Whether you’ve called our beautiful islands home for your entire life, recently made the move to the Aloha State, or perhaps are simply dreaming of the day you’ll finally fly into Hawaii, there are countless fascinating places and people that make the Hawaiian Islands so unique. And while we’ve featured many of the islands’ most famous places, it is perhaps the people who live here that have shaped the islands even more than our volcanic past. One of those influential people is none other than Father Damien, and we can’t wait to share his life and legacy with you.
A Roman Catholic priest from Belgium, Father Damien, dedicated his life to a community of Hawaii residents who were cast away from the populace because they had leprosy.
Henry L. Chase/Wikipedia
Father Damien settled at Kalaupapa, a remote peninsula on the small island of Molokai, in 1873, where he taught Catholicism to the people of Hawaii and established the Parish of Saint Philomena.
William Brigham/Wikipedia
He also cared for the patients living in this government-mandated quarantine settlement and established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches.
Henry L. Chase/Wikipedia
The Catholic priest provided both medical and emotional support to the community — building a reservoir, dressing residents’ ulcers, making coffins, digging graves, sharing pipes, and eating poi by hand with them.
KarlM/Wikipedia
More than a decade passed and Father Damien contracted leprosy himself, and though he continued to work despite the infection, died in April 1889.
Sydney B. Swift/Wikipedia
Damien was described as a “martyr or charity” and is considered the spiritual patron for leprosy and outcasts by the Anglican Communion and other Christian denominations.
Gillfoto/Wikipedia
One hundred and twenty years after his death from the same disease that took the lives of 8,000 people at Kalaupapa, Father Damien was canonized as a Catholic saint in 2009.
jomilo75/Flickr
Have you ever heard the unbelievable story of Father Damien before? What about one of Hawaii Island’s prettiest churches, St. Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church, also known as the Painted Church, or the oldest church in Hawaii, Mokuaikaua Church?
Henry L. Chase/Wikipedia
William Brigham/Wikipedia
KarlM/Wikipedia
Sydney B. Swift/Wikipedia
Gillfoto/Wikipedia
jomilo75/Flickr
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Address: Kalaupapa, HI 96742, USA
