Pilgrims yearn to visit isolated peninsula where Catholic saints cared for Hawaii’s leprosy patients

KALAUPAPA, Hawaii (AP) — Kalaupapa beckoned to Kyong Son Toyofuku. She had long prayed to visit the hard-to-reach Hawaiian peninsula, trapped by its deep-green, sheer sea cliffs and rugged, black rock shores that glisten under the Pacific’s pristine waters.

As a daily Mass-going Catholic devoted to Saint Damien of Molokai, she wanted to walk where he walked, pray where he prayed, and witness for herself the place — both stunning and haunting — where the late priest spent a pivotal part of his life caring for banished people sick with leprosy.

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What You Need To Know

• • Kalaupapa is defined by its natural isolation in northern Molokai

• • The pilgrimage to Kalaupapa is logistically challenging and restricted under normal circumstances, and even more so today because of lingering pandemic restrictions

• • Missionaries moved to Kalaupapa to care for the new residents’ physical and spiritual needs

• More than 8,000 people, mostly Native Hawaiians, perished at Kalaupapa

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The pilgrimage to Kalaupapa, defined by its natural isolation in northern Molokai, is logistically challenging and restricted under normal circumstances. It is even more so today because of lingering COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that canceled all pilgrimages and tours of the national historical park to protect the peninsula’s eight remaining former patients. Park and state health department officials are considering when to resume organized pilgrimages and tours.

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