Ten years after his canonization, the Molokai saint has several Mainland parishes named in his honor
The exterior of St. Gabriel Church, which along with St. Joseph Church, merged in 2017 to form St. Damien of Molokai Parish in Windsor, Connecticut. Both churches’ signs incorporate pineapples as a nod to St. Damien’s Hawaii roots and as a traditional symbol of welcome. (Photo courtesy St. Damien of Molokai Parish, Windsor, Connecticut)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The story of St. Damien de Veuster has been spreading since his 2009 canonization. That includes the naming of several parishes on the Mainland after the Belgian-born, Hawaii priest who served Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa, Molokai.
Most of the parishes were formed after church consolidations in dioceses.
Connecticut
When Father John Melnick tells people he’s the pastor of St. Damien of Molokai Parish, a two-church parish in Central Connecticut, he often gets the response back, “Molokai? What’s that?”
“It provides for a catechetical moment,” Father Melnick said. He explains about the Hawaiian island and St. Damien de Veuster. That jogs some people’s memories.
The Archdiocese of Hartford created St. Damien of Molokai Parish in 2017 after the merging of St. Joseph and St. Gabriel parishes in Windsor. A total of 140 parishes in the archdiocese were consolidated into 59 parishes that year due to a decline in the number of priests and Mass attendance.
St. Damien of Molokai parishioner Betty Caruso painted a portrait of St. Damien, copies of which are in both churches and a school that is part of the parish. (Photo courtesy St. Damien of Molokai Parish, Windsor, Connecticut)
Father Melnick said that the archdiocese named his parish and many of the other new parishes after more contemporary or recently canonized saints so people could better relate to them.
Parishioners at St. Damien of Molokai were surprised at their new parish name but also “pleased with the name and that he’s an American saint,” he said.
The Connecticut parish has embraced the Hawaiian aspects of their patron saint. They watched a film about St. Damien after the parish renaming and have an oil painting of St. Damien done by a parishioner hung in St. Joseph Church, St. Gabriel Church and the parish school. There is now an annual parish luau at a parishioner’s farm that follows a Corpus Christi procession. And Father Melnick said the new parish logo includes a pineapple “as a symbol of welcome and of Hawaii.”
Another Archdiocese of Hartford parish with a Hawaii connection is just across the Connecticut River from St. Damien of Molokai Parish. St. Marianne Cope Parish was formed after the merger of St. Catherine and St. Philip in East Windsor.
“Given their close collaboration, putting St. Damien and St. Marianne in adjoining towns seemed more than logical,” said Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Sister Clare Millea, the Archdiocese of Hartford’s assistant chancellor, in an email.
She said that contemporary saint names were picked for many of the diocesan parish mergers “in the hope that parishioners might see holiness as an attainable goal in our times, not just in the distant past.”
“Another reason, very clear in [St. Damien and St. Marianne Cope parishes], was to increase awareness of human needs, such as serious human illness, that need our prayer and, when possible, our material support. Certainly our church today needs to take inspiration from heroes of the faith,” Sister Millea added.
New Jersey
In 2011, the late Bishop Joseph Galante of the Diocese of Camden formed St. Damien Parish of Ocean City, New Jersey, from the consolidation of St. Augustine Parish, St. Frances Cabrini Parish and Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish. Bishop Galante was a close friend of Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo who served in Hawaii from 1993 to 2004.
The clustering was part of a larger diocesan effort to merge parishes in order to conserve resources.
According to a 2011 article in The Press of Atlantic City, the new parish received Molokai sand and a relic of St. Damien for the Ocean City Catholic community. Sand from the three Ocean City parishes was symbolically combined during the inauguration Mass for the consolidated St. Damien Parish.
Also in New Jersey, although not a parish, is a local Knights of Columbus council named after St. Damien. Founded in 1974, St. Damien Council 6575 has about 150 members serving St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Stirling, New Jersey.
Pennsylvania
In Monongahela, Pennsylvania, the merger of Transfiguration Parish and St. Anthony Parish in 2011 formed the new St. Damien of Molokai Parish. St. Anthony’s closure in 2014 has led to well-publicized protests by parishioners challenging the church’s shuttering.
In a May 2013 Hawaii Catholic Herald article, then-pastor Father Bill Terza said the consolidated parish’s name was chosen by Bishop David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
“In more recent mergers such as ours, the bishop has chosen to break from the old traditional saints’ names to emphasize some of the more recent saints to be canonized by the church,” Father Terza told the Herald.
Michigan
Along with St. Damien of Molokai Parish on topside Molokai, a parish in Michigan was the first Catholic church to be named after the Belgian priest. St. Damien of Molokai Parish in Pontiac, Michigan, was first named Blessed Damien Parish in July 2009 after the merger of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Michael the Archangel and the Shrine of St. Joseph.
The Archdiocese of Detroit’s Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who is a close friend of Bishop Larry Silva from the time they both served in the Diocese of Oakland, chose the new name according to a May 2013 Hawaii Catholic Herald article.
A group from the Pontiac parish, including its pastor Father James Kean, traveled to the Vatican for Father Damien’s canonization on Oct. 11, 2009. The parish’s name switched from “Blessed” to “St.” at the time of Damien’s canonization.
Oklahoma
One completely new parish that was built in central Oklahoma in 2010 is St. Damien Catholic Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. The parish is run by members of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, or Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri (FSSP), a Latin rite community in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
The May 2013 story on St. Damien parishes said that it was the now-retired Archbishop Eusebius Beltran of Oklahoma City who selected the church’s patron saint.
Hawaii and beyond
Here in Hawaii, it’s not just St. Damien Parish on Molokai that’s named after the Belgian saint. Aliamanu Military Reservation and Schofield Barracks are served by the Military Catholic Community of Saints Damien and Marianne. And Damien Memorial School is also named after the Hawaii saint though it does not use “Saint” in its name.
Also spotted during a web search for St. Damien parishes was a so-named Catholic parish and school in Dawesville, Western Australia.
These St. Damien parishes aren’t to be confused with those named after St. Damian, a third-century martyr whose feast is celebrated along with St. Cosmas.
