Date Set to Proclaim America's Newest Saint, Damien de Veuster

On Saturday, 21 February 2009, Papa Benedetto held a public consistory of cardinals to set the dates for the canonization of 10 Blesseds. Among those on the list was Blessed Damien de Veuster. He will be officially recognized on 11 October 2009 along with 3 others. He is known as the Apostle to the lepers because of his work on Molokaʻi, in what was then the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

He was born Jozef (Joseph) de Veuster on 3 January 1840 in Tremelo, Flemish Brabant, a province of Flanders in Belgium. Known as Jef, he was the 7th child of the corn merchant Frans de Veuster and his wife Cato Wouter. While attending college in Braine-le-Comte he went to a mission given by the Redemptorists in 1858. He decided to become a religious & entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Leuven. (The priests of the order are known as Picpus Fathers.) On 7 October 1860 he made his religious profession. 3 years later, while still in minor orders, he was sent to their Hawaiian mission. He was ordained a priest there on 24 May 1864. Over the next 9 years he served various areas on several of the Hawaiian Islands.

During this time, leprosy (Hansen's Disease) was becoming a huge health problem for the Islands. In the mid 1800s there were no treatments for the disease. So isolation was the only solution. King Kamehameha V quarantined the lepers & moved them to a settlement colony known as Kalaupapa on the north side of the island of Moloka‘i. It is divided from the rest of the island by a steep mountain ridge, making it the ideal spot for colony. Unfortunately, while the government provides food & clothing, it didn't provide for medical care. The place soon became known for its lawlessness. (For an excellent fictionalized account of what the leper colony was like read James Michener's Hawaii. He has a section of the novel that takes place in the leper colony that captures the lawlessness of the place as well as hopelessness of those sent there before Fr. Damien arrived.)

Mnsr.Louis Désiré Maigret, SS.CC., vicar apostolic of what was then called the Sandwich Islands, decided that at the very least needed a priest to minister to their needs. He also knew that the asignment was a potential death sentance. After careful prayer, Fr. Damien volunteered for the mission. Fr. Damien arrived on 10 May 1873. 1 of his 1st actions was to build the Church for what would become the Parish of Saint Philomena. In addition to the spiritual needs, Fr. Damien ministerd to their physical needs, he dressed ulcers, built homes and beds, built coffins and dug graves. Soon, under his leadership the place went from being totally lawless to a functioning community. It also became known for having the best treatment of lepers for its time.

In December of 1884, Fr. Damien discovered that he had contracted the disease. But that didn't stop him from continuing to care for his flock. Soon help arrived to assist him & continue the work after his death. The helpers were Louis Lambert Conrardy, a Belgian priest; Mother Marianne Cope, Superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse (declared blessed by Papa Benedetto on 14 May 2005); Joseph Dutton, an American Civil War soldier; & James Sinnett, a nurse from Chicago.

Fr. Damien died on 15 April 1889, at the age of 49.

King David Kalākaua I bestowed on Damien the honor Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalākaua I. His daughter Princess Lydia Liliʻuokalani, who bestowed the order, spread the story of what Fr. Damien was doing. This resulted in his seeing a huge influx of money, food, medicine, clothing and supplies to help him in his work.

He was buried next the the Church he built. But in 1936, the Belgian government asked for the return of his body. He is now buried in Leuven.

After his death he came under attack by a Honolulu Presbyterian, Reverend C. M. Hyde. The attack was clearly an anti-Catholic attack ment to slander not only Fr. Damien, but also the Catholic Church. After reading the attack, author Robert Louis Stevenson, also a Presbyterian, went to Molokai for eight days and seven nights, during which time he kept a diary. In it he recorded what he found as he investigated Rev. Hyde's claims. He sought testimony from critical Protestants who knew Fr. Damien. The result was an open letter he wrote on 25 February 1890. In it he called the Rev. Hyde a "crank". Point by point, he refuted every charge. He described Fr. Damien as "a man, with all his weakness, essentially heroic, and alive with rugged honesty, generosity, and mirth."

After the cause was openned, the Catholic Church also looked into all the charges & came to the same conclusion as Stevenson. Fr. Damien was declared venerable on 7 July 1977 by Pope Paul VI. On 13 June 1992, Pope John Paul II approved the cure of a nun in France as a miracle attributed to Venerable Damien’s intercession. He was beatified on 4 June 1995 by Pope John Paul II. At that time his feast day was established as 1o May for the USA, except in Hawaiʻi where it is 15 April, the day of his death. On 3 July 2008 Papa Benedetto approved the 2nd miracle needed for his canonization. That of a Honolulu woman's recovery in 1999 from terminal lung cancer.

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Where Fr. Damien did his work is now Kalaupapa National Historic Park The park is part of the National Park System. The photo of Blessed Damien was taken 2 months before his death.