St. Damien

Today is the feast day of St. Damien of Molokai. It is his first feast day since being canonized last fall (an event attended by our own Fr. Damien Wee.)

St. Damien de Veuster was born in Belgium on January 3, 1840. The last of seven children, he was supposed to inherit the family business. At school, he was inspired to the priesthood during a Lenten Mission. When visiting his brother at the Sacred Hearts Seminary in Louvain, he was persuaded to join the Sacred Hearts

While Damien was in seminary, his brother was ordained a priest. His brother was assigned to the Sacred Hearts mission in Hawaii. Before leaving, his brother caught Typhus while ministering to the sick. Since, he wasn't able to sail, Damien, not yet a deacon, requested and received permission to take his brother's place.

In Hawaii, Damien was sent to the windward side of Oahu to complete his studies. In short order, he was ordained a deacon and then ordained a priest while only 24 years old. For 9 years he assisted the missionaries on the Big Island.

Shortly before Damien's arrival in Hawaii, leprosy began to spread among the native Hawaiians. Hawaiians, having been isolated for hundreds of years, had no natural immunological defense. The King established an isolation colony on Molokai to stop the spread of leprosy. Government agents identified people showing signs of the disease and shipped them to a detention center where Western doctors confirmed the diagnoses. Lepers were shipped to Molokai.

At a meeting of Sacred Hearts missionaries, Bishop Maigret explained the plight of the Catholics on Molokai. Every Sacred Hearts missionary volunteered to go. After more conversation, it was agreed that four priests would rotate through the colony in three-month increments. Damien was the first.

For most of his time on Molokai, Damien, was the only resident clergyman. Over time, the decision was made that no resident could ever leave the leprosarium.

When Damien arrived, many sick people lacked even the basic necessities. He built houses for every resident, provided conventional medical care and experimented with new medications, planted orchards and imported cattle, built an aqueduct to bring fresh water into the settlement, expanded the pre-existing St. Philomena's church, and established two orphanages (one each for boys and girls). The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts in Honolulu promoted charitable support for the settlement and became the depot for donated goods and services. As the settlement gained notoriety worldwide, donations poured in. This was a great relief to the government which tried to provide for the lepers as best they could.

Before Damien left Belgium for the missions, he had visited a shrine to the Blessed Mother. He asked her for 12 years of missionary service. In his 12th year in the leper colony he was diagnosed with the most virulent form of leprosy. He lived and worked for 4 more years before succumbing to the disease on April 15, 1889 at age 49. It was on this day, in 1863, that Father Damien's arrived to serve the Leprosarium in 1863.

Today is a very good day to invoke the assistance of St. Damien.