www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News St. Damien of Molokai

Christ is Risen !!!
He is Risen Indeed !!!

A miraculous cancer cure has been credited to the intercession of Fr. Damien de Veuster, the leper Priest of Molokai.

The following is from The Washington Post, today.


Sunday, April 20, 2003; Page A02


Priest Who Worked Among Lepers Gets Another Push for Sainthood


In 1864, a young Roman Catholic priest from Belgium named Damien de Veuster came to serve as a missionary in Hawaii. In time, his work took him to the island of Molokai, where he worked among the lepers suffering from Hansen's disease.

Damien cleaned and tended to their ulcers, helped them erect homes and grow vegetable gardens, and hammered together coffins and dug graves. After 15 years among the stricken, Damien died of leprosy in 1889.

Last week, a formal tribunal convened by the Honolulu Diocese concluded that it had enough evidence to support an appeal to the pope to make Damien a saint.

Damien is revered in Hawaii and well known around the world for his service to the sick and dying in the leper colony of Kalaupapa. But his potential canonization is based on a more recent purported miracle.

According to the church review, an unidentified woman, suffering from lung cancer, visited Damien's grave site in Molokai and asked him to intercede on her behalf. In an report in the October 2000 issue of the Hawaii Medical Journal, Honolulu physician Walter Y.M. Chang, wrote that the woman's malignant tumor mysteriously disappeared without any treatment.

The alleged cure must be proven, to the Vatican's satisfaction, to have occurred beyond scientific or medical explanation. Damien already reached the final round before sainthood: He was beatified in 1995, for miraculously saving a French nun 108 years before.

-- William Booth


Other articles, from the Honolulu Avdertiser:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Apr/17/ln/ln27a.html

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Apr/07/ln/ln31a.html


A Glorious Easter to All !

A Hearty welcome to all who joined communion with the Catholic Church last night !


John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

Dear John,

A great man of God and when I was in Hawaii, I saw even pagan Hawaiians pay him tribute.

Someone always places fresh flowers on the sign that indicates the way to his Church in Kalaupapa.

No one really knows who is behind that. Only that there are fresh flowers always . . .

Robert Lentz has a neat icon of St Damien of Molokai on his Bridgebuilding images site.

Oh, my. . . did I really say "neat?"

Alex

I lived on Oahu some 21 years ago and I'm aware of the reverence given by the native peoples to Father Damien. Thanks to him the treatment of these poor souls greatly improved.

Yes you did, Alex!!!! :p
The Vostochniks are gonna' get you if you don't watch out!!! :p

Dear John,

There are drilled holes in the floor of Father Damien's parish Church in Hawaii (and Sursum Corda would know this).

Archaeologists didn't know what to make of them.

They then learned that Fr. Damien was mystified about why the Hawaiian Lepers wouldn't come into the Church for Mass, but remained outside.

He then realized that Hansen's Disease requires the sufferer to constantly spit out the endless buildup of phlegm . . .

They therefore would not enter a holy place where they could not spit.

That is why he drilled those holes right in the Church itself.

Also, another holy man, Brother Joseph, joined Fr. Damien and lived in Hawaii until his death in 1936 (?).

Joseph went there and deliberately exposed himself to leprosy as a way to do penance. He never contracted the disease however and he is widely honoured as another Hawaiian saint.

The Episcopal Church in Hawaii honour as saints King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma who brought Anglicanism to those islands that eventually supplanted Congregationalism.

Alex

Alex,

I recently rented a marvelous movie about the life of Father Damien. It is called "Molokai: The Story of Father Damien." It stars David Wenham, who plays Faramir in the Lord of the Rings films. He even has a good Belgian accent for the role. The film was shot on location, and many of the extras actually have Hansen's disease. It's really worth seeing.

Anthony

Dear Anthony,

Yes, I saw that wonderful movie!

The actor resembled Fr. Damien, especially as he lay dying with Hansen's Disease, to a "T."

The practice of Fr. Damien of picking up and kissing leprous children, as depicted in that movie, was what helped him get the needed lumber to build housing for his Lepers.

I saw a beautiful painting depicting St Damien confessing his sins in a boat by shouting them across to a bishop on a liner . . .

Fr. Damien deliberately adopted the name of "Damian" after the Eastern healer-saint of the Silverless Ones.

What hampered his Cause was the notoriety given him by an overzealous press even in his time.

When he arrived in Hawaii, he was immediately touted by the local newspapers as the "Hero of Molokai."

His religious superiors truly did suspect him of seeking his own glory . . .

As an aside, and quite by accident, I stumbled upon an outdoor pagan temple/place of worship while on the island of Kauai.

Climbing up a steep incline, I reached a "heiau" or altar area where the Hawaiians left votives of lava rocks wrapped in Ti-leaves.

The place was covered in the votives and one could sense a profound spirit of reverence there.

I think I knew a bit more of St Paul's experience while in Athens when he saw the altar dedicated to the "Unknown God!"

Yet, even the pagan Hawaiians could recognize a saint when they saw one!

Alex