Saint Joseph Damien of Molokai
Image Courtesy: Aquinas & More
When Joseph de Veuster was born in Belgium Tremelo, few people in Europe had any first-hand knowledge of Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) however by the time he passed away at the age of 49 people all over the world knew about the disfiguring disease caused by the Mycobacterium laprae bacteria because of Fr. (Joseph) Damien of Molokai.
Joseph de Veuster, joined the Picpus Fathers in France according to SQPN and at the age of 20 and took the name ‘Damien’ as a Seminarian, volunteering for missionary work while still in Seminary, he was sent to Hawaii where he was Ordained a Priest in 1864
After serving in Hawaii for 9 yrs pioneering Catholicism Fr. Damien faced a new and frightful challenge–a leprosy epidemic. To halt the spread of the disease according to EWTN the Hawaiian government had isolated several hundred Lepers on the island of Molokai Kalawao County.
Molokai Catholic Lepers begged Bishop Louis Maigret for a Priest, many Missionaries despite the dangers, offered to go however Fr. Damien was selected.
Thirteen years earlier, while Fr. Damien was studying for the Priesthood in France, he had symbolically faced and accepted death. At the public profession of his final vows, he truly believed then that only by accepting death would he discover life. Now thirteen tears later, Fr. Damien was putting his dedication to the test, he sought to serve the most pitiful of all men–the lepers of Molokai.
Between 1866 and 1873 seven hundred and ninety seven (797) lepers had arrived on Molokai, almost half died.
Bishop Maigret accompanied Fr. Damien to Molokai, presenting him to the Catholic Lepers as their new pastor.
With the Lepers help Fr. Damien added a rear wing to the Molokai Chapel also constructing a rectory.
Molokai became known as the ‘Colony of Shame’ medical care was minimal. Fr. Damien was deeply moved by the ‘Leper Children’ struggling to preserve them from the physical and moral corruption of the island.
At the outset of his mission, Fr. Damien aimed to restore in each leper a sense of personal worth and dignity. To show his poor battered flock the virtue of their lives, he had to demonstrate to them the value of their deaths and so he first turned his attention to the cemetery area beside his little Chapel. Fr. Damien constructed first a fence around it to protect the grave sites from animals; he built coffins and would dig graves and organized lepers into the ‘Christian Burial Assn’ to provide a decent burial to each of the deceased–the newly found organization arranged for the requisite Mass, proper funeral ceremonies and sponsored a musical group that played during the funeral processions.
Fr. Damien continued ministering to the sick, bringing the Sacraments of Confession; Holy Communion and anointing bedridden lepers. He would likewise cleanse their bodies, bandaged their wounds and would tidy their rooms. Fr. Damien did all that he could to make them as comfortable as possible.
Soon the settlement had new houses thanks to Fr. Damien and the assistance of lepers and together they constructed a new Church, School and an Orphanage. Morale improved considerably. A few year later, Fr. Damien succeeded in getting the ‘Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse’ led by Mother Marianne Cope (Feast Day 23 January) to help staff the Leper Colony’s hospital and schools at Kakaako and Kapiolani.
One day in 1884 while soaking his feet in extremely hot water, Fr. Damien experienced no sensation of heat, the evil disease that he battled for so many years, had now claimed him.
During his final years, Fr. Damien engaged in a flurry of activity–as much as his body would allow, he hastened to complete his many new building projects and enlarge the orphanages.
Fr. Damien died during Holy Week in 1889 — Some weeks before Fr. Damien breathed his last, he had said the Lord wanted him to spend Easter Sunday in heaven.
On the 03 June, 1995 Fr. Damien was Beatified by Pope John Paul II and Canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on the 11 October, 2009
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Related: “A Leper For Christ: St. Damien of Molokai” -Word on Fire