Damien, Father (dā`mēən, dämyăN`) (Damien de Veuster), 1840–89, Belgian missionary priest, originally named Joseph de Veuster. He went to Hawaii (1864) as a Picpus Father (Father of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary). He was ordained (1864) in Honolulu and worked among the islanders for several years. In 1873, at his request, he was sent to the lepers' colony on Molokai island, where he labored until his death from leprosy. Attention was called to Father Damien by a tract in his defense by R. L. Stevenson, An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde, addressed to a minister who had made some slanderous insinuations against Father Damien shortly after his death. In 1936 his body was removed in great state from Molokai to Antwerp.

Bibliography

See biography by G. Daws (1973).

Damien, Father

orig. Joseph de Veuster

(born Jan. 3, 1840, Tremelo, Belg.—died April 15, 1889, Molokai, Hawaii) Belgian priest. After training at the College of Braine-le-Comte, he joined the Society of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1858. He went as a missionary to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands in 1863 and was ordained there in 1864. In 1873 he volunteered to take charge of the leper colony on Molokai Island. There he served as both physician and priest, dramatically improving living conditions and building two orphanages. He contracted leprosy himself in 1884 but refused to leave his post, and he died at Molokai five years later.

Damien, Father (b. Joseph Damien de Veuster) (1840–89) Catholic priest, missionary; born in Belgium. A member of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, he went to Hawaii as a missionary (1864). In 1873 he asked his order to send him to the island of Molokai, Hawaii, where there was a leper colony. He served as both priest and doctor to the lepers there. In 1884 he discovered that he himself had leprosy but he stayed on and died there. Hawaii placed his statue in the U.S. Capitol.