St. Damien of Molokai

Their story

Jozef De Veuster was born in 1840 in Tremelo, Belgium, the son of farmers. He joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, taking the name Damien. When his older brother, also a member of the order, fell ill and could not go to the missions in Hawaii, Damien asked to go in his place. He arrived in Honolulu in 1864 and was ordained a priest there. At the time, people with leprosy, now called Hansen's disease, were forcibly sent to a remote settlement at Kalaupapa, on the island of Molokai. Conditions there were terrible, with little shelter, food or care, and people lived in despair. In 1873 Damien volunteered to go. He meant to stay a few months, but he stayed for the rest of his life. He dressed wounds, built homes, a church, schools and an orphanage, organized farms and a choir, and dug graves and built coffins with his own hands. Above all, he treated the people as his own family and brought them the sacraments and the love of God. Around 1885 Damien discovered that he had caught the disease himself. From then on he began his sermons with the words "We lepers." He kept working as long as he could. St. Marianne Cope came to Kalaupapa and cared for him in his final months. He died on April 15, 1889, at the age of 49. Pope Benedict XVI canonized him in 2009. A statue of Damien represents Hawaii in the United States Capitol.