He wasn’t named Father Damien at birth. He was Joseph De Veuster, a Belgian, a son of wealthy farmers. He became Father Damien at his ordination, and in 1873, after a few years on the Big Island and Maui, he went to work on Moloka’i, caring for the forgotten people of Kalaupapa, victims of Hansen’s disease — then called leprosy — abandoned to their fate on a remote peninsula. Father Damien built churches and taught his religion, of course, but he was also instrumental in ensuring that the community had a working water supply.
There’s a bronze statue of Father Damien, always covered in flower leis, “up top” — it stands outside a church he built in spite of the fact that the Board of Health expressly forbid him to visit with those “outside.” Father Damien contracted Hansen’s disease and died at age 49. Because of miracles attributed to the Moloka’i priest, Father Damien will officially become a saint on October 11.If you go to Moloka’i, you can visit Father Damien’s churches and the settlement.
Kalaupapa is still occupied by people with the now very curable disease. There are all kinds of rules and regulations about setting up your visit — you have to have a permit from the Department of Health, no children under 16 are allowed, you can’t just go swanning about the place as though it’s any old tourist village. You can’t reach the settlement by car — you have to fly in or you can take the narrow track that winds down the side of a very steep cliff. The mule tour is fairly popular, but I’ve read you shouldn’t take it if you’re afraid of heights, apparently the drop off is kind of terrifying. The upshot is that your best bet is to go with a provider. You can hike the track on foot, but without the permit that’s organized by the tour operators, you can’t visit the settlement. Plus, you’d best have quads of steel for the return trip, it’s one big stair-climb, and I wouldn’t want to share the trail with a mule heading in the opposite direction.
I’m a rather a-religious person, though I like to visit places with historical significance — and missionaries are inextricably entwined with Hawaiian history. Father Damien’s miracles — those that led to his canonization — occurred after his death and though they’re not geographically specific, Moloka’i is the place most associated with Father Damien.I wonder if Father Damien’s sainthood will mean that more people visit my favorite island to see where the future saint gave his life to his work.
Our time on Moloka’i was short and we were seduced by the mellowness — we squandered hours chatting with a couple of guys who were waiting for the fish to bite instead of ticking off the few must-see sites on the island. I’m not sorry at how we spent our time, but I do think we have to make the trip down to Kalaupapa next time we’re there if only to get a better understanding of what it must have been like to be cast off, sick and scared, into a disconnected place.
Father Damien made life better for those people while he lived. To be a saint, you have to perform your miracles after you’ve died. In his case, I wonder why that was necessary.