So wrote the Commercial Advertiser, a local Hawaiian newspaper, in September 1881. The subject of the article was a missionary priest who had caused quite a storm since arriving on the island of Molokai, where people suffering with leprosy were being exiled. Regular brushes with the authorities, encounters with sharks and a visit from royalty were just some of his experiences, before succumbing to the disease himself in 1889.

He was formally recognized by the Church as a saint on 11 October 2009. Pope Benedict in his homily said, ‘he [St Damien] invites us to open our eyes to the forms of leprosy that disfigure the humanity of our brethren and still today call for a charity of our presence as servants, beyond that of our generosity.’

Born on 3 January 1840 in Belgium, his parents named him Joseph de Veuster. Vocation was common to his family with his older brother and two of his sisters joining religious orders. He was particularly close to his brother, Pamphile, and they remained in regular correspondence until Damien’s death.

He always persevered in his prayer life up to his dying day, with a particular devotion to saying the Divine OfficeBut Damien’s path to becoming a priest was very different to his brother’s. Raised as a farm worker and grave digger, his physical strength would later prove a great asset when working on Molokai. One incident of his childhood is common among the sources. The story goes that a popular game amongst the village boys was jumping onto the back of a passing horse-driven cart, while other lads threw stones at the horse to make it a fast ride. Unfortunately for the young Joseph, when it was once his turn on the cart, the boys’ attempts to throw stones failed to make the horse go quicker. The driver stopped the horse and instantly recognized Joseph. Scared of his parents’ reaction and having heard of a custom that parents could not shout at or punish a child in church, Joseph hid in the local church. When his parents found him there, he refused to leave until they had promised not to punish him.

At the age of sixteen Joseph began to consider a vocation, having been on a retreat near his school. He eventually joined the same order as his elder brother – the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – in 1858. He took the name Damien after the fourth-century saint and physician. But he had to work hard at his vocation, particularly as he had never been educated in Latin. To make up for this, in his spare time his brother taught Damien Latin, in order to convince the superiors of his wish to become a priest.

This was eventually accepted and as a seminarian he took the motto ‘Silence, Recollection and Prayer’. Indeed, he always persevered in his prayer life up to his dying day, with a particular devotion to saying the Divine Office.

Then in 1863 Damien volunteered to become a missionary for his order in Hawaii. His ticket was actually his brother Pamphile’s, who had fallen ill with typhoid and never made it to Hawaii.

Damien arrived on 19 March 1864 and was ordained on 21 May. It was a difficult mission since the island had suffered devastating outbreaks of typhus, cholera, syphillis, influenza and smallpox, killing four-fifths of the estimated 250,000 population. In addition, many communities were inaccessible owing to the hostile terrain of the main island where he worked.

Indeed, one parish was so inaccessible that, against local advice, Damien resolved to get there by bypassing the mountains and travelling by canoe along the coastline. Unfortunately his canoe capsized in the shark-infested waters. Damien related how he beat the sharks off as best he could, shouting loudly to put them off. Eventually he was washed up on the shore. The only thing damaged was his breviary, which he carried with him everywhere.

He did eventually reach his remote parish, but only after passing out following a four-day lone trek across mountains and valleys. He was found unconscious by the parishioners and eventually ministered the sacraments to them, as he had wished.

In his letters to his family at this time he makes mention of the growing problem of leprosy in Hawaii, commenting that ‘leprosy is beginning to be prevalent here’. In 1865 so many had fallen prey to the disease that a deeply unpopular settlement for lepers had to be created at Molokai, an island off Hawaii.

The island disintegrated into chaos, as people were left to fend for themselves, with their only contact with the outside world a monthly consignment of food left for them in the sea. In 1873 Bishop Malgret was so concerned that he began searching for volunteer priests to go and minister to the lepers. Initially it was intended to be a rota of four priests. As it turned out Damien remained the sole priest on the island for the next sixteen years. He was so keen to go there that he did not even pack, boarding a ship of lepers on 10 May 1873, with only an extra shirt and his beloved breviary as his possessions.

On Molokai, by now home to approximately 800 lepers, Damien was confronted with physical and spiritual deprivation on a scale he had never encountered before. But writing to his brother he said, ‘I make myself a leper, to gain all to Jesus Christ’. Among the jobs he performed were grave digger, coffin maker, doctor (becoming an expert in performing amputations), nurse, carpenter, farmer, legal advocate and plumber.

It took him a while to get used to seeing the physical effects of leprosy. His first encounters with the disease caused repulsion, particularly the smell of the wounds. But he remained in close contact with the people. He dressed wounds, shared his pipe with whomever asked, and ate and drank from the same cups and bowls as the islanders. He soon won them round with his genuine attempts to integrate himself into their community.

But popularity did not obscure his focus. He bombarded the authorities of Hawaii with appeals for the provision of running water on the island and more food, timber and basic medical supplies to tend to the sufferers’ wounds. When nothing was forthcoming, he went to the government offices in person. This in turn led to threats of imprisonment, since it was unlawful for anyone to leave the island of Molokai.

‘I make myself a leper, to gain all to Jesus Christ.’But supplies did start coming. Cargoes of food came more regularly. And having spotted a reservoir on a trek round the island, he laid down pipes throughout the island, providing clean running water for the inhabitants. He also managed to get hold of timber, enabling homes to become more habitable, as well as renovating the existing chapel.

In June 1875 when Bishop Maigret visited the island for five days, he encountered a transformed community. The bishop remained involved, especially as Damien’s work became more widely known, resulting in many donations being given to the bishop for Molokai.

Such was Damien’s fame that a member of the Hawaiian royal family intimated that she wanted to visit the island, to see the work being done. And so it was that in 1881, Princess Liliuokalani visited Molokai, much to the excitement of the islanders who worked to ensure the island looked presentable for her.

But it was inevitable that Damien’s mission would be cut short by the disease. In 1884 he spilt scolding water on his foot and felt nothing. Numbness to pain being a symptom of leprosy, Damien knew his days were numbered.

He wrote to the bishop, ‘leprosy has attacked me…but I am calm and resigned and very happy in the midst of my people…I daily repeat from my heart  “Thy will be done”’. And so it was on 15 April 1889 that Damien died and was buried at Kalawao. In death his fame continued to grow, resulting in a decision by the Belgian government to have his body exhumed and transferred to Louvain in Belgium in January 1936, where he remains to this day.

Leprosy still exists today, although there are now drugs to treat the disease. Since 1990 approximately 14 million people have been cured. But some countries still do not have access to the necessary drugs, and as a result leprosy is still endemic in countries such as Brazil, India and Mozambique.

The following prayer to St Damien can help us to renew our commitment to fulfilling the work God calls us to do, with the same intensity and spirit that he himself showed. In saying it, may we bring to mind those still riddled with the disease of leprosy as well as other life-threatening diseases:

St Damien,
brother on the journey, happy and generous missionary, who loved the gospel more than your own life, who for love of Jesus left your family, your homeland, your security and your dreams, teach us to give our lives with a joy like yours, to be in solidarity with the outcasts of our world, to celebrate and contemplate the Eucharist as the source of our commitment. Help us to love to the very end and, in the strength of the Spirit, to persevere in compassion for the poor and forgotten so that we might be good disciples of Jesus and Mary.
Amen.