Bishop Larry Silva will celebrate a Mass at 10 a.m. on Sept. 14 at Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina to open a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the dedication of the church. A parish picnic will follow.

The parish committee planning the year is seeking photographs of church activities from 1856 to the present. These photos may be brought to the rectory where copies will be made and the originals immediately returned.

The year long observance will conclude in September 2009 with a Mass and luau.

In the mid-1850s Sacred Hearts Brothers in Honolulu prefabricated the original Lahaina church and had it shipped over to Maui section by section. Sacred Hearts Father Aubert Bouillon, one of three priests on the island at the time was the pastor.

Bishop Louis Maigret officially dedicated Maria Lanakila (Our Lady of Victory) Church on Sept. 8, 1858.

The first church lasted 40 years, succumbing to termites and dry rot in 1928. Sacred Hearts Father Engelbert de Vries had it torn down and built a new church on the same foundations.

More renovations and improvements followed over the years.

On Feb. 26, 1951, Bishop James J. Sweeney blessed the new parish school, named Sacred Hearts, and convent.