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| Fr. Damien's Arrival on Molokai |
Fr. Damien/St. Damien of Molokai (feast day: July 10)
Father Damien (1840-89 a.d.), born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary from Belgium. He won recognition for his ministry to people with leprosy. After sixteen years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, he himself eventually contracted and died of the disease. He is the first person recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church to have lived, worked, and died in Hawaii.
Damien was born in the village of Tremelo in Flemish Brabant. He attended college at Braine-le-Comte, then entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Leuven, taking the name of Brother Damianus. During his studies, he would pray every day before a picture of St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries, to be sent on a mission. Three years later his prayer was answered when Damien was sent to Hawaii.
On March 19, 1864, Damien landed at Honolulu Harbor. Ordained priest in May 1864, he was assigned to the Catholic Mission in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi.
At the time, the Kingdom of Hawai'i was facing a public health crisis. The Native Hawaiians became afflicted by diseases introduced to their islands by foreign traders and sailors. Thousands died of influenza, syphilis, Hansen’s disease (a.k.a. leprosy) and other ailments which had never before affected them. At the time, leprosy was thought to be highly contagious (we now know that 95% of the general population has immunity) and was thought to be incurable. In 1865, the Hawaiian legislature established settlement colonies at the east end of the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokaʻi. The colonies were divided from the rest of the island by a steep mountain ridge, and even today the only land access is by a mule track. Over 8,000 people were sent to the Kalaupapa peninsula between 1866 to 1969. The Hawaiian government provided the quarantined people with supplies and food but did not yet have the resources to offer proper healthcare. It was planned to not only provide more appropriate healthcare, but also to equip the quarantined to grow their own crops. When those plans failed, despair and alcoholism spread among the quaranined.
The local Catholic bishop, while recognizing the pastoral needs of the colony, hesitated to send a priest, potentially condemning him to a death sentence. The plan was to send priests for shorter periods of time, assisting the distressed. Father Damien was the first to volunteer and, in May 1873, arrived in Kalaupapa. His first course of action was to build a church and establish a parish, yet his role was not limited to being a priest: he dressed ulcers, built homes and beds, built coffins and dug graves. Six months after his arrival at Kalawao he wrote his brother: “I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.”
Under his leadership, basic laws were enforced, shacks became painted houses, working farms were organized and schools were erected. At his own request, and that of the lepers, Father Damien remained on Molokai.
In December 1884 while preparing to bathe, Damien put his foot into scalding water, causing his skin to blister. He felt nothing. This is when he realized that he had contracted leprosy. In his last years Damien engaged in a flurry of activity. While continuing his charitable ministrations, he hastened to complete his many building projects, enlarge his orphanages, and organize his work.
Father Damien died of leprosy on April 15, 1889, aged 49. The next day, the whole settlement followed the funeral cortège to the cemetery where Damien was laid to rest under the same Pandanus tree where he first slept upon his arrival on Molokai.
In 1936, at the request of the Belgian government, Damien's body was returned to his native land where it now rests in the university city of Leuven, not far from the village where Father Damien was born. In 1995, the remains of his right hand were returned to Hawaii, and re-interred in his original grave on Molokai. In October 2009, Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.
Damien was born in the village of Tremelo in Flemish Brabant. He attended college at Braine-le-Comte, then entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Leuven, taking the name of Brother Damianus. During his studies, he would pray every day before a picture of St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries, to be sent on a mission. Three years later his prayer was answered when Damien was sent to Hawaii.
On March 19, 1864, Damien landed at Honolulu Harbor. Ordained priest in May 1864, he was assigned to the Catholic Mission in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi.
At the time, the Kingdom of Hawai'i was facing a public health crisis. The Native Hawaiians became afflicted by diseases introduced to their islands by foreign traders and sailors. Thousands died of influenza, syphilis, Hansen’s disease (a.k.a. leprosy) and other ailments which had never before affected them. At the time, leprosy was thought to be highly contagious (we now know that 95% of the general population has immunity) and was thought to be incurable. In 1865, the Hawaiian legislature established settlement colonies at the east end of the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokaʻi. The colonies were divided from the rest of the island by a steep mountain ridge, and even today the only land access is by a mule track. Over 8,000 people were sent to the Kalaupapa peninsula between 1866 to 1969. The Hawaiian government provided the quarantined people with supplies and food but did not yet have the resources to offer proper healthcare. It was planned to not only provide more appropriate healthcare, but also to equip the quarantined to grow their own crops. When those plans failed, despair and alcoholism spread among the quaranined.
The local Catholic bishop, while recognizing the pastoral needs of the colony, hesitated to send a priest, potentially condemning him to a death sentence. The plan was to send priests for shorter periods of time, assisting the distressed. Father Damien was the first to volunteer and, in May 1873, arrived in Kalaupapa. His first course of action was to build a church and establish a parish, yet his role was not limited to being a priest: he dressed ulcers, built homes and beds, built coffins and dug graves. Six months after his arrival at Kalawao he wrote his brother: “I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.”
Under his leadership, basic laws were enforced, shacks became painted houses, working farms were organized and schools were erected. At his own request, and that of the lepers, Father Damien remained on Molokai.
In December 1884 while preparing to bathe, Damien put his foot into scalding water, causing his skin to blister. He felt nothing. This is when he realized that he had contracted leprosy. In his last years Damien engaged in a flurry of activity. While continuing his charitable ministrations, he hastened to complete his many building projects, enlarge his orphanages, and organize his work.
Father Damien died of leprosy on April 15, 1889, aged 49. The next day, the whole settlement followed the funeral cortège to the cemetery where Damien was laid to rest under the same Pandanus tree where he first slept upon his arrival on Molokai.
In 1936, at the request of the Belgian government, Damien's body was returned to his native land where it now rests in the university city of Leuven, not far from the village where Father Damien was born. In 1995, the remains of his right hand were returned to Hawaii, and re-interred in his original grave on Molokai. In October 2009, Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.
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