The Apostle of the Lepers

The plan is that I will go to Massatine, the leper colony, every Thursday. Today, however, they had to take a different car because the truck we usually take needed to be fixed in Monrovia. As a result, there was no room for me to go. So instead, to be with them in spirit I decided to do a little research into the namesake of the church built there, Father Damien of Molokai. Allow me to share a bit of his story.

Father Damien was born in Belgium in the year 1840. When he was eighteen he felt called by God to become a Catholic priest. In 1859 he joined his oldest brother as a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and took the religious name Damien. He then sailed to Hawaii in 1863 with two other priests to serve as a team of missionaries on the island. It was here that Fr. Damien encountered leprosy.

At that time no one know too much about the disease or how to treat it, most were just afraid of catching it. So the government set up a colony on the island of Molokai where they sent all those with leprosy to live, and ultimately die. When the Bishop asked for a volunteer to go and live with these people on Molokai and look after the settlers, Fr. Damien begged for the chance to go.

The state that he found the island in was a sad one. These people felt like outsiders to their own race and abandoned, for good reason. With no one to care for them, the people felt little hope left in life. Then Fr. Damien arrived.

Since he was the only help the people received, Fr. Damien had to act as doctor, nurse, teacher, carpenter, engineer, as well as priest. But he did all this with love, and filled each day with work and prayer. The most important thing he did for these people, however, was to give them back their self-respect. He showed them that there was someone who loved and cared for them. So on top of building huts, supplying water, educating the young, visiting the sick, and holding countless Masses and funerals, this new found hope in life was the real change.

Eventually, Fr. Damien finally caught leprosy. He died in the joy of Christ, however, writing to his brother that, “I am quite happy and contented. Although seriously ill, all I want is to do the will of God.” And as Fr. Damien began to slip away he received Holy Communion for the last time, and before he died, actually, all signs of leprosy left his face. He then met his end peacefully in 1889.

So there you have, in brief, the story of Fr. Damien of Molokai. It is a truly inspiring life, and I can’t wait to visit our own village of Massatine again next week. But it is an example to all of us of the sacrificial love that the Lord is calling us to. Underneath a large cross at his burial site are the words from Scripture:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

-Dan
written 06/30/11