This Day in History: Father Damien Canonized

A year ago today Father Damien of Molokai was canonized at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. 

Damien was just 33 years old when he began his ministry to leprosy patients such as Pia, the character in my historical novel, Healing Water.

Sixteen years after his arrival Father Damien died from complications related to the disease. 

In the following clip Max Lucado tells Saint Damien's story.



Healing Water lends itself superbly to integrated learning experiences. You can find suggested learning activities here.

MORE Q & A WITH MIDDLE SCHOOLERS FROM H.H. POOLE

Oneof these books is not about a disease.  Do you know which one?

1. Why do you write about diseases?

This is multiple choice. There could be more than one right answer. And no, you don’t want me to be your doctor.

A. I am a sick person.
B. I should have been a doctor.
C. I  probably have a fear of getting sick.
D. I am fascinated with the emotional aspects of illness and the way it changes people’s lives.

2. Who’s your favorite character in your books?

• Well, in every book, I’m always attached to my main characters.
• I think Imogene Wilfong in Blue is very cool.
• But I also happen to love Junior Bledsoe in Blue and especially in Comfort! He’s a very hot item you know. One of my readers sent me an email saying if her husband ever divorced her she was going to drive to North Carolina and track Junior Bledsoe down!

3. How did you get ideas for your stories?

There are so many fascinating hidden stories in history. When I'm working on one project I discover some story that grabs me by the heart and tries to drag me away with it. Usually I force myself to ignore it until I finish the project I’m on. But in the back of my brain a story begins to take shape and as quick as I can I go after it!

Example:  I was writing Vacation Bible School curriculum when I discovered Father Damien. I only needed a short story about leprosy for the curriculum.  But the research led me to more info and I wanted to do something longer with it. So I eventually wrote and published Healing Water, about a boy who is banished to Hawaii's leprosy settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula. He meets Father Damien there.

On the Kalaupapa Peninsula.

4. What was it like to go to Kalaupapa? 

I had to hike down a steep trail for a few miles. That was challenging. I had to hike back up. That was hard. The next day my legs hurt so badly I could barely walk.

Being there was cool but also a little bit frustrating because I wanted to roam freely and spend lots of time alone, getting to know the landscape and thinking about my story and my characters. But I had to stick to the guided tour and of course, there were other people around. I understand why people like me can’t just roam freely in this very private place but still, I wanted to.

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.

THANKS ROBERTA!

I'm doing "final" rewrites on my Hawaii book. It's a fictional account of a boy who's sent to the Kalaupapa leprosy settlement on Molokai. I've been researching this thing since before the turn of the century. And writing and rewriting and researching some more. Research trips to Hawaii are not a bad thing, by the way! Pricey though, so I only did one.

Anyway I'm always hungry for more information about the settlement. Awhile back I ordered Gifts From the Shore: a kalaupapa diary by Roberta Jarrett. Roberta is a nurse who worked in Kalaupapa for a year back in 1989-90. I just loved this book which captures so well the spirit of the place and which honors the lives of those former patients who were never allowed to leave and also those who choose to remain there.

I was struggling with certain details that I needed for my last minute revisions so I pulled Gifts From the Shore out again and began to read. Wow! It was so cool to have Roberta's description of the geography and the mood of that place. (So many of the historical accounts focus on other aspects of the story so I wanted details that I could only get by going there and staying for awhile which I am not allowed to do!)

Since my story took place more than 100 years before Roberta's experience some aspects of the landscape, foilage, etc won't work for me. But some will not have changed. Her description of the hike to Waikolu Valley where my character went to get water is the absolutely most vivid one I've seen! That alone was worth the price of the book!

Part of me is so envious of Roberta for spending so much time in that amazing place. I would love to walk the land, explore the lava tubes, climb down into the crater, meditate, weep and pray in that place. But it is sacred territory and I have not earned the right.

In 2000 my daughter, a friend, and I hiked down the formidable sea cliffs in back of the Kalaupapa Peninsula. We took the guided tour. I do hate guided tours. I always want to slip beneath the ropes to off-limits places. I dearly love to explore.

I hope someday, somehow, I can spend some time roaming the peninsula. For such an opportunity I could seriously swap out some scrubbing or painting or yard work in the village!

Meanwhile I have some great photographs, a shelf full of book, and a novel on the way.

A few great Kalaupapa resources
The Lands of Father Damien by James H. Brocker (fabulous book!)
An Uncommon Kindness - documentary narrated by Robin Williams
Kalaupapa National Historical Park (website)