by Brendan O.
Leprosy is the deadliest of all the ancient plagues. It is one of man’s oldest blights. Those afflicted by this terrible disease have often been isolated from the public. Moses and his people battled with the dreadful ailment. Lepers were segregated from the rest of society and had to wear bells around their necks so that people could identify them.
Leper hospitals were constructed all over Europe by the year 1000. Friars often lived in hidden leper colonies to tend to the needs of those afflicted by this terrifying illness. Those friars were condemned to contract leprosy, and served the lepers with noble hearts.
Father Joseph De Veuster, more widely known as “Damien the Leper,” was a modern day model of these earlier friars. He will be canonized this October. Father Damien is a tremendous model of willingness and self-forgetting.
Damien spent his boyhood in Belgium where he lived on his parent’s farm. He grew up to be a strong and sturdy man. His older brother Pamphile was to precede Damien in journeying to the Hawaiian Islands. When Pamphile became ill, Damien begged to go in his place, and travelled the long journey to Hawaii. When Father Damien left Belgium, he knew that he would never return or see his family again.
Damien is a hero to many people. He devoted his life to aiding those who suffered from leprosy. He never gave up on the people he served, despite the many hard times and sufferings that he endured. Damien will become a saint because of the selfless and loving deeds he performed for the sick people of Molokai, Hawaii.
Molokai is an island in Hawaii that was used as a quarantine zone for people with leprosy. Damien volunteered to serve in Hawaii, and he requested to go exclusively to Molokai in 1873.He was in training to become a priest when he went and served all of his priesthood on Molokai. Damien did many things for the lepers of Molokai.
“Damien didn’t get an ‘A’ for taking advice,” said Father Stephen Morris, Dean of Students and Catholic priest at FFS. Damien had profound humility. When ships would come in with new lepers or supplies, he would go to confession by rowing out to the ship and shouting out his confessions to the priest on board the ship.
He did many significant things for his lepers. He built houses, pipelines for fresh water and a new chapel. He also attended their births, dressed their hideous wounds, built coffins for them and dug their graves. He was also good at raising money for his lepers.
Damien acquired leprosy in 1884 and announced it to his congregation during Mass with the words, “We lepers…” In his last years he hastened to complete all of the work he was doing on Molokai. He wanted to complete his many building projects and organize his work. Damien was awarded The Cross of the Royal order of Kalakaua which is a great honor in the Hawaiian Islands. He made his last confession with a Catholic priest named Father Moellers, on March 30, 1889. After two more weeks of agony from leprosy he died on April 15, 1889. More than 120 years after his death he will become a Saint.
