Biography of Saint Damian of Molokai
His feast is celebrated on April 15.
His name was Jozef Van Veuster, but we all know him as Father Damien of Molokai. He was born on January 3, 1840, in Tremeloo, Belgium. He has been called “the volunteer leper”, because in order to be able to care for the lepers who were in total abandonment, he agreed to become a leper like them.
As a child at school, he already enjoyed making manual works, little houses like the ones of the missionaries in the jungles. He had that inner desire to one day go to distant lands to do missions.
As a young man he was run over by a car, and got up without any injuries. The doctor who examined him exclaimed: “This boy has the energy to undertake very big jobs.”
One day, when he was barely eight years old, he decided to go with his little sister to live as hermits in a lonely forest, to dedicate himself to prayer. The family was shocked when he noticed her disappearance. Fortunately, some peasants found them over there and returned them home. The mother wondered: what will this child expect in the future?
At the age of 17, José studied Commerce and French at Braine le Compte to help his father in the grain business. Every evening he visited the tabernacle of some church. One day he entered his parish when a Redemptorist missionary was preaching: «The joys of this world pass quickly… What is suffered for God remains forever… The soul that rises to God drags other souls after it … To die for God is to truly live and to make others live». He didn’t leave his yes for tomorrow.
The news ruined his father’s plans. But he came to say if God is counting on you… The first. And on January 3, 1859, he himself accompanied his son to the Convent of the Sacred Hearts in Louvain. At 19 years old he had a determined vocation and was well endowed: intelligent, dynamic, affable, robust and even handsome, the young man made a good impression. But priest? Too old to learn Latin and Humanities. He will be a good curate brother. José calmly accepts and trusts in God. On February 2, 1859 he wears the habit with the name of Damien. Everyone admires his activity: as soon as he fixes a roof as he heals the neighbor’s cow, as … he studies Latin! On forced marches. His brother has been granted permission to teach him overtime and he will soon be seen in line for the priesthood candidates.
Every night he went to prostrate himself before a painting of San Francisco Javier. One day, Father Teacher surprised him: What are you doing here at this hour? I ask him to obtain for me the grace to be a missionary. His “impatient” Navarrese twin acted quickly. He was in Theology when the Apostolic Vicar of Hawaii arrived in Europe to recruit priests. One of those chosen was Father Pánfilo, who, on the eve of departure, fell ill with typhus while assisting the plague-stricken in Louvain. Father Damián asked for and was able to replace him. Immediately afterwards, Father Pánfilo was healed, a favor that Father Damián went to thank at the Sanctuary of Monteagudo. There, at dawn, before Maria’s tender gaze, her eyes filled with tears, he gave his parents one last tight hug.
It is said that in the 140 days of navigation storms raged. The passengers made some “soups”, but Father Damián did not have time to get dizzy, busy with his nursing practice.
His first conquest.
In 1863 he set sail for his distant mission, on the trip he became extremely friendly with the ship’s captain, who told him: “I never go to confession. I’m a bad Catholic, but I tell you that I would go to confession with you.” Damien replied: “I’m not a priest yet, but I hope one day, when I’m already a priest, I’ll have the pleasure of absolving all his sins.” Years later this was fulfilled extraordinarily.
On March 19, 1865, they set foot on Hawaiian land. Two months later, José Damián was ordained a priest and sang his first Mass at Honolulu Cathedral. He was then sent to a small island in Hawaii. The first nights he spent under a palm tree, because he had no house to live in. Almost all the inhabitants of the island were Protestants. With the help of a few Catholic peasants he built a thatched-roof chapel; and there he began to celebrate Mass and catechize. He then dedicated himself with such affection to all peoples, that almost all of the Protestants went over to Catholicism.
One by one he visited all the ranches on the island and ended many superstitious beliefs of those poor people and replaced them with true beliefs. He carried medicines and managed to cure numerous patients. But there were some around there who were incurable: they were lepers.
First destination: Puna, vast territory of the island of Molokai. Then Kohala, a region almost as big as the whole of Belgium, mountainous and without roads. On foot, on horseback, in a lightweight hollowed-out Kanak boat, swimming, climbing… he traveled hours and hours of intricate paths through mountains, thickets, streams and jungle, from farmhouse to farmhouse, under that tropical sky. The occasional serious shipwreck was not lacking, in that “almost always rough” sea. Nine years of adventures that could fill splendid volumes.
Some afternoons were quieter. She would sit at the door of a hut and the Kanakas, crowded around her, listened to her dazzled. Father Carmelo Arbiol refers that “the father spoke to them with such anointing, with such affection of our Lord, of the goodness of God and of the ugliness and malice of sin, that those rude people felt moved. They came from everywhere… Even the lepers themselves came out of their hiding places and, crawling, went to participate in that pleasant and instructive distraction». This was the first contact Father Damien had with them.
The straw chapels soon became too small, and they also flew when there were gale force winds. Let’s do it! Those of the Kanacas, enthusiastic, and those of Father Damián, enthusiastic and enthusiastic, acting as master and pawn. They say and we believe it that he kept the worst part for himself. After a chapel, another and another… The inaugurations were notorious. Next came the schools. Without Catholic buildings or teachers, the neophytes had to go to those of the Protestants. It didn’t take long for him to secure funding for four Catholic schools!
A testimony from his own inkwell refers to a feast on the occasion of the prelate’s visit: «A pious procession was organized with the Blessed Sacrament…solemn and moving. Earlier we had the consolation of achieving the general and sincere conversion of our former Christians. For two months I remained almost constantly in the confessional, hearing confessions… The splendor of our ceremonies deeply impressed both heretics and idolaters… Many, as a result of the feasts, had themselves inscribed in the catalog of catechumens».
The monster
The inhabitants of Hawaii lived peacefully enjoying the fertility and beauty of nature, until the terrible monster appeared around 1850: leprosy. Alarmed by its rapid spread, favored by the weather, the Government decided to confine the lepers. The site chosen was a strip of land on the island of Molokai, some five kilometers out into the sea and separated from the rest of the island by a wall of steep mountains. There the raids of lepers, pagans, Protestants and Catholics disembarked. Christ doubly destroyed. Abandoned, without health or spiritual assistance, they tried to drown their despair in bacchanals and disorders. Rumors spread throughout the capital that this was a “true hell.” The bishop, Monsignor Louis Maigret, of the Sacred Hearts, made a pastoral visit there. He was horrified. He found a suitable occasion to gather his missionaries and explained the situation to them. Father Damien stepped forward: “I ask to be sent,” he said. He was 33 years old and was aware of the risk involved in his decision.
Six days later, on May 10, 1873, Father Damien, accompanied by his bishop, arrived in Kalawao. A crowd of disfigured faces awaited on the beach. Many without ears, without a nose, without eyes… As soon as Father Damián set foot on the ground, loud shouts were heard: Aloha, Makúa Karninao! They were the old Kohala parishioners. At sunset the prelate Monsignor Maigret, he returned to the canoe that took him to Kilouea. Soon it was a distant point and was lost on the horizon. Father Damien was left alone with God and his lepers. When night came, he knelt down, said the rosary and settled under the branches of a corpulent pandanus. He was made to sleep in the open.
contradiction sign
In Honolulu, word of Father Damien’s offer to “live and die with the lepers” spread by word of mouth. Some admired him, others narrowed their eyes. Among the first were the Protestant newspapers Advertiser and Muhou, which applauded the Catholic hero. This upset some Calvinist pastors who called the undertaking “reckless.” Imprudent, provocation and challenge» and managed to upset the Hygiene Commission against Father Damián and the drastic prohibition, under penalty of arrest, to leave the island.
Father Modesto Favens, provincial of the mission, who loved Father Damien dearly, wanted to visit him. Arrived at his destination, he was not allowed to approach the island. Father Damián was warned by a canoeist, he threw himself into the oars and in a few minutes he reached the Kilouea and tried to climb to the bridge. Get out of here, the captain roared. I have strict orders. Then this moving scene took place: In full view of everyone, Father Damian knelt down and from the small boat, battered by the stormy sea, he confessed out loud and received absolution.
“My mother would not recognize me as her son”
A change of government, without a Calvinist majority, freed Father Damián from the fierce persecution he was suffering. The Father Provincial then made him responsible for the entire island of Molokai, which necessarily meant traversing the cliffs. He also improved the situation of the lepers. He was named a lazaretto delegate, who gave all the facilities to Father Damián and even offered him the position of superintendent with a salary of ten thousand dollars a year. His answer was blunt: “Even if they offered me all the treasures on earth, I would not stay even five minutes on the island of Molokai. What keeps me here is only God and the salvation of souls. If I accepted the most insignificant salary for my work, my mother would not recognize me as her son.
In the Kalaupapa settlements, about 600 lepers lived. Father Damien began by building a church and establishing a parish, dedicated to Saint Philomena. As John Paul II said in his beatification homily, she truly believed “in the divinity of Jesus Christ” and lived her faith, not by word of mouth but by deeds, as Saint Paul insists. “Surrendered with love to Jesus”, he wasted love and apostolic activity, and managed to regenerate the battered social coexistence in the “colony of death”.
We could ask him…