St. Damien of Molakai - May 10th

 

Today, we celebrate the memorial of Blessed Damien of Molokai, Hawaii. Born in Belgium in 1840, he was forced to quit school at the age of 13, to work on the family farm. He later joined the Congregation the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, as a religious. When his brother became ill, he volunteered to go to Hawaii, in his place, and was later ordained a priest, in Honolulu. He traveled about the islands building chapels, and converting many.

At that time, children with leprosy became orphaned, and were taken to a leper colony on Molokai and then forced into slavery. On the island, women and girls were forced into prostitution. Due to no civil order, stealing, drunkenness, and quarreling was common. Due to the fear of contracting leprosy, no doctors or nurses were on the island, and no priests to give the sacraments.

Despite all this, in 1873, Fr. Damien volunteered and went to the island of Molokai, to give the sacraments to lepers in the government run leper colony. Because many feared getting the dreaded disease of leprosy, he would remain permanently on the island. When he arrived, he saw many with rotting flesh, which smelled like a decaying corpse.

He would later succeed in getting Mother Marie Cope, of the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, New York, to open a home for the orphaned children. Mother Cope was beatified in 2005 and canonized in 2012.

Since other priests did not come to the island, one of Damien’s greatest sorrows was his inability to go to confession frequently. One time, while anchored to a boat, he confessed his sins in public to a priest, because the other priest feared getting the disease. Despite the terrible conditions, he offered the Sacrifice of the Mass, anointed the sick, and buried the dead.

When Fr. Damien began Eucharistic Adoration on the island, many poor lepers were greatly comforted by Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Fr. Damien helped grow crops and food, and built houses for the people. His superiors were often harsh toward him, and failed to help him, in his needs. He eventually contracted leprosy, and died on the island. He was buried in Belgium.

In 1995, he was beatified, at which time, part of his body was returned to Hawaii. When Pope John Paul II beatified Fr. Damien, he said, “Holiness is not perfection to human criteria; it is not reserved for a small number of exceptional persons. It is for everyone; it is the Lord who brings us to holiness, when we are willing to collaborate in the salvation of the world, for the glory of God, despite our sin, and sometimes rebellious temperament.”

Pope Benedict canonized him in 2009. During this month of May, despite our sins and temperament, may we draw close to the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeking to grow in holiness, and we pray that Saint Damien of Moloaki will help us in all our hardships and difficulties of life.