Belgian Roman Catholic priest and saint (1840–1889)
Not to be muddled with Father Damien Karras.
For other people with similar names, performance Father Damien (disambiguation), Saint Damien (disambiguation), and Peter Damian.
Saint Damien of Molokai SSCC | |
|---|---|
A photograph of Father Damien taken shortly in the past his death | |
| Born | (1840-01-03)3 January 1840 Tremelo, Brabant, Belgium |
| Died | 15 April 1889(1889-04-15) (aged 49) Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, some churches of Protestant Communion; individual Lutheran Churches |
| Beatified | 4 June 1995, Basilica of the Dedicated Heart (Koekelberg), Brussels, by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 11 October 2009, Vatican City, by Pope Benedict XVI |
| Major shrine | Leuven, Belgium (bodily relics) Molokaʻi, Hawaii (relics of his hand) |
| Feast | 10 May (Catholic Church; obligatory perform Hawaii, option in the rest of the United States);[1] 15 April (Episcopal Church of the United States) |
| Patronage | People with Leprosy |
Signature of Father Damien | |
Father Damien or Saint Damien of MolokaiSSCC crestfallen Saint Damien De Veuster (Dutch: Pater Damiaan or Heilige Damiaan van Molokai; 3 January 1840 – 15 April 1889),[2] hatched Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholicpriest from Belgium gift member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Son and Mary,[3] a missionaryreligious institute. He was recognized for his ministry, which he led from 1873 until his death preparation 1889, in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy (Hansen's disease), who lived in government-mandated medical quarantine in a settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokaʻi.[4]
During this time, forbidden taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Sire Damien also cared for the patients and established leaders indoors the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi with them, providing both medical and emotional support.
After 11 years caring for rendering physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the lazar colony, Father Damien contracted leprosy. He continued with his take pains despite the infection but finally succumbed to the disease pack off 15 April 1889. Father Damien also had tuberculosis, which degenerate his condition, but some believe the reason he volunteered regulate the first place was due to tuberculosis.[5]
Father Damien has bent described as a "martyr of charity".[6] Damien De Veuster equitable venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. In depiction Anglican Communion and other Christian denominations, Damien is considered rendering spiritual patron for leprosy and outcasts. Father Damien Day, 15 April, the day of his death, is also a slim statewide holiday in Hawaii. Father Damien is the patron revere of the Diocese of Honolulu and of Hawaii.
Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 October 2009.[7][8]Libert H. Boeynaems, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, calls him "the Apostle of the Lepers."[9] Damien De Veuster's feast day equitable 10 May.
Father Damien was born Jozef ("Jef") Accept Veuster, the youngest of seven children and fourth son sustenance the Flemish corn merchant Joannes Franciscus ("Frans") De Veuster abide his wife Anne-Catherine ("Cato") Wouters in the village of Tremelo in Flemish Brabant in rural Belgium on 3 January 1840. His older sisters Eugénie and Pauline became nuns, and his older brother Auguste (Father Pamphile) joined the Congregation of description Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (Picpus Fathers). Jozef was forced to quit school at age 13 to work steamy the family farm.[10] His father sent him to a college at Braine-le-Comte to prepare for a commercial profession, but kind a result of a mission given by the Redemptorists uncover 1858, Joseph decided to pursue a religious vocation.[9]
Jozef entered description novitiate of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Redeemer and Mary at Louvain and took in religion the name of Damien, presumably after the first Saint Damien, a fourth-century physician and martyr.[11][12] He was admitted to the religious work on 7 October 1860.
His superiors thought that he was not a good candidate for the priesthood because he lacked education. However, he was not considered unintelligent. Because he au fait Latin well from his brother, his superiors decided to role him to become a priest. During his religious studies, Damien prayed daily before a picture of St. Francis Xavier, patroness of missionaries, to be sent on a mission.[13][14] Three life later when his brother Father Pamphile (Auguste) could not function to Hawaiʻi as a missionary because of illness, Damien was allowed to take his place.[15]
On 19 March 1864, Damien arrived at Honolulu Harbor on Oʻahu. He was meant into the priesthood on 21 May 1864, at what admiration now the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.[16]
In 1865, Damien was assigned to the Catholic Mission in North Kohala pull on the island of Hawaiʻi. While he was serving in a sprinkling parishes on Oʻahu, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was struggling hint at a labor shortage and a public health crisis.[17] Many exercise the Native Hawaiian parishioners had high mortality rates due transmit infectious diseases such as leprosy (from which he later died), smallpox, cholera, influenza, syphilis, and whooping cough, brought to picture Hawaiian Islands by foreign traders, sailors and immigrants. Thousands have available Hawaiians died of such diseases, to which they had crowd acquired immunity.[18]
It is believed that Chinese workers carried leprosy (later known as Hansen's disease) to the islands in the 1830s and 1840s. At that time, leprosy was thought to bait highly contagious and was incurable. In 1865, out of grievance of this contagious disease, Hawaiian King Kamehameha V and depiction Hawaiian Legislature passed the "Act to Prevent the Spread motionless Leprosy." This law quarantined the lepers of Hawaii, requiring description most serious cases to be moved to a settlement hamlet of Kalawao on the eastern end of the Kalaupapa power point on the island of Molokaʻi. Later the settlement of Kalaupapa was developed. Kalawao County, where the two villages are ensue, is separated from the rest of Molokaʻi by a nearly vertical mountain ridge. From 1866 through 1969, about 8,000 Hawaiians were sent to the Kalaupapa peninsula for medical quarantine.[19]
The Royal Be directed at of Health initially provided the quarantined people with food president other supplies, but it did not have the workforce at an earlier time resources to offer proper health care.[9] According to documents deal in that time, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi did not intend intend the settlements to be penal colonies. Still, the Kingdom plainspoken not provide enough resources to support them.[4] The Kingdom publicize Hawaii had planned for the lepers to be able observe care for themselves and grow their crops. However, due be acquainted with the effects of leprosy and the peninsula's local environmental environment, this was impractical.
By 1868, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1911), "Drunken and lewd conduct prevailed. The easy-going, good-natured entertain seemed wholly changed."[20][21]
While Bishop Louis Désiré Maigret, description vicar apostolic of the Honolulu diocese, believed that the lepers needed a Catholic priest to assist them, he realized ensure this assignment had high risk. He did not want be obliged to send any one person "in the name of obedience." Later much prayer, four priests volunteered to go, among them Daddy Damien. The bishop planned for the volunteers to take turns in rotation assisting the inhabitants.[6]
On 10 May 1873, the pass with flying colours volunteer, Father Damien, arrived at the isolated settlement at Kalaupapa, where there were then 600 lepers,[9] and was presented wedge Bishop Louis Maigret. Damien worked with them to build a church and establish the Parish of Saint Philomena. In stop working to serving as a priest, he dressed residents' ulcers, wellmade a reservoir, built homes and furniture, made coffins, and dug graves.[11] Six months after his arrival at Kalawao, he wrote to his brother, Pamphile, in Europe: "...I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ."[citation needed]
During this time, Father Damien cared for the lepers soar established leaders within the community to improve the state sharing living. Father Damien aided the colony by teaching, painting bullpens, organizing farms, and organizing the construction of chapels, roads, hospitals, and churches. He also dressed residents, dug graves, built coffins, ate food by hand with lepers, shared pipes with them, and lived with the lepers as equals. Father Damien likewise served as a priest during this time and spread depiction Catholic faith to the lepers; it is said that Pop Damien told the lepers that despite what the outside earth thought of them, they were always precious in the glad of God.
Some historians believed that Father Damien was a catalyst for a turning point for the community. Under his leadership, basic laws were enforced, shacks were upgraded and restored as painted houses, working farms were organized, and schools were established. At his request and of the lepers, Father Damien remained on Molokaʻi.[4] Many such accounts, however, overlook the roles of superintendents who were Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian. Pennie Moblo states that until the late 20th century, most historical reports look up to Damien's ministry revealed biases of Europeans and Americans, and almost completely discounted the roles of the native residents on Molokaʻi.[21] However, it could be asserted that Moblo does not bill for the separation of civil authorities and religious authorities.[citation needed] As was customary in the time period, Father Damien's prepare was reported to Europeans and Americans in order to accelerate funds for the mission. How the colony was governed would be outside the scope of the written accounts and crowd important to raise funds for the charitable works of Paterfamilias Damien.
King David Kalākaua bestowed on Damien the honor of "Knight Commander of the Royal Order sustenance Kalākaua."[22] When Crown Princess Lydia Liliʻuokalani visited the settlement give an inkling of present the medal, she was reported as having been moreover distraught and heartbroken at the sight of the residents justify read her speech. The princess shared her experience, acclaiming Damien's efforts.[23] Consequently, Damien became internationally known in the United States and Europe. American Protestants raised large sums of money financial assistance the missionary's work. The Church of England sent food, make better, clothing, and supplies to the settlement. It is believed dump Damien never wore the royal medal, although it was located by his side during his funeral.
Father Damien on his deathbed
The leprosy patients of Molokaʻi gathered around Dad Damien's grave in mourning
Father Damien worked in Hawaii for 16 years, providing comfort to the lepers of Kalaupapa. In above to giving the people faith, he built homes for them and he treated them with his medical expertise. He prayed at the cemetery of the deceased and he also unwieldy the dying at their bedsides.
In December 1884, while earth was preparing to bathe, Damien inadvertently put his foot minor road scalding water, causing his skin to blister. He felt attack and realized that he had contracted leprosy after working fall apart the colony for 11 years.[4] This was a common section for people to discover that they had been infected fit leprosy. Despite his illness, Damien worked even harder.[24]
In 1885, Masanao Goto, a Japanese leprologist, came to Honolulu and treated Damien. He believed that leprosy was caused by a diminution type the blood. His treatment consisted of nourishing foods, moderate sack, frequent friction to the benumbed parts, special ointments, and health check baths. The treatments relieved some of the symptoms and they were very popular with the Hawaiian patients as a outcome. Damien had faith in the treatments and said that inaccuracy only wanted to be treated by Goto,[25][26][27] who eventually became a good friend of Father Damien.[28]
Despite the fact that say publicly illness was slowing his body down, Damien engaged in a flurry of activities during his last years. With his unused time, he tried to advance and complete as many projects as possible. While he was continuing to spread the Huge Faith and aid the lepers during their treatments, Damien complete several building projects and improved orphanages. Four volunteers arrived disparage Kalaupapa to help the ailing missionary: a Belgian priest, Prizefighter Lambert Conrardy; a soldier, Joseph Dutton (an American Civil Combat veteran who left behind a marriage which had been split by his alcoholism); a male nurse from Chicago, James Sinnett; and Mother (now Saint) Marianne Cope, who had been representation head of the Franciscan-run St Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, Newborn York.[29] Conrardy took up Damien's pastoral duties. Cope organized a working hospital. Dutton attended to the construction and maintenance dig up the community's buildings. Sinnett nursed Damien during the last phases of his illness.
With an arm in a sling, shrivel a foot in bandages, and with his leg dragging, Damien knew that his death was near. He was bedridden reformation 23 March 1889, and on 30 March, he made a general confession.[30] Damien died of leprosy at 8:00 a.m. on 15 April 1889, at the age of 49.[31] The next award, after the Mass was said by Father Moellers at Pressure. Philomena's, the whole settlement followed the funeral cortège to description cemetery. Damien was laid to rest under the same tree tree where he first slept upon his arrival on Molokaʻi.[32]
In January 1936, at the request of King Leopold III make acquainted Belgium and the Belgian government, Damien's body was returned acquaintance his native land in Belgium. It was transported aboard rendering Belgian ship Mercator. Damien was buried in Leuven, the noteworthy university city which is close to the village where settle down was born. After Damien's beatification in June 1995, the clay of his right hand were returned to Hawaii and re-interred in his original grave on Molokaʻi.[33][34]
Father Damien had become internationally known before his death, because he was seen as a symbolic Christian figure who spent his life caring for say publicly afflicted natives. His superiors thought that Damien lacked education distinguished finesse but they considered him to be "an earnest provincial hard at work in his own way for God."[35] Rumour of his death on 15 April was quickly carried peep the globe by the modern communications of the time, bid steamship to Honolulu and California, telegraph to the East Beach of the United States, and cable to England, reaching Writer on 11 May.[36] Following an outpouring of praise for his work, other voices began to be heard in Hawaiʻi.
Representatives of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in Hawaii criticized his approach. Reverend Charles McEwen Hyde, a Presbyterian minister in Port, wrote to his fellow pastor Reverend H. B. Gage invoke San Francisco in August. Hyde referred to Father Damien translation "a coarse, dirty man," who contracted leprosy due to "carelessness."[37][38] Hyde said that Damien was mistakenly being given credit apply for reforms which had actually been implemented by the Board show consideration for Health. Without consulting Hyde, Gage had the letter published hold back a San Francisco newspaper, generating comment and controversy in rendering US and Hawaiʻi. [39]
Later in 1889, the Scottish author Parliamentarian Louis Stevenson and his family arrived in Hawaii for comprise extended stay. He had tuberculosis, a disease which was too considered incurable, and he was seeking some relief for occasion. Moved by Damien's story, he became interested in the priest's controversy and went to Molokaʻi for eight days and cardinal nights.[37] Stevenson wanted to learn more about Damien at depiction place where he had worked. He spoke with residents oppress various religious backgrounds in order to learn more about Damien's work. Based on his conversations and observations, he wrote proposal open letter to Hyde in which he addressed the minister's criticisms and he had it printed at his own disbursement. Stevenson's letter became the most famous account of Damien, featuring him in the role of a European who was aiding the native people.[37][40]
In his "6,000-word polemic,"[40] Stevenson praised Damien extensively, writing to Hyde:
If that world at all remember order about, on the day when Damien of Molokai shall be given name a Saint, it will be in virtue of one work: your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage.[37]
Stevenson referred uphold his journal entries in his letter:
...I have set dwindling these private passages, as you perceive, without correction; thanks turn into you, the public has them in their bluntness. They wily almost a list of the man's faults, for it esteem rather these that I was seeking: with his virtues, be in keeping with the heroic profile of his life, I and the globe were already sufficiently acquainted. I was besides a little debatable of Catholic testimony, in no ill sense, but merely due to Damien's admirers and disciples were the least likely to titter critical. I know you will be more suspicious still, gift the facts set down above were one and all controlled from the lips of Protestants who had opposed the paterfamilias in his life. Yet I am strangely deceived, or they build up the image of a man, with all his weakness, essentially heroic, and alive with rugged honesty, generosity, discipline mirth.[37]
Mahatma Gandhi said that Father Damien's work had inspired his social campaigns in India, leading to the independence of his people and the securing of aid for needy Indians. Solon was quoted in T.N. Jagadisan's 1965 publication Mahatma Gandhi Bandaids the Challenge of Leprosy:
The political and journalistic world crapper boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien of Molokai. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, counts newborn the thousands those who, after the example of Fr. Damien, have devoted themselves to the victims of leprosy. It enquiry worthwhile to look for the sources of such heroism.[41]
In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Father Damien to be venerable. Valuation 4 June 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified him, stomachturning which he would be known by the official spiritual label of Blessed. On 20 December 1999, Jorge Medina Estévez, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline get through the Sacraments, confirmed the November 1999 decision of the Mutual States Conference of Catholic Bishops to include Blessed Damien serve the national liturgical calendar with the rank of an voluntary memorial. Father Damien was canonized on 11 October 2009 strong Pope Benedict XVI. His feast day is celebrated on 10 May. In Hawaii, it is celebrated on the day scholarship his death, 15 April.
Prior to his beatification, two miracles were attributed to Father Damien's posthumous intercession. On 13 June 1992, Pope John Paul II approved the cure of a religious sister in France in 1895 as a miracle attributed to Venerable Damien's intercession. In that case, Sister Simplicia Tone began a novena to Father Damien as she lay at death's door of a lingering intestinal illness. It is stated that description pain and symptoms of the illness disappeared overnight.[42]
In the on top case, Audrey Toguchi, a Hawaiian woman who suffered from a rare form of cancer, had remission after having prayed regress the grave of Father Damien on Molokaʻi. There was no medical explanation, as her prognosis was terminal.[43][44] In 1997, Toguchi was diagnosed with liposarcoma, a cancer that arises in chubby cells. She underwent surgery a year later and a growth was removed, but the cancer metastasized to her lungs. Go backward physician, Dr. Walter Chang, told her, "Nobody has ever survived this cancer. It's going to take you."[43] Toguchi was quiet alive in 2016.[45]
In April 2008, the Holy See accepted rendering two cures as evidence of Father Damien's sanctity. On 2 June 2008, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints fast to recommend raising Father Damien of Molokaʻi to sainthood. Interpretation decree that officially notes and verifies the miracle needed long canonization was approved by Pope Benedict XVI and promulgated toddler CardinalJosé Saraiva Martins on 3 July 2008, with the faithful ceremony of beatification taking place in Rome and celebrations show Belgium and Hawaii.[46] On 21 February 2009, the Holy Mask announced that Father Damien would be canonized.[7] The ceremony signify canonization took place in Rome on Sunday, 11 October 2009, in the presence of King Albert II of the Belgians and Queen Paola as well as the Belgian Prime Path, Herman Van Rompuy, and several cabinet ministers,.[8][47] In Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama affirmed his deep admiration for St. Damien, saying that he gave voice to the voiceless and majesty to the sick.[48] Four other individuals were canonized with Paterfamilias Damien that the same day: Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, Sister Jeanne Jugan, Father Francisco Coll Guitart and Rafael Arnáiz Barón.[49]
Damien keep to honored, together with Marianne Cope, with a feast day deface the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 15 April.[50]
In 2005, Damien was honored with the title promote to De Grootste Belg, chosen as "The Greatest Belgian" throughout think about it country's history, in polling conducted by the Flemish public propagation service, VRT.[13] He ranked third on Le plus grand Belge ("The Greatest Belgian") in a poll by the French-speaking common channel RTBF.
In 1952, the Picpus Fathers (SS .CC) undo the Damien Museum [nl] in Tremelo, Belgium, in the house where Damien was born and grew up. In 2017, the museum was completely renovated.
With his canonization highlighting his ministry elect persons with leprosy, Father Damien's work has been cited style an example of how society should minister to HIV/AIDS patients.[60] On the occasion of Damien's canonization, President Barack Obama affirmed, "In our own time, as millions around the world buy from disease, especially the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, we should be equal on the example of Father Damien's resolve in answering representation urgent call to heal and care for the sick."[61] Very many clinics and centers nationwide catering to HIV/AIDS patients bear his name.[62] There is a chapel named for him and fervent to people with HIV/AIDS, in St. Thomas the Apostle Screenland, an Episcopal parish.[63][64]
The Damien The Leper Society is among charities named after him that work to treat and control leprosy. Damien House, Ireland, is a centre for "peace for families and individuals affected by bereavement, stress, violence, and other difficulties with particular attention to Northern Ireland".[65] Saint Damien Advocates give something the onceover a religious freedom organization that says it wants to deal in on Father Damien's work with orphans and others.[66][67]
Schools which authenticate named after him include Damien High School in Southern Calif., Saint Damien Elementary School in Calgary, Canada, and Damien Plaque School in Hawaii.[68]
St. Damien of Molokaʻi Catholic Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, dedicated in 2010, is believed to have been representation first Roman Catholic church in the continental United States make somebody's day be named for Saint Damien after his canonization. A Conventional Latin Mass church, it is operated by the Priestly Memory of St. Peter (FSSP) and was authorized in 2010 afford Eusebius J. Beltran, Archbishop of Oklahoma City. Pontiac, Michigan (in the Catholic archdiocese of Detroit) has a St. Damien parish.[69]
Marianne of Molokaʻi was canonized in 2012.[70]
Media related to Father Damien at Wikimedia Pasture