St. Damien of Molokai
He volunteered for the island nobody was allowed to leave.
Hawaii had a leprosy settlement on the island of Molokai, on a strip of land walled off by cliffs on one side and ocean on the other. People who got sick were put on a boat and left there. Nobody came back.
Damien was a Belgian priest who asked to go. He built houses and coffins, dressed wounds, organized a choir, and argued with the government for supplies. He also ate with people, and sat on their beds, and shared his pipe, which was the part everyone noticed, because nobody else would touch them.
After eleven years he began a sermon by saying we lepers instead of you. He had it too. He stayed another five years and died there at forty nine.
St. Damien of Molokai facts for kids
- He volunteered. Nobody assigned him.
- He served on Molokai for 16 years
- He started his sermon one Sunday with we lepers, and that's how the settlement found out
- Hawaii picked him as one of its two statues in the US Capitol
Feast day: May 10 · Patron of people with leprosy and outcasts
Proper to the calendars of the United States and Hawaii.
St. Damien, help me sit with the person everyone is avoiding.