Damien de Veuster
| Father Damien, SS.CC. Saint Damien of Molokai |
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A photograph of Father Damien taken shortly before his death
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| Religious priest and missionary | |
| Born |
3 January 1840 Tremelo, Belgium |
| Died | 15 April 1889 (aged 49) Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Episcopal Church; some churches of Anglican Communion; individual Lutheran Churches |
| Beatified | 4 June 1995, Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Koekelberg), Brussels, by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 11 October 2009, Vatican City, by Pope Benedict XVI |
| Major shrine |
Leuven, Belgium (bodily relics) Molokaʻi, Hawaii (relics of his hand) |
| Feast | 10 May (Catholic Church; obligatory in Hawaii, option in the rest of the United States); 15 April (Episcopal Church of the United States) |
| Patronage | people with leprosy |
Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. or Saint Damien De Veuster (Dutch: Pater Damiaan or Heilige Damiaan van Molokai; 3 January 1840 – 15 April 1889), born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious institute. He won recognition for his ministry from 1873 to 1889 in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease), who were required to live under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokaʻi on the Kalaupapa Peninsula.
During this time, he taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Father Damien also cared for the patients himself and established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi from his hands with them, providing both medical and emotional support.
After sixteen years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damien realized he had also contracted leprosy when he was scalded by hot water and felt no pain. He continued with his work despite the infection but finally succumbed to the disease on 15 April 1889.
Father Damien has been described as a "martyr of charity". He was the tenth person in what is now the United States to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. In both the Latin Rite and the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church, Father Damien is venerated as a saint. In the Anglican communion, as well as other denominations of Christianity, Damien is considered the spiritual patron for leprosy and outcasts. Father Damien Day, April 15, the day of his passing, is also a minor statewide holiday in Hawaii and to this day Father Damien is the patron saint of the Diocese of Honolulu and of Hawaii.
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