St. Damien of Molokai: the leper priest

On a farm in a small town in Belguim, Jozef De Veuster was born on January 3, 1840. The seventh child in the family, he grew to be muscular and strong. Because of difficult economic times he did not have the opportunity to finish school, but was put to work on the family farm, where it was expected he would one day take over. But Jozef’s older brother and two sisters had taken religious vows, and he was drawn to their way of life.

At 18 he entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, following his brother, who had become a priest. Jozef took the name Damien after the saint who was both doctor and martyr. He felt called to mission and prayed daily for an answer; ironically it came when his brother became sick and couldn’t travel to his assignment in Hawaii. Brother Damien went in his place in March of 1864, and two months later was ordained a priest. While he longed to be a missionary, he had no idea of the ordeal which would be set before him.

For nine years Father Damien worked on the island of Hawaii, bringing the sacraments and teaching the Catholic faith to the people there. He was not oblivious, however, to the crisis emerging around him in regard to leprosy, and when the government finally quarantined the lepers to the colony of Kalaupapa on Molokai, he volunteered to go there.

He was originally one of four religious who volunteered for the leper colony, but after being sent there on the “first shift,” he wrote his superior and asked to remain permanently. Even though the work was difficult and spiritually draining, he felt a strong bond with these people, God’s people, who had become outcasts through no fault of their own. He wrote: “I wish to give myself unconditionally to the poor lepers.” He relied strongly on prayer, both his own and others, for his strength.

When he arrived on Molokai in 1873, he found the colony in disarray, as the colonists felt abandoned and were not healthy enough to care for themselves. Many of them drank heavily as a form of self-medication. Father Damien rallied the healthier ones to help him build houses, schools, roads and hospitals, along with finishing the church, St. Philomena. He cared for the sick himself, built hundreds of coffins and dug graves by hand. He had a special place in his heart for the children, whom he felt were sentenced to an early death.

Father Damien aroused criticism for some of his work and methods. Opposing clergy, especially those who dared not visit the leper colony themselves, called him “a coarse, dirty man, headstrong and bigoted.” Robert Louis Stevenson wrote an open letter to one of these critics which became famous in its own right as a testimony to Father Damien’s heroism.

One day in 1884 Father Damien was scalded by hot water but felt no pain: he knew he had contracted leprosy. He continued to work for the next few years, but succumbed to the disease on April 15, 1889. Like the saint he was named for, Father Damien spent much of his life caring for the sick and becoming a martyr of charity.

Saints and our lives

Surrounded by death and dying, Father Damien had sufficient reason to contemplate eternity. “My greatest pleasure is to go there (the cemetery) to say my beads, and meditate on that unending happiness which so many of them are already enjoying.”

How should we view death as Christians? During this Easter season we are continually reminded that Jesus triumphed over death; what does that mean for us personally? It means we need not fear death because it is merely the doorway to a new and eternal life: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’” (Rev. 21)

St. Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009.