To learn more about “Brother” Joseph Dutton, whose cause for sainthood got the boost of approval last month from the U.S. bishops at their fall meeting in Baltimore, join the webinar “The Servant of God Joseph Dutton, Layman!” at 10 a.m. Dec. 11.
The webinar is hosted by the Damien and Marianne Catholic Conference. The panelists are Patrick Boland, Ed Paz and Father Jon Schmobrich. Register at www.dmcchawaii.org/webinars/.
Dutton is the American layman and Civil War veteran who spent half of his life serving leprosy patients in Kalaupapa, Molokai, working side by side with the settlement’s two saints, Damien de Veuster and Marianne Cope.
As an act of atonement for his turbulent post-war years, he traveled to Molokai in 1886 to join St. Damien in his work with leprosy patients. St. Damien affectionately called his American assistant “Brother.”
Dutton helped St. Damien until the priest’s death three years later in 1889 and remained in Kalaupapa for an additional 42 years.
He died in 1931. His grave lies next to that of St. Damien on the grounds of St. Philomena Church in Kalawao.
