Priest who aided lepers in Hawaii to become saint

[Township75]

Source: Yahoo News

ATICAN CITY – A 19th-century Belgian priest who ministered to leprosy patients in Hawaii, and died of the disease, will be declared a saint this year at a Vatican ceremony presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Rev. Damien de Veuster's canonization date of Oct. 11 was set Saturday.

Born Joseph de Veuster in 1840, he took the name Damien and went to Hawaii in 1864 to join other missionaries of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Nine years later, he began ministering to leprosy patients on the remote Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai island, where some 8,000 people had been banished amid an epidemic in Hawaii in the 1850s.

The priest eventually contracted the disease, also known as Hansen's disease, and died in 1889 at age 49.

"He went there (to Hawaii) knowing that he could never return," The Rev. Alfred Bell, who spearheaded Damien's canonization cause, told Vatican Radio. "He suffered a lot, but he stayed."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_saint;_ylt=Au_rRRb0tmsSnxBLFdyahJ9vaA8F

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I've read his story

of compassion to others. He let them know he had contracted the disease in a sermon when he said, "Fellow lepers".

I think his saintliness has already been long acknowledged in halls more hallowed than those of the Vatican.

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. This is long overdue.

For a brave and tender man.

[wellstone dem]

3. What a wonderful story to start my day.

As a child I read his story often, and am wondering now how that changed how I live my life. Thanks mom and dad for having stories like this one in our home.

I am thrilled to be able to pray to St. Damien as I serve my clients.

[Trocadero]

4. David Wenham starred as Father Damien in a movie:

Molokai: The Story of Father Damien

http://www.amazon.com/Molokai-Father-Damien-David-Wenham/dp/B00004WC7G

Any David Wenham fans out there? (Faramir from Lord of the Rings)

[xchrom]

5. to St Damien

:applause:

[KamaAina]

6. Note to AP: The term "leper" is obsolete and offensive.

As it happens, one of the first people I met out here had Hansen's disease and grew up in Kalaupapa. An associate of mine made the mistake of using the word "leper" in a phone conversation with him. The normally placid Hawaiian man blew up at him! He sadi, "It's okay to call the disease 'leprosy', but don't ever call me a 'leper'!"