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© 2005 Andy Leffler, All Rights Reserved.
Caption
This tiny church (49 people, maximum, it says at the door) was erected in 1927 in the village of Kalapana on the big island of Hawaii, but had to be moved to it's present location about two miles away when the current eruption of Kilauea buried 90% of the village in the early nineties.Originally a Catholic church, it has since been "defrocked" and is now maintained by a private foundation. The original priest for the parish was Father Damien, who achieved a certain fame by establishing the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i.
Some of the painting was done by a priest, Father Everest Geisen in the late twenties, but most was done by George Heidler of Athens Georgia in 1967.
It is interesting to note that the eruption of Kilauea that inundated Kalapana began in 1983 and continues to this day, with the lava currently entering the ocean about four miles to the west of Kalapana.
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