KEKAHA, Kauai

It’s a long way from Manitowoc, Wis., to Kekaha, Kauai. Four thousand three hundred and three miles to be exact.

But that distance couldn’t stop the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, a religious order based in that rural city north of Milwaukee, between Sheboygan and Green Bay, from accepting an invitation 60 years ago to run a new school for the small parish of St. Theresa in the south-west corner of the Garden Isle.

Back in 1945, St. Theresa’s pastor, Marist Father Joseph Robeck, wanted to open a school for his growing parish. Bishop James J. Sweeney agreed to the idea as long as Father Robeck could find the nuns to staff it. So the priest enlisted the help of 17-year-old Mildred Gomes, an active young parishioner, in typing 108 letters to women’s religious communities across the United States.

Four orders responded and the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity were chosen.

“I think Bishop Sweeney was the one that decided that the Franciscans should come to Kekaha because the Franciscans were more used to the country, the poor places,” said Gomes by phone from Manitowoc last month, “and Father Robeck had said it was a poor place.”

Now known as Sister Roselani, Gomes became the first woman from Hawaii to join the Wisconsin order, one year after the nuns arrived in the islands.

When the first four nuns arrived in 1946, the Diocese of Honolulu was only five years old and still considered mission territory. Kekaha was a sugar plantation town.

Plans to build a new convent for the sisters before they arrived had been scrapped when the 1946 tsunami damaged the church and money was needed to repair it. So the sisters lived in a small two-bedroom home nicknamed “the dollhouse,” that had once belonged to Protestant missionaries.

“No one had seen sisters before,” said Sister Roselani, now in her 70s. “They thought the sisters went to bed with all their clothing on. I guess it put them one step above everybody else.”

Sister Roselani has many memories of the sisters, whom she and her friends called “the penguins” because of their black and white habits.

Sister Rita Forgach, the superior of the four nuns, was strict but had a beautiful smile. Sister Bridgetine Gauthier loved animals and there was a particular dog that would follow her everywhere. Sister James Vande Hey would get teased about the prospect of roasting a marshmallow over her nose, sunburned red after hours refereeing outdoor sports. Sister St. Margaret Rufus, the youngest of the sisters, was know to be particularly jolly. None are alive today.

“Those four sisters were a good witness to everybody,” Sister Roselani said. “They brought a spirit into the parish that was lacking. It was through their friendliness and good example that I probably did choose [the Franciscans].”

The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity were established in 1869 by five women, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, to serve in rural Wisconsin. Today the order has about 350 sisters in Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The sisters work in Catholic schools, healthcare and elder services, and parish ministries. Since arriving in Hawaii, about 15 local women have entered the Franciscan convent. Three, including Sister Roselani, remain.

At one time the sisters also taught at Cathedral School in Honolulu and at St. John Vianney School in Kailua, Oahu. St. Theresa School once had nine nuns, one in each of the classrooms. But as the number of sisters has dwindled nationally, so have the number in the islands.

This school year marks the first time in the school’s 60 year history that the principal is not a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity. The motherhouse told the parish last year it would not be able to send out another sister to replace Sister Ellen Pachmayer who returned to the mainland.

“We heard it would be coming, that the nuns would not be able to send us four or five nuns,” said Father Alphonse “Larry” Larochelle, St. Theresa’s former pastor who now lives in residence there.

“We thought it would be in two or three years,” he said. “But already it happened this year.”

Despite their small number, the three remaining Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity are known and loved as much as the first four nuns who came 60 years ago.

“Because [nuns] are becoming fewer and fewer in number, some kids don’t even know what sisters are today,” said the new school principal Mary Jean Buza-Sims. “So we’re fortunate to have wonderful sisters here who are very giving and very in-tune to the life we have here on the island.”

The sisters have found fans in their students as well, including 7-year-old Brandon Phinaih. As soon as he spotted Sister Mary Ann Feminella, his second-grade teacher at the school’s anniversary luau on Oct. 13, he ran over to give her a big hug and then brought her over to talk with his stepdad.

“She’s really nice and she teaches me fun stuff,” Brandon said later. “When I leave school I get bored.”

Sister Mary Ann has been in Hawaii six years. She remembers what it was like first coming here after expecting to return to a teaching assignment in Ohio.

“The first year was very difficult here because it looked nothing like Ohio,” said the Brooklyn native.

But the parishioners and students made her feel welcomed.

“The people are just so beautiful here. They’re so real,” she said. “As a sister, my biggest joy is working with the children, especially in preparing them for the sacraments, to help them to get to know their God. I think that is so important for the little ones so that they can relate to Jesus who really loves them.”

Fellow Franciscan Sister Delores Wisnicky had been teaching in Rhinelander, Wis., for eight years when she learned she’d be coming to Hawaii in 2001. “I was pretty excited for this farm girl who never went more than a half hour away from home except for Ohio,” said Sister Delores, who is originally from Kewaunee, Wis.

“So this was going to be a major, major change,” she said.

“The warmth [of people] was incredible as soon as I arrived on the island,” said Sister Delores, who teaches the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. “And the beauty of the island has been wonderful.”

Though Kauai’s tropic humidity hit her hard at first, Sister Marie Bernadette Dorn has grown to love the islands in her three years here.

“It’s a wonderful place to be,” said the Kiel, Wis., native. “I love being a sister. I don’t know how I could be anything else.”

The sisters get up at around 4 a.m. each day for an hour of individual prayer time followed by prayer in the convent chapel for about 30 minutes. They also attend daily Mass and gather for evening prayer.

Sister Mary Ann and Sister Delores are at the school each day from 6:45 a.m. until around 4:30 p.m. and also come in on weekends. They both get paid a fraction of what a lay teacher gets and part of that money goes toward supporting another sister back at the Manitowoc motherhouse.

Sister Marie Bernadette is semi-retired after 31 years as a school principal on the Mainland and serves as the “sister-homemaker” and superior of the sisters in Kekaha. She cooks, cleans and does laundry for the other two nuns and also visits hospitals and the homebound twice a week.

The sisters also have time to enjoy themselves. They like playing cards — though Sister Marie Bernadette and Sister Delores have yet to match Sister Mary Ann’s winning record at a game they call “Michigan rummy.” They do puzzles and watch TV from time to time. Sister Delores plays the guitar, and they can all be found on their computer surfing the Internet and keeping in touch with family.

“Religious life is not boring,” Sister Delores said. “It is a wonderful life. Certainly there are sacrifices that are asked, but God’s abundant grace and blessing comes everyday. The Lord promised, ‘I will bless you a hundredfold.’ And that is really true. The more I live the more blessings and the more abundant graces come.”

In his homily at the Oct. 14 anniversary Mass at St. Theresa, Bishop Larry Silva praised the work of the sisters.

“Maybe Kauai isn’t exactly hardship and suffering, but nevertheless they had to say goodbye to their own homes, their own families, the familiar surroundings and come here to serve the people of this parish,” said Bishop Silva.