Sunday Series: Heroes & Saints

The altar that Father Damien built for one of the churches on Molokai, HI.

I decided to make Sundays a day to blog about people who've accomplished great things. I was working on a post about Sister Elizabeth Kenny when I suddenly realized that today is Saint Damien's birthday.

So I'll continue the Sister Kenny post later. It's just as well since I was getting sidetracked into reading her biography all over again.

As for Father Damien, I've certainly blogged about him before and enough is enough, I suppose.

Father Damien Birthplace Museum which I visited in May 2007

So how about a few crucial dates from Damien's life, a few images, some info about his right hand, and a couple of links?

January 3, 1840 - Born in Tremeloo, Belgium
March 19, 1864 - Arrived in Hawaii
May 10, 1873 - Arrived in leprosy settlement on Molokai
April 15, 1889 - Died of complications related to leprosy

Aerial photo used with permission by James H. Brocker, author of The Lands of Father Damien. (A fabulous book!)

When Damien died in Hawaii's leprosy settlement, he was buried beside the church in this photo. But his homeland of Belgium wanted his body and in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt agreed to return it.

Then in 1995 when he was beautified (second step on journey to sainthood) the remains of his right hand were returned to Hawaii.

Damien's coffin now on display at his birthplace museum in Tremeloo, Belgium.

I used to imagine that they simply cut his hand off. But, when I visited the Damien Birthplace Museum, one of my Healing Water experts, Father Paul Macken explained. Damien's body arrived in Belgium in the coffin pictured above. When they opened the coffin, his body disintegrated. So they separated the remains into 11 zinc boxes. One of them contained the bones of his right hand.

Here are Google Image results for Damien - there are some really great ones.

And there is loads and loads of info along with a myriad of pictures at this Damien related blog.

Oh, and DO check out this virtual tour of some Damien sites. Don't be shy. Click on the word Flash to see a 360 degree image. (Unfortunately a few are labeled wrong and you get mules when you wanted to see Damien's birthplace but there are some fabulous images that are worth exploring!)

TWO DAMIEN FILMS

Want to know more about Father Damien, the missionary priest to Hawaii who is being canonized on Sunday? Check out these movies!
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien was co-written by Hilde Eynikel who also wrote a book by the same title. Stars are David Wenham and Kate Ceberano.

An Uncommon Kindness is a documentary narrated by Robin Williams.

Both are informative, absorbing, and well worth your time. If your public library doesn't have them, it's always worth asking. Chances are, they will order upon request.

SMILE: FATHER DAMIEN WAS HERE!

If you were a leprosy patient shipped off to the Kalaupapa Peninsula, separated from home and family, would you be smiling?

I'm not exactly sure which of the residents of Kalaupapa painted these rocks. Or when. Likely a century after Father Damien lived and died.

But I do know that ever since he came, there have been more smiles on the Kalaupapa Peninsula.

And on Sunday, October 11, 2009 when Pope Benedict presides over his canonization, there will be lots of celebrating!

SAINT DAMIEN: He made it easier to believe.

Children's art work depicting scenes from Father Damien's life - on display in the Damien Birthplace Museum in Tremelo, Belgium.

Confession: I don't really like the word "saint". It conjures up images of people too religious to be any earthly good. But if the Vatican has decided that Father Damien is a saint, then there must be another definition at work.

Because that man did a world of good.

He offered compassion to the desolate leprosy patients of Hawaii. He empowered them to improve their situation, hassled them as needed, and shared his food and pipe with them. He gave his life for them. He got their disease.

Before him, there'd been a few non-patients who lived or did religious work in the settlement but they were either transient or came as helpers to family members . Father Damien was the first to voluntarily stay in Kalawao and serve all its residents. He inspired others to do the same.

Joseph Dutton showed up one day, said he'd come to help, and proceeded to spend the rest of his life (45 more years) on the six squares miles of Kalaupapa Peninsula.

Dutton describes his first encounter with Father Damien.

He was now a leper in the advanced stage... The Father talked eagerly,... he called me "Brother," as I had come to stay, and gave me at once the full care of two churches. He was full of plans that morning, talking of what he wished for the lepers.

Joseph Dutton was a striking figure - a tall muscular man in a blue demin suit. He was neat and clean even after a "hot dusty trip."

There was little water in the leprosy settlement and Father Damien constantly hustled from one menial task to another. He was impulsive and careless about appearances so he must've looked like a mess much of the time. Probably the sort of person a lot of us would pull away from.

Brother Dutton wrote of him:

There were times when one did not care to be too much with Father Damien; that should be said. But there was love between us. This is not to say that our tastes and personal habits were the same, it would not be correct to say that.

He goes on to talk about repugnances. He doesn't get specific but I suspect that Father Damien never looked like the white robed, haloed image that seems to go with sainthood.

I'm not entirely sure what all defines a saint in the Catholic tradition. I know there must be evidence of a holy life and also of miracles.

In my tradition, a saint is someone who lives what he believes. As William Barclay put it, "A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God."

Just one reason why Father Damien will become Saint Damien on October 11, 2009. And it also explains why he inspired me to write Healing Water!

Quotations from The Heart of Father Damien by Vital Jourdain, S.S. C.C.

THE MAKING OF A SAINT

Artwork created by children to honor Father Damien. This hangs in his birthplace museum in Tremeloo, Belgium.

A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God.

Perhaps this quote by William Barclay sums up why I wrote Healing Water.

I was inspired by Father Damien, a Catholic priest who in 1873, chose to live among Hawaii's leprosy patients. The Kalawao leprosy settlement was filling with people who were taken from family and friends in hopes of protecting others from their disease.

The outcast leprosy patients did not have their basic needs provided so they went into survival mode. Then Damien arrived and his compassion helped transform the settlement from a place of hopelessness to a real community.

Eventually Damien himself contracted leprosy. And while leprosy itself, doesn't kill a person, its complications do. In 1889, after 16 years of sharing his skills and compassion with Hansen's Disease patients, Father Damien died.

After decades of consideration, the Vatican has decided that Damien is indeed a saint. This means his life has been scrutinized and 2 miracles have been attributed to his intervention.

On October 11, 2009 Damien will be canonized.

Not to argue with the Vatican, but as far as I'm concerned, Father Damien was a saint simply because of the life he lived in Kalawao. Everything I've read, indicates that his presence there led many to believe in God.

ANOTHER HISTORIC DEATH

This seems to be the week for me to write about the deaths of great men. First FDR and now Father Damien of Molokai. My book Healing Water was initially inspired by Father Damien. He was the Catholic priest who chose to live among Hawaii's leprosy patients. As I researched, I realized the story was so much bigger than this one man. But still, he was such an incredible man. Pia, my protagonist gives us a glimpse of him.

I looked at Father Damien, and for the first time I thought about his family. It must have been a long time since he had seen them—it was now nearly ten years since that day when I first saw him get off the ship in Honolulu. That was before the government had even created this leprosy prison.

Why had he come to Hawai‘i? And especially to Moloka‘i?

"Did that bishop send you here?" I asked him.

The Father stopped digging and looked at me then. "The bishop asked several of us to take turns," he said. "And so I volunteered."

"Oh." I wondered if that meant he would be leaving after all. "When will it be someone else’s turn?" I asked. "Will you go back to Kohala?"

Father Damien shook his head. "I cannot leave my children in these conditions."

"But you don’t have leprosy. What if you never get to leave?"

Damien turned away from me then, and I saw his eyes moving about, looking over the scattered cottages of Kalawao. "If I never leave this place," he said softly, "I will be the happiest missionary in the world."

Happy? In Kalawao? Never seeing his family again? Never traveling to Honolulu or Kohala? How could anyone love God that much? How could anyone love me that much? I just didn’t understand.

"Pardon me for the questions, Father, but, but … do you plan to die here?"

Damien looked up to the pali then, and I could see that he was remembering something. "I died before I came," he said. "When I took my religious vows, I prostrated myself before the altar and my brothers placed a funeral shroud over me. On that day I died to my own will. God’s will became my will."

These words from my novel are based on a letter Damien wrote to his brother soon after his arrival.

"So remembering that on the day of my profession I had already put myself under the funeral pall, I offered myself to his lordship to meet, if he thought it well, this second death."

The truth is, Father Damien did contract leprosy. And then, some time after he knew he had leprosy, he wrote home again.

"The joy and contentment of heart... make me consider myself the happiest missioner in the world. Consequently, the sacrifice of my health...appears after all but a slight affair, and even profitable for me."

On April 15, 1889 Father Damien died of complications related to leprosy.

On October 11, 2009 he will be canonized. From that day on he will officially be Saint Damien.