St.. Damien

On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai. He was a Roman Catholic priest (1840 – 1889), from Belgium and member of a missionary religious order. He won recognition for his ministry to people with leprosy (Hansen's disease), who had been placed under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He eventually contracted and died of the disease, and is widely considered a "martyr of charity".

In the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches, Damien is considered a saint, and in the Anglican communion, as well as other denominations of Christianity, Damien is considered the spiritual patron for Hansen's disease, HIV and AIDS patients, and outcasts.

Several memorials have been made to Damien worldwide, from Belgium and the United States to Ireland and Ecuador. The Father Damien Statue honors the priest in bronze in Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol, while a full size replica stands in front of the Hawaii State Capitol. In 2005, Damien was honored with the title of De Grootste Belg, chosen as "The Greatest Belgian" throughout that country's history in polling conducted by the Flemish public broadcasting service.

When I took a saint’s name for confirmation in the Catholic Church, I chose Damien in honor of Father Damien. He represents to me the call to reach out to those who are feared, despised and outcast by society. The fact that he himself contracted leprosy and died from it is not ironic so much as poetic, for he showed that he who went to help those who seemed in need came to know what it is to be one with everyone, no better, no worse, all in need of love and care.

As noted above, a lot of ministries to people with AIDS are dedicated to St. Damien. It is perhaps appropriate that he was recognized as a saint in Rome on the same day that 200,000 people marched in Washington in favor of full equality for all Americans, including gays and lesbians who are still considered social lepers by so many of their fellow citizens.

I assume Father Damien was not homosexual, by the way, because he was accused by enemies of improper relations with women. These charges were shown to be the result of religious jealousy and bias by no less a person than the great Protestant poet Robert Louis Stevenson. Perhaps another reason to ask Damien's prayers is that he suffered from unjust accusations by religious people Stevenson described as

"hav[ing] stood by, and another has stepped in; when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions, and a plain, uncouth peasant steps into the battle, under the eyes of God, and succours the afflicted, and consoles the dying, and is himself afflicted in his turn, and dies upon the field of honor while striving to help those in need... [There are] those who have an eye for faults and failures; that [they] take a pleasure to find and publish them; and that, having found them, [they] make haste to forget the overvailing virtues and the real success which had alone introduced them to [their] knowledge. It is a dangerous frame of mind."

St. Damien, pray for us, lepers all!