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- St Philomena
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- Blessed Damien
Father Damien De Veuster and Saint Philomena
On October 11, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI will canonize Father Damien de Veuster.
Father Damien dedicated his life to serving the banished lepers on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai and named his church there after his favorite Saint, St. Philomena. On June 4, 1995, Fr. Damien was beatified. His official feast day is May 10. Fr. Damien is the patron of lepers, outcasts, HIV/AIDS and the State of Hawaii!
Joseph de Veuster was born on January 3, 1840, to a farming couple in Tremeloo, Belgium. The fame of St. Philomena had traveled far and wide and he developed a deep love for the Saint. He became a Brother in 1860 taking the name of Damien.
On March 19, 1864, Damien arrived in Honolulu in the kingdom of Hawaii. Damien was ordained a priest on May 24, 1864 – the Feasts of the Finding of the Relics of St. Philomena and Our Lady, Help of Christians.
As Hawaiians became afflicted by diseases foreigners brought to the islands, King Kamehameha IV decided to segregate lepers and moved them to a settlement on the Island of Molokai. These poor souls, all facing a horrible death, had no one to tend to their spiritual needs. Every priest, at the time of ordination, offers himself as a victim soul for souls, and missionary work requires first and foremost, being prepared for martyrdom. Knowing the risks, Fr. Damien asked to be sent to Molokai. His bishop presented Fr. Damien to the colonists as “one who will father you and who loves you so much that he does not hesitate to become one of you, to live and die with you.”
Father Damien’s first action was to build and establish the Parish of St. Philomena. In the beginning, he tried to protect himself from their disease by avoiding contact with his parishioners, but it was not long before Fr. Damien knew that he had to be one with the afflicted in order to truly comfort, counsel and guide them. He was not only their priest, but their doctor, dressing wounds. He helped to build homes. He built coffins and dug graves. The colony of death became a colony of life as grass shacks became painted houses, organized farming took place and personal pride and dignity were restored to these outcasts.
Fr. Damien served the lepers with startling humility. One of the symptoms of leprosy is that the sufferer salivates excessively. In the chapel of St. Philomena, Father had holes burrowed in the floor so that the lepers could spit their foul and contagious secretions on the floor, which would drain into the church’s crawl space. After Holy Mass, it was Fr. Damien who would enter these crawl spaces and perform the humbling task of cleaning up this spittle.
King Kalakaua awarded Damien the honor of Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalakaua. When Princess Lydia visited the settlement to present his medal, she was speechless and saddened to see the conditions there. She shared what she had seen with the world and helped raise huge amounts of money, food, clothing and medicine for the Island.
When Fr. Damien contracted leprosy in 1884 he worked more vigorously than ever to build homes, organize programs and make sure that his parishioners could tend for themselves. He died in 1889 at the age of 49.
Fr. Damien brought hope to the hopeless through his humble life as a victim soul. He gave the lepers of Molokai the gift of a glorious patron, St. Philomena, so that dignity could be found amidst rotting flesh. Fr. Damien often preached of Heaven to those who soon would be facing death.