Priest Who Aided Lepers In Hawaii To Become Saint

AP Report ^ | February 21, 2009

[Steelfish]

VATICAN CITY

[jobim]

Here in Hilo, Hawaii at the Saturday morning Mass, it was announced that the feast day will be October 11.

[The_Reader_David]

I wish that when reporting such things, the press would get it right: it’s not that Fr. Damien will become a saint soon, it’s that the Latin church will officially notice that he was and is one (called canonization by the Latins, though us Orthodox call it “proclaiming the glorification” of the saint—who is already glorified by the Holy Spirit, which is why he or she is a saint).

[EggsAckley]

I’ve always wondered what happened to the people on Molokai after that time. Guess I should do some research on it.

Are there still people living there?

[CollegeRepublican]

There is a book called The Colony that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the history of lepers in Hawaii.

[fish hawk]

People still live there and some of them are lepers. Richard Marks, the local historian and local tour guide and well loved character just passed away this last year. Kalaupapa is now a Federal/State park. Father Damien's old church is still there along with the old Protestant church.

[Steelfish]

Very true. The Church does not more than formally and officially recognize the “saintly” nature of the individual who is already with Him in paradise.

[Charles Martel]

Interesting. Wasn’t there a movie with Spencer Tracy that was loosely based on this?

[EggsAckley]

Thank you both.

[jobim]

Molokai is one of the major Hawaiian Islands, with an airport and a town, but far removed from Kalaupapa, where the lepers were quarantined on a geographically unique peninsula, accessible by land only by a narrow trail descending 3000 feet to the ocean (it's a spectacular hike and location, and takes about 1&1/2 hours to go in and maybe an hour additional to hike out.) You can fly in as well.

It has been populated all along by lepers, who in the last 20 years have numbered just a few, their leprosy long treated by the sulfone drugs. And now when the last one passes, it appears it will become some sort of national park.

Father Damien's church still is in use, with holes cut in the floor where lepers spit. The definitive biography is by Richard Stewart:

http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/cart/shopcore/?db_name=uhpress&page=shop/flypage&product_sku=0-8248-2322-2

[EggsAckley]

Thank you.

[PERKY2004]

We were just in Molokai last month -- it's a beautiful island. Some of the sights we saw included the peninsula where the lepers lived, as well as a church founded by Father Damien. A few shots from last month ...

[ClaudiusI]

And boy, could he exorcise too! :)

[redhead]

"I’ve always wondered what happened to the people on Molokai after that time. Guess I should do some research on it. Are there still people living there?"

The novel, "Hawaii" by James A. Michener devoted quite a bit of story to the colony on Molokai. More good reading.

[humblegunner]

A 19th-century Belgian priest who ministered to leprosy patients

Eeeewww.. I hope he washed his hands after.

What a nut.

[big'ol_freeper]

How much practice does it take to be an ass...or does it come naturally?

[sauropod]

For her, no practice is needed.

[humblegunner]

How much practice does it take to be an ass...

You find it asinine to wash your hands after handling lepers?

[big'ol_freeper]

I would be more concerned about washing my hands after being anywhere near you. The disease it seems that you suffer from is much more dehumanizing.