Published On:Saturday, October 10, 2009

By FRANCIS NORONHA

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CTOBER 11, 2009, represents the day of the Canonization of Blessed Damien at the Church of Santa Maria del Carmelo in Transpontina in Via della Conciliazione 14 , which is near St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy.

A great crowd is expected at this very large Church when Fr. Alfred Bell, the Postulator-General of the Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, will conduct the service. Henceforth, the world will refer to

St. Damien de Veuster, an individual who spent his life helping the lepers, and finally succumbed to the disease himself

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Hawaii (like The Bahamas) conjures up visions of an idyllic paradise, with golden sunshine, dark blue skies, green islands with exotic flowers, long stretches of white beaches, swaying palm trees, sparkling clear water and soft island breezes. Described as the Paradise of the Pacific, Hawaii comprises about eight major islands, including Molokai (the Friendly Island which is about 38 miles long and 10 miles wide), as well as numerous rocky islets, reefs and shoals.

On April 15, 1989, over 50,000 people from all over the world converged on Molokai, not as tourists in search of sun, sea and sand, but in honour of the hero of Hawaii, Fr. Damien, who reserves a permanent place in world history as the individual who confronted and spotlighted the ageless international scourge of leprosy, contracting the disease and finally dying on Molokai on April 15, 1889. Today, due to modern medicine and technology, leprosy does not represent the horrible spectre that it was from the earliest days of mankind.

Hawaii has experienced a turbulent history. Captain James Cook landed on the islands in 1778 (named them the Sandwich Islands after the fourth Earl of Sandwich), and was killed by the local people in a riot on his return in 1779. Hawaii was a kingdom, and the last to rule was Queen Liliuokalani who, among her numerous accomplishments, composed the hauntingly beautiful farewell song "Aloha Oe". United States settlers fomented a revolution in 1893 when the Queen was deposed, and set up a provisional government, which, after associations with the USA, became the 50th State in the Union on August 21, 1959. From the dawn of history, leprosy has been regarded as a loathsome disease, and was regarded with terror as it has been highly contagious and incurable from the earliest days of mankind. A papyrus in a Berlin museum mentions leprosy as an abomination over 6,000 years ago; other documents mention its existence in China in 2000 BC and in Japan in 1500 BC; and the Bible and the Talmud refer to leprosy. The disease is mentioned in the Old Testament, and the New Testament records Jesus curing the ten lepers. Leper colonies are often named Lazaretto after the leper Lazarus who in the Bible sat at the gate of the rich man.

Leprosy was spreading over the world at the time of the birth of the sixth child of François and Catherine de Veuster on January 3, 1840, in Tremeloo, Belgium. At the ceremony, the baby Joseph raised his clenched fist, and the godfather, a military man, interpreted it as a salute and an omen that the boy would become a soldier.

Joseph enjoyed a happy childhood in the beautiful, peaceful hamlet of Tremeloo, where his pious parents ensured that he received his early education in Flemish at the knee of his mother. The few books in the home were mainly religious, a favourite being "The Lives of the Saints".

Kind and generous but also strong and exuberant, Joseph engaged in adventurous pranks which often landed him in trouble. He also tended the family flock of sheep, and helped the local smith with his work, including the digging of graves -- a task he would perform often in later years.

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wo of Joseph's brothers and a sister entered the religious life, and at age 19 Joseph followed his brother Pamphile into the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (often known as the Picpus Fathers after Picpus Street where the order started) , assuming the name Damien after the saint and physician.

After ordination, Fr. Pamphile was selected as a missionary to Hawaii, but contracted typhus, a debilitating illness which was ravaging Louvain. As Damien had fervently begged to become a missionary, he was selected to replace his brother as a missionary to Hawaii.

In 1865 King Kamchameha V of Hawaii issued a decree that all incurable lepers must be banished to Kalawao settlement on the island of Molokai, so Friendly Island became Death Island. Families were disrupted through this forced separation -- husbands from wives, parents from children, relatives from loved ones -- but in many cases those unwilling to be separated joined their banished ones, being fully aware that they would never be allowed to leave the colony.

In Honolulu Bishop Maigret spoke movingly to a few priests about the heart-breaking plight of the lepers on Molokai who lived out their lives in abject poverty and overwhelming hopelessness, with no priest to comfort them. After a pause, Fr. Damien's strong voice rang out: "Please send me." He had passed his own death sentence.

Fr. Damien arrived at the leper colony of Molokai, and was presented with a harrowing picture of misery, sorrow and broken spirits, and Dante's banner over Hell could have been strung over the settlement with the words: "Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here."

Author John Farrow describes the lepers: "Where had been, there were craters of pus; and there were gaping cavities, disease-infected holes, that merged with rotting mouths, where noses should be. Ears were pendulous masses, many times their natural size, or were shriveled to almost nothing. Hands were without fingers and some arms were merely stumps. Feet and legs were equally repulsive, and bodies of most of these repulsive creatures were bloated and pitted, shrunken and swollen, but never of a normal shape. They were a pitiable revolting sight, their wounds and sores being entirely undressed or covered with filthy matter -- soaked rags." A vile odorous strong stench generally accompanied the diseased and rotting flesh.

Prayer

Fr. Damien had to overcome his strong repugnance by intense prayer. Surveying the small primitive filthy huts affording shelter to the hundreds of lepers devoid of hope or purpose in life, disregarded and disowned by humanity, he knew that God had invited him to a special vocation. Ancient Egyptians described leprosy as death before death, and author R.L. Stevenson, who visited the colony many years after numerous improvements had been made, described it as "a pitiful place to visit and hell to dwell in."

A heart-breaking visit to every settlement filled Fr. Damien with great sadness, and he spent his first night (and many subsequent nights) in prayer under a tree near the small abandoned wooden chapel. His first task was to officiate at a leper's funeral when four lepers carried the body wrapped in pieces of old matting to the shallow ditch (the grave) in the open cemetery where wild, hungry dogs prowled at night, often uncovering the graves and devouring the corpses.

Fr. Damien coped with the gigantic, overwhelming task by constant prayer and perseverance and determination to do the will of God despite overwhelming obstacles. He encouraged the apathetic, listless, doomed people to believe in God and in themselves, which resulted in new neatly-constructed homes, a church, a school for the children, the cultivation of crops, recreational facilities and other amenities.

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r. Damien simultaneously tackled the human problems of promiscuity, prostitution, gambling, illicit manufacture of alcohol and pagan superstitions. He also built up a sense of family and community; he encouraged self-help programmes; he visited the lonely and sick, cajoling medical supplies from the Hawaiian Board of Health; he comforted the sick and the dying; he buried the dead, often constructing the coffins and digging the graves himself; and, most of all, he made the lepers aware that they were children of God. Greatly loved and revered, he was given the affectionate name of Kamiano.

However, Fr. Damien suffered moments of loneliness and discouragement when his dedication was misunderstood by civil authorities and even by people inside the Church. Called strong-willed and obstinate because his intense determination was focused on the welfare of his beloved lepers, Fr. Damien was often impatient with the bureaucracy of Hawaii's Board of Health and he made endless demands on the Church authorities.

He himself led a very simple, austere life, and his only hobby was a pipe which he sometimes smoked to overcome the stench of the odours of rotting flesh.

Fr. Damien disliked personal publicity but was glad when good Queen Liliuokalani decided to visit Molokai. At the celebrations the Queen stepped on the platform to address the people, and she surveyed the disease-ravaged people, and was silent. She endeavoured to speak, but was overcome with emotion as her eyes filled with tears and her lips trembled, so a member of the royal retinue said a few words to the gathering. The Queen toured the island and, visibly moved, informed Fr. Damien that she could not believe that anyone would stay on the island of his own free will. He replied: "It is my work. They are my parishioners." The Queen replied softly and emotionally: "Your parishioners -- and my people."

Thereafter, Queen Liliuokalani exerted all her influence to ensure that Fr. Damien was supported by the authorities in the country, and this eased his burden a great deal.

Fr. Damien was 45 years old when he celebrated Mass one Sunday morning in 1885. He always commenced his sermon with "My brethren". This Sunday there was a dramatic change when he looked around, paused and started with: "We lepers...".

He had finally and inevitably contracted the fatal disease. For four long years Fr. Damien bore the scourge of leprosy which slowly eroded his muscular frame. The realization that his time was running out only spurred him on just as a sprinter makes his final spurt on the last lap of the race.

In 1886 Ira Dutton (of Stowe, Vermont, USA, who changed his name to Joseph when he joined the Catholic Church) went to Molokai to assist Fr. Damien. As leprosy took its toll of Fr. Damien, he was overjoyed to see that leprosy was gaining international attention, and a lazaretto was established on the island by three Franciscan Sisters, led by Mother Marianne, a most extraordinary individual, whose devotion to education in Utica, leadership qualities in Syracuse and subsequently at St. Joseph's Hospital made her well-known in the country. She led six Sisters to travel 6,000 miles to Molokai where she devoted the rest of her life to the lepers.

Fr. Damien's death on April 15, 1889, plunged Hawaii into intense sorrow in a world where leprosy was now well-known. The priest who disliked publicity was now an international figure. Newspapers everywhere poured tributes to the priest who had sacrificed his life for the untouchables of society.

Fr. Damien's last resting place, in accordance with his wishes, was under the same tree where he had spent his first night on the island. At another memorial site there was a granite cross above a white marble tablet with the words: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

The Belgian King 47 years later requested the USA President for the return of the remains of Fr. Damien to his native country. On January 27, 1936, the remains were dug up, and as the coffin was transported to Belgium the lepers mournfully sang the beautiful farewell song "Aloha Oe" while the people on the island wept and were inconsolable.

The remains of Fr. Damien now rest in the Chapel of the Picpus Fathers in Louvain, Belgium. Robert Louis Stevenson, who had valiantly and vigorously defended Fr. Damien against his detractors predicted that within a century Rome would raise Damien the Leper to her altars as a Saint of the Church. The London "Times" described the priest as "one of the noblest Christian heroes." The Hawaiian Legislature selected the priest in 1967 as one of the state's two outstanding citizens to be honoured by statues in the Statuary Hall in Washington, DC, USA. Memorials to Fr. Damien exist in countries around the world, and many people around the globe bear the name Damien. The peasant from the village of Tremeloo has forcefully impacted world history.