Saint Damein de Veuster
Priest, religious, Missionary

Two thousand miles off the coast of California lay the Hawaiian Islands.  In 1778 Captain James Cook was the first European to reach the island.  Unfortunately the native people had no resistance to the diseases Europeans were so familiar with: smallpox, influenza, cholera and tuberculosis.  Leprosy (now called Hansen’s disease), was the most terrifying of the diseases.  It quickly became an epidemic.

By the 1870’s, the king of Hawaii and his government were desperate to stop the spread of the disease.  They ordered anyone with leprosy, regardless of age or gender to be taken to the island of Molokai.  Spouses were separated and children torn from their parents.

Joseph de Veuster was born in Belgium in 1840.  Joseph and his brother Pamphile joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts.  When he received the habit of his community, he became known as Brother Damien.  The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts decided to send more missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. Pamphile was chosen to go.  Shortly before he was ready to leave, Pamphile became ill.  Damien volunteered to take his brother’s place even though he was not year ordained a priest.

The journey took four months. Once in Hawaii, Brother Damien was ordained a priest.  For the next eight years he cared for the people of three districts. He often had to travel on horseback or by canoe to reach his flock.

During this time, the appalling conditions on Molokai were coming to light. The small group of Catholic lepers asked the bishop to send someone to care for the spiritual needs.  Once again, Father Damien stepped forward and volunteered to go to Molokai.

Beginning in 1873 until his death, Father Damien worked on Molokai. When he arrived on the island there was a small chapel but no place for the priest to live. So he took up his residence under a Pandanus tree.

 In a short time, Molokai went from being a place of despair to a place of joy. With the help of the lepers, he enlarged the chapel and built a rectory.  They built coffins, cared for the sick, planted flower gardens, opened a hospital and an orphanage, built roads and organized musical bands.

Leprosy can cause terrible disfigurement and a horrible smell.  Father Damien realized that if he were really going to help the lepers he had to overcome his fear of contagion.  He cleansed the wounds, he ate from the same dishes they ate from, he gave them Holy Communion – in other words, he touched them. 

In December of 1884, Father Damien realized that he had contracted Leprosy.  Now he really did share everything with the lepers, even their disease.   In 1886 Joseph Dutton arrived on Molokai to help. Mother Marianne Cope and her sisters arrived in 1888 to care for the female residents.  Until his strength failed him, Father Damien continued to work.  He died during Holy Week, on April 15, 1889.  He was beatified in 1994 and canonized in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.

 

For more information see

"Heroic Catholics of the Twentieth Century"

by Sister Elizabeth Ann Barkett, SJWNew Hope Publications, New Hope, Ky

or

 Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker

www.ssjw.org