The parish was canonically erected in 1916, when Father Ulrich Taube, SS.CC., built the first wooden church that was consecrated that same year under the title of Saint Anthony of Padua by Msgr.
Father Ulrich commuted daily from the downtown Honolulu rectory at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, serving the faithful of Kalihi Kai until his resignation due to illness in 1927.
Plantation workers and laborers moving into Kalihi Kai since the turn of the century resulted in a substantial increase in population.
Five more Maryknoll nuns joined the school in 1929 and Father Hubert purchased the adjacent property across Kaumualii Street and built a two-story convent for the sisters.
Designed with a semicircular floor plan, a domed roof, and replete with beautiful ecclesiastical appointments including a mosaic depicting the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, floral stained glass windows, and various other stained-glass windows depicting various events in the history of the parish and the diocese, and walnut pews manufactured by the Trappist monks of Lafayette, Indiana the new church was consecrated on August 25, 1968 by Msgr.