Chaminade graduate Genevieve Krier, center, shows her senior research project on St. Damien de Veuster. (Photo courtesy of Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP)
When he was a young child, St. Damien de Veuster’s mom used to read him stories from the Bible and of the saints. His sisters followed God’s call and entered the convent, and his brother entered the priesthood. St. Damien himself discovered that trying to live the heroic lives of the saints was not always easy. He wrote, “It is especially in the midst of the volcanoes of Puna that I should have the pure love for God and the ardent zeal for the salvation of souls that inflamed Jean-Marie Vianney, cure d’Ars, during his lifetime.” This zeal continues to move mountains today.
After St. Damien’s death in 1889, leprosy and the plight of its victims gained increased global attention. As far away as England, a fund and a commission was established for the scientific investigation of the disease.
Today, St. Damien’s religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, continues to expand in 33 countries. Theirs is an evangelizing mission that aims to implant the Gospel everywhere they serve. The United States Province includes missions in India, Tonga and Reynosa in North Tamaulipas, Mexico. Tonga has a community of nine with more vocation candidates on the way. The increase in members has prompted the need to purchase land to build a larger community house.
In her senior research project, Chaminade University graduate and lay Marianist Genevieve Krier explored the Marianist education’s values of faith, service, justice and peace and showed how St. Damien’s spiritual and educational greatness profoundly transformed the lives of those he served. She enthusiastically keeps the spirit of St. Damien alive in her witness to Jesus.
St. Damien said, “We imitate Jesus Christ who is our model.”
On behalf of the government of Flanders, Belgium, and Manhattan’s Community Board 6, New York, a resolution was passed to co-name 33rd Street in Manhattan, between First and Second Avenues, in memory of Hawaii’s first saint. The official renaming of “Father Damian Way” is set for June 2014. May we continue to be inspired by St. Damien’s way!
*Dutch for “inspires,” a slogan used in Belgium for the canonization of Father Damien.