By Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Damien Memorial School will begin a new chapter in its decades-long history Oct. 11 when its name will officially change to Saint Damien School.
The transition will be marked with a celebratory Mass that day at 11 a.m. in the school’s Bishop Scanlan Gymnasium. Oct. 11 is the date on which, in 2009, Father Damien de Veuster was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI, becoming St. Damien of Molokai.
The name change may seem small, but it is significant, said Lanson Kupau, chair of Damien’s board of directors and a 1982 graduate.
“We are not simply memorializing Damien,” he said. “We are celebrating St. Damien and the way he lived.”
Importantly, Kupau added, it’s not a sign that the school is abandoning its history. Rather, he explained, the decision “was about embracing (the school’s) history and recognizing what Damien’s life means to us today.”
Father Damien was born Jozef de Veuster in Belgium in 1840. He joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1859, and five years later traveled to Hawaii as a missionary in place of his brother.
He was ordained a priest at the Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in downtown Honolulu in 1864, then began his pastoral ministry on Hawaii island. In 1873, he answered the call to minister to Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa, arriving on the remote Molokai peninsula where people suffering from the disease (also called leprosy) were forced to live on their own.
Father Damien eventually was diagnosed with the disease himself; he died in 1889. He was beatified in 1995 and made a saint 14 years later.
Changing with the times
The change had been discussed for several years, Kupau said in an interview.
Kupau was appointed to the board in 2021 and has served as chairman since 2024. He said that when he brought the name-change proposal to the board for consideration, “it received overwhelming support.”
It’s the third time the Kalihi campus, which is administered by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, has changed its name since it was founded as Damien Memorial High School in 1962, providing Catholic education to high school-age boys.
In 2004, Damien expanded to include middle-school students in seventh and eighth grades; a few years later, sixth graders arrived on campus as well.
The school’s biggest change came in 2012, when it ceased all-boys instruction after half a century and became a coeducational institution.
Along the way, Damien dropped the “high” from its name and became Damien Memorial School.
Saint Damien School’s mascot will still be the Monarchs, and its motto will remain “Viriliter Age” — which itself got an update after the campus became coed. Originally translated from Latin as “Act Manfully,” the motto is now read as “Act Courageously.”
Looking to the future
“Changing our name does not change who we are,” Kupau said. Damien continues to uphold its mission of educating and developing girls and boys to “face the challenges of the world with the courage, compassion and spirit exemplified by St. Damien.”
Memorializing St. Damien’s sainthood in the school’s name acknowledges his sacrifices in Kalaupapa as well as the values his life represents, Kupau added.
Kupau said this new chapter in Damien’s history “gives us an opportunity to teach future generations more deeply about the person behind the name on their school.”
At the same time, a new name does not negate the experiences and history of alumni who walked through Damien’s halls over the past 64 years, said Kupau, who as a graduate himself understands the attachment that former students have to the school name that appears on their diplomas.
“I graduated from Damien Memorial High School in 1982. Nothing can change that, nor would I ever want it to,” he said. “But honoring our past does not require us to stand still.”
“We are not leaving Damien Memorial behind,” Kupau said. “We are carrying its history forward.”