Biography
Jozef De Veuster was born in Belgium and joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He volunteered for a mission in the Hawaiian Islands. In 1873, he volunteered to serve the quarantined leper colony on the isolated Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokai. He found a lawless, despairing colony lacking basic medical care, housing, and spiritual guidance. Father Damien transformed the colony, building houses, schools, a hospital, and a church. He dressed their ulcers, built their coffins, and dug their graves. After 11 years, he contracted leprosy (Hansen's disease) himself. He famously began his sermon that Sunday not with 'My brethren,' but with 'We lepers.' He worked for five more years until the disease took his life.
Miracles & Signs
- ✦Healing of a French nun from a terminal intestinal illness in 1895
- ✦Healing of Audrey Toguchi from terminal lung cancer in 1999
Wisdom & Quotes
“I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.”
“It is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength we need in our isolation.”