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Father Damien

Father Damien or Saint Damien of Moloka'i, born Jozef De Vaster, was a Roman Catholic priest originally from Belgium. Father Damien was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI for his service to the Kingdom of Hawaii aiding patients with leprosy (Hansen's Disease) from 1873-1889. During this time, Father Damien taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Damien aided the leper colony on the Kalaupapa Peninsula where patients with leprosy were quarantined for the mistaken belief that leprosy was highly contagious. For the rest of his life, Father Damien cared for the patients himself and established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He himself dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes with them, and ate poi from his hands with them. After 16 years of caring for leprosy patients in Hawaii, Father Damien realized he had also contracted leprosy when he was scalded by hot water and felt no pain. He continued with his work despite the infection but had finally succumbed to the disease on April 15, 1889.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Brussels, Belgium on June 4, 1995 and was also given a feast day on May 10th. His sainthood was confirmed on October 11, 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. April 15th, the day of his passing, is also a minor statewide holiday in Hawaii and to this day Father Damien is the patron saint of people suffering from leprosy.

Table of Contents

1. Early life
2. Mission to Hawaii
3. Leper colony
4. Illness and death

Early Life

Jozef De Veuster was born the youngest of seven children in rural Belguim on January 3, 1840. His father, Joannes Franciscus, was a Flemish corn merchant in the village of Tremelo in Flemish Brabant. Growing up on a farm, it was assumed that he would eventually take over the farm. Instead, Jozef attended college at Braine-Le-Comte and eventually followed his two sisters Eugénie and Pauline (who had become nuns) as well as his older brother Auguste (Father Pamphile) and became a “picpus” brother and a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on October 7, 1860. It was there during his first vows where he took the name Damianus (Damiaan in Dutch, Damien in French) after St. Damien, an early Christian saint who was said to perform miracles. During Damien’s ecclesiastical studies, he is said to have prayed daily to a picture of St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries to one day be sent on a mission. Three years later, Damien’s brother Father Pamphile who was assigned a mission to travel to the Hawaiian Islands had become ill, and therefore, St. Damien was allowed to take his place.

Mission to Hawaii

On March 19th, 1864, Father Damien arrived at the Honolulu Harbor on the island of Oahu. Shortly after on March 24th 1864, Father Damien was ordained to priesthood at the Cathedral of our Lady of Peace, originally built by his religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

In 1865, Father Damien was assigned to the Catholic Mission in North Kohala. At the time, Father Damien was serving at several parishes on the island of Oahu where he noticed the public health crisis in Hawaii. Many of his parishioners were Native Hawaiians who had become infected by diseases that were brought to the island by Europeans, Americans, immigrants, and other foreign sailors. Diseases such as smallpox, cholera, whooping cough, influenza, and syphilis had killed thousands of Hawaiians as they had no previously acquired immunity. Because of these rise in mortality rates, fear of foreign diseases had spread throughout Hawaii especially a disease known as Hansen’s disease or Leprosy. It is believed that Chinese workers had brought the disease to the islands in 1830’s and 1840’s. At the time leprosy was misunderstood and thought to be highly contagious and incurable. Consequently, in 1865, out of fear of the disease Hawaiian King Kamehameha IV and the Hawaiian Legislature passed the “Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy”

The infected "lepers" were quarantined and segregated to the settlement colony of Kalawao on the eastern end of the Kalaupapa peninsula isolated from the rest of the Hawaii by a steep mountain ridge. The medical community and the Royal Board of Health provided the lepers with supplies and food but did not yet have the manpower and proper resources to provide proper health care. The Kingdom of Hawaii had planned for the lepers to be able to care for themselves and grow their own crops, but, due to the effects of leprosy and the local environmental conditions of the peninsula, this was impractical. Father Damien was concerned for the lepers who were isolated by a mountain ridge without proper health care and volunteered to be a priest for the leper colony. He then asked his bishop, Louis Maigret to be sent to Molokai. On May 10th, 1873, Father Damien arrived at the isolated settlement at Kalaupapa and was presented by Bishop Louis Maigret. At his arrival he spoke to over 800 lepers as "one who will be a father to you, and who loves you so much that he does not hesitate to become one of you; to live and die with you”.

During this time, Father Damien had not only cared for the lepers, but also established leadership within the community to improve the state of living. Father Damien aided the colony by teaching, painting houses, organizing farms, organizing the construction of chapels, roads, hospitals, and churches. He also personally dressed residents, dug graves, built coffins, ate food by hand with lepers, shared pipes with them, and lived with the lepers as equals. Father Damien also served as a priest during this time and spread the Catholic Faith to the lepers and it is said that Father Damien told the lepers that despite what the outside world thought of them, they were always precious in the eyes of God. Under the leadership of Father Damien, laws were more strongly enforced, working farms were more organized, and schools along with an education system was established.

Illness and Death

Father Damien worked for 16 years in Hawaii providing comfort for the lepers of Kalaupapa. He did not only give the people faith, but he also gave the people homes, and his medical expertise. He would pray at the cemetery of the deceased and comfort the dying at their bedsides.

In December 1884, Father Damien realized that he himself had contracted the disease while preparing to bath when he had put his foot into scalding water and realized that he had felt no pain as this was a common way to discover that one had been contracted with the disease. In 1885, a Japanese leprologist named Masanao Goto came to Honolulu to treat Father Damien. Goto believed that leprosy was caused by diminution of the blood which resulted in treatments for the disease consisting of nourishing food, exercise, special ointments, and medical baths. The treatments had relieved some of the symptoms of the disease and during this time, Goto and Damien became good friends.

Despite the illness which slowly took over his body , Father Damien’s last years in Hawaii, he tried to complete and advance as many projects as possible with his time remaining. While continuing to spread the Catholic Faith and aid the lepers in their treatments, Damien completed several building projects and improved orphanages.

As leprosy took over his body leaving his arm in a sling, his foot in bandages, and his leg dragging, death was near for Father Damien. He was bedridden on March 23rd, 1889 and made a general confession on March 30th. After 16 years in the colony, Father Damien succumbed to the disease at 8:00am on April 15th, 1889 at age 49. The next day, after Mass which was led by Father Moellers at St. Philomena's, the whole settlement followed the funeral cortège to the cemetery. Damien was laid to rest under the same pandanustree where he first slept upon his arrival on Molokai. In January 1936, at the request of King Leopold III of Belgium and the Belgian government, Damien's body was returned to his native land of Belgium. His body was transported aboard the Belgian ship Mercator. Damien was buried in Leuven, the historic university city near the location of his birth. After his beatification in June 1995, the remains of Damien's right hand were returned to Hawaii and re-interred in his original grave on Molokai.

References

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Doctor Hyde of Honolulu. London: Chatto and Windus, 1890. Print.

United States. National Park Service. "Father Damien." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of     the Interior, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.

https://www.nps.gov/kala/learn/historyculture/damien.htm

@USCapitol. "Father Damien." Architect of the Capitol. N.p., 29 Apr. 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.

https://www.aoc.gov/art/national-statuary-hall-collection/father-damien

Stewart, Richard. Leper Priest of Moloka'i: The Father Damien Story. Honolulu: U of Hawai'i, 2000. Print.

Voelkel, By Jack. "Saint Damien." Urbana. N.p., 1 Apr. 2007. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

https://urbana.org/blog/saint-damien

"The Catholic Churches on Molokai, Hawaii." The Catholic Churches on Molokai, Hawaii. Saint Damien of Molokai Church and Parish, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

http://damienchurchmolokai.org

"Brief Biography of St. Damien of Molokai." 02stdamienbiography.html. Saint Damien Catholic Church, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2016.

http://www.stdamiens.org/02stdamienbiography.html

Vogt, Brandon. "A Leper for Christ: St. Damien of Molokai and Solidarity | Word on Fire." A Leper for Christ: St. Damien of Molokai and Solidarity | Word On Fire. Word on Fire, !0 May 2016. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.

http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/a-leper-for-christ-st-damien-of-molokai-and-solidarity/2274/