Saint Damien de Veuster

Saint Damien de Veuster was a Belgian priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and a missionary in Hawaii. He spent sixteen years among the lepers isolated on the island of Molokai, shared their lot, and himself died of leprosy. The Church commemorates him on April 15, the day of his death.

He was born on January 3, 1840, at Tremelo in Flanders, the seventh of eight children in a family of farmers and merchants. He was baptized that same day and given the name Joseph. Four of the eight children, he among them, chose religious life. His father wanted to entrust the family business to Joseph, but he followed his older brother Auguste, in religion Pamphile. At the beginning of 1859 he entered the novitiate at Leuven and took the name Damien, and on October 7, 1860, he made his religious vows in Paris.

In 1863 Pamphile, who had been assigned to the missions in the Hawaiian Islands, fell ill. Damien, who was not yet ordained a priest, asked the superior general to let him sail in his brother’s place. He reached Honolulu on March 19, 1864, and on May 21 he was ordained a priest there. For the following years he worked on the island of Hawaii, the largest of the archipelago, first in the district of Puna, then in Kohala and Hamakua. He preached the Gospel, helped the poor, and visited the sick.

To stop the spread of leprosy, the Hawaiian government was at that time sending the sick to the island of Molokai. Bishop Louis Maigret knew that they needed a priest, but he did not want to send anyone there under obedience. Four volunteers came forward, who were to take turns. Damien sailed first and on May 10, 1873, landed at the settlement of Kalawao with nothing but a crucifix and a breviary. At his own request and that of the sick he stayed with them for good, and soon he too was forbidden to leave the island.

He was their priest, nurse, and carpenter. He dressed wounds, put up houses, built a water supply, two hospitals, and two orphanages, and buried the dead. He asked no one about religion and accepted the help of people of various convictions. In his sermons he addressed his parishioners as “we lepers.” In 1884 it became clear that he himself was ill. He went on working as long as his strength lasted.

He died at Kalawao on April 15, 1889, on Monday of Holy Week, at the age of 49. He was buried in the local cemetery, and in 1936 his remains were brought to Belgium and laid in the crypt of the congregation’s church in Leuven.

Pope Paul VI recognized his heroic virtues in 1977. John Paul II beatified him on June 4, 1995, in Brussels, and Benedict XVI canonized him on October 11, 2009, at the Vatican. At the beatification his memorial was set for May 10, the anniversary of his arrival on Molokai, and that day is kept in the calendars of Belgium and the United States. The Roman Martyrology lists him on April 15.