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Father Damien’s Legacy
Father Damien de Veuster was a missionary Roman Catholic priest from Belgium who came to Hawaii in the mid-1800s at a time when its native people were suffering from a variety of diseases inadvertently introduced by foreign traders and sailors. Thousands of Hawaiians were dying of influenza, syphilis and other ailments, including leprosy — today known as Hansen’s disease. In 1866, in an effort to stop the spread of this disease, lepers were forcefully separated from their families and exiled to Kalaupapa, an isolated settlement colony on the north side of the island of Molokai. When Fr. Damien heard about the lepers’ plight and the medical difficulties they faced, he asked permission to leave his assignment at the Catholic Mission in North Kohala and relocate to Kalaupapa. He remained there for more than a decade, serving as both priest and doctor to hundreds of colonists before his own death from leprosy at the age of 49.
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Father Damien de Veuster was a missionary Roman Catholic priest from Belgium who came to Hawaii in the mid-1800s at a time when its native people were suffering from a variety of diseases inadvertently introduced by foreign traders and sailors. Thousands of Hawaiians were dying of influenza, syphilis and other ailments, including leprosy — today known as Hansen’s disease. In 1866, in an effort to stop the spread of this disease, lepers were forcefully separated from their families and exiled to Kalaupapa, an isolated settlement colony on the north side of the island of Molokai. When Fr. Damien heard about the lepers’ plight and the medical difficulties they faced, he asked permission to leave his assignment at the Catholic Mission in North Kohala and relocate to Kalaupapa. He remained there for more than a decade, serving as both priest and doctor to hundreds of colonists before his own death from leprosy at the age of 49.
Watch the video
