May-10 Saint Damien de Veuster of Moloka’i

When Jozef de Veuster was born in Tremelo, Belgium, in 1840, few people had any firsthand knowledge of the flesh-eating Hansen’s disease then called leprosy. By the time he died at the age of 49, thanks to his ministry among lepers people all over the world knew about this dreaded disease.

Forced to quit school at age 13 to work on the family farm, Jozef entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary six years later, taking the name of a fourth-century physician and martyr Damien. 

In 1864 when his older brother fell ill, Damien volunteered to take his place and travel to the missions in Hawai`i. Damien was ordained a priest at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace on May 21, 1864 and stated his ministry in Hawaii. 

In 1873 as part of a team of rotational member of volunteer chaplains he was assigned for 3 months to minister to the 700 lepers isolated on a settlement colony of Kalawao on the eastern end of the Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokaʻi.

At that time it was mistakenly believed that the disease was highly contagious so only volunteers were sent there. Once on the settlement Damien chose to remain behind on a permanent basis caring for the people’s physical, medical, and spiritual needs - taking the trouble to learn the language. He restored order in the colony, took care of the sick, helped construct a new water reservoir, made caskets and dug graves to bury the dead, and planted trees. Soon he would become their biggest champion getting plans passed and funds raised for new houses and a new church, school and orphanage.

"His cassock was worn and faded, his hair tumbled like a school-boy’s, his hands stained and hardened by toil; but the glow of health was in his face, the buoyancy of youth in his manner; while his ringing laugh, his ready sympathy, and his inspiring magnetism told of one who in any sphere might do a noble work, and who in that which he has chosen is doing the noblest of all works. This was Father Damien." ~ Charles Warren Stoddard, who visited Kalawao in 1884

During Fr Damien’s years at Kalawao, others came to help. A number of priests spent varying lengths of time. In 1886 Joseph Dutton arrived, followed in 1888 by Mother Marianne Cope and two of her sisters from the Order of St. Francis. They, along with four Brothers of the Sacred Heart who arrived in 1895, carried Damien’s work into the next century.

Although leprosy is not easily contagious, after 16 years of service on the island Damien himself contracted Hansen’s disease probably due to lax hygiene and neglecting open wounds. He died of its complications on April 15, 1889. As requested, he was buried in the cemetery next to his church, St. Philomena in Kalawao, but being in an isolated leper colony no one could visit so in 1936 Damien’s remains were exhumed and reburied at Leuven, the historic university city which is close to the village where he was born. 

In 1889, famed Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his family arrived in Hawai`i for an extended stay. He had tuberculosis, a disease which was also considered incurable, and he was seeking some relief for it. Moved by Damien's story, he became interested in the priest's controversial story and went to Molokaʻi for eight days and seven nights to learn more about Damien from first-hand accounts of residents of various religious backgrounds. Based on his conversations and observations, he wrote an open letter which continues to be one of the most emphatic accounts that support the selfless heroic of this remarkable man.

In 1995 a relic composed of the remains of his right hand was returned to his original grave at Kalawao, to the great joy of Kalaupapa and the rest of Hawai`i. Kalaupapa National Historical Park was created in 1980 in part to honor and remember the legacy of Father Damien and those he served in the midst of suffering, and often times, the triumph of the human spirit over great adversity.

Damien was beatified in 1995 and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009. His feast day is celebrated on 10 May. In Hawai`i, it is celebrated on the day of his death, 15 April.