This story first ran in the Hawaii Catholic Herald in July 2008. It is being reprinted here after renewed interest in the Father Damien statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection. A duplicate statue sits outside the Hawaii state capitol. The story of the statue It took years of grassroots campaigning, political maneuvering, artistic disputes, […]
Fellowship in times of isolation
Father Damien of Molokai and Mother Marianne of Molokai, were natives of Belgium and Germany respectively, but are best known for their care of lepers (sufferers of Hansen’s disease) of the Kalaupapa settlement. In 1866 Hawaii established a leper colony on the island of Molokai, where approximately 8,000 Hawaiian were quarantined between its nineteenth-century founding […]
150 years ago: Faithful celebrate sesquicentennial of St. Damien’s arrival
On March 19, 1864, Belgian seminarian Damiaan (Jozef) de Veuster first stepped foot in Honolulu and began a legacy of humble service in the Islands. He would be ordained a priest here two months later on May 21 in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. His later ministry to the Hansen’s disease patients in […]
Damien Inspireert* | 150 YEARS: The saint’s way
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 […]
Aloha! Namaste! Visitors embody the Hawaii-India-Damien link
Seven Indian Sacred Hearts priests visit St. Damien’s grave in Kalawao, Molokai, last month with their congregation’s U.S. provincial Father Jonathan Hurrell, far right. (Photo courtesy off the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts) Traveling over 7,400 miles, nearly the same distance that St. Damien de Veuster crossed on his journey from Belgium to Hawaii, seven […]
Mass at cathedral celebrates feast day of St. Damien
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 […]