St. Damien’s “contagious love” is an example to follow today, Bishop Larry Silva told the approximately 200 people who gathered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace May 10 for a special evening liturgy celebrating the feast of Molokai’s first saint.
It was the fourth feast day honoring the Belgian Sacred Hearts missionary since his canonization by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2009. May 10 is the date in 1873 that St. Damien arrived on Molokai to begin his work among the Hansen’s disease patients exiled in Kalaupapa.
Photo by Darlene Dela Cruz
Sister Candida Oroc of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities venerates the relic of St. Damien.
Bishop Silva presided at the feast day Mass, joined at the altar by more than a half dozen priests, including diocesan hospital chaplains and members of St. Damien’s religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Father Camille Sapu Malangu, vicar general for the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Rome, was also in attendance.
The liturgy opened with an oli, a Hawaiian chant, by the Royal Order of Kamehameha I. A relic of St. Damien was placed in front of the altar where, after Mass, it was venerated by the faithful.
In his homily, Bishop Silva drew a connection between his recent pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, and St. Damien’s experience in Kalaupapa. The bishop traveled this month to Europe with the Order of Malta, a group of men and women, of which he is a member, “who dedicated themselves to caring for the sick,” he said.
Lourdes, the site of a famous Marian apparition to St. Bernadette, is known as a place of miraculous healing.
“There at Lourdes were many, many sick people,” Bishop Silva said. “Yet there was great joy there. How could that be? Because they were loved; because they were cared for.”
“I thought of Damien often, who went to Kalaupapa and saw all of those people who were disfigured” from leprosy, the bishop said. “He saw not only people who were sick in body, but who were sick in their souls as well, because they were hopeless.”
“Damien knew that he had to lay down his life for them, like a good shepherd,” he said.
The bishop spoke about St. Damien’s “contagious love” for those entrusted to his care. In commemorating his feast day, Bishop Silva said, local Catholics can once again turn to the saint’s example and fill themselves with the courage necessary to serve those in need.
“Wherever people have lost sight of God and can only see what is before them, we, like Damien, can be good shepherds to lead them to greener pastures,” Bishop Silva said. “Wherever we are called to bring healing to others through a word or smile or a visit, we will be inspired by Damien and bring that healing.”
The feast day of St. Damien is an “obligatory” memorial in Hawaii, meaning its liturgical observance is required. It is an “optional” memorial for other U.S. dioceses.
