siloama Church, and it’s close neighbor Saint Philomena Roman Catholic Church represent the enduring spirit of the remarkable effort to create a home in a place intended for exile during the fearful time when a disease with no cure silently crept through the population in the Hawaiian Islands.

Photographs I took of the church in 2008. There is an presence in Kalaupapa, of souls lost and suffering, alongside the extraordinary compassion of people who dedicated their lives to providing relief. Whether in the name of religion or from a driven sense of empathy, those individuals have a place in history worth knowing.