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Born in Tremelo, Belguim as Joseph de Veuster.
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St Damien Of Molokai's legacy.
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Joined the Congregation of Sacred Heart's of Jesus and Mary when he was twenty. He took the name of a fourth-century physician and martyr and left his name, Joseph, behind.
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Arrived in Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii as a missionary.
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Damien was ordained to priesthood at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, a church built by his religous order.
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- no exact day or month In 1865, he was assigned to the Catholic Mission in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi.
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In 1865, fearful of its spread, the Hawaiʻi Legislature passed and King Kamehameha V approved, the "Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy" which quarantined the lepers of the kingdom and moved them to settlement colonies known as Kalaupapa and Kalawao at the east end of the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokaʻi. -
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At his own request and with the sanction of his bishop, he arrived at the leper settlement in Molokai to become the resident priest.
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Six months after his arrival at Kalawao he wrote his brother, Pamphile, in Europe:
...I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ. -
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In December 1884 while preparing to bathe, Damien inadvertently put his foot into scalding water, causing his skin to blister. He felt nothing. Damien had contracted leprosy. Despite this discovery, residents say that Damien worked vigorously to build as many homes as he could and planned for the continuation of the programs he created after he was gone. -
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Masanao Goto, a Japanese leprologist, came to Honolulu in 1885 and treated Father Damien. It was his theory that leprosy was caused by a diminution of the blood, and his treatment consisted of nourishing food, moderate exercise, frequent friction to the benumbed parts, special ointments and medical baths. The treatments did, indeed, relieve some of the symptoms and were very popular with the Hawaiian patients. -
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In his last years Damien engaged in a flurry of activity. While continuing his charitable ministrations, he hastened to complete his many building projects, enlarge his orphanages, and organize his work. Help came from four strangers who came to Kalaupapa to help the ailing missionary: a priest, a soldier, a male nurse, and a nun. -
Dr. Goto was one of his best friends and Damien's last trip to Honolulu on July 10, 1886, was made to receive treatment from him.
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The next day, after Mass by Father Moellers at St. Philomena's, the whole settlement followed the funeral cortège to the cemetery where Damien was laid to rest under the same Pandanus tree where he first slept upon his arrival on Molokaʻi.
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In January 1936, at the request of the Belgian government, Damien's body was returned to his native land. It was brought back aboard the Belgian sailing ship Mercator and now rests in Leuven, an historic university city close to the village where Damien was born -
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After his beatification in June 1995, the remains of his right hand were returned to Hawaiʻi, and re-interred in his original grave on Molokaʻi. -
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In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Father Damien to be venerable, the first of three steps that lead to sainthood. -
Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, confirmed the November 1999 decision of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to place Blessed Damien of Molokai on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar with the rank of optional memorial. His official Feast Day is on May 10 of each year.
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In April 2008, the Holy See accepted the two cures as evidence of Father Damien's sanctity. -
On June 2, 2008, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican voted to recommend raising Father Damien of Molokaʻi to sainthood.
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The decree that officially notes and verifies the miracle needed for canonization was promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal José Saraiva Martins on Thursday, July 3, 2008, with the ceremony taking place in Rome, with celebrations in Belgium and Hawaiʻi.
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On February 21, 2009, the Vatican announced that Father Damien would be canonized.
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Damien is honored, together with Marianne Cope, with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on April 15.
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Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday October 11, 2009.