Kalaupapa's Saint
"Father Damien: Martyr of Moloka'i" (1840-1889)
Upon his arrival in Kalaupapa in 1873 from Belgium, Father Damien quickly became the voice for the patients by fervently requesting aid from the Board of Health.
"In fulfillment of my duties as priest, being in daily contact with the distressed people, I have seen and closely observed the bad effect of forcible separation of the married companions. It gives them an oppression of mind which in many instances is more unbearable than the pains and agonies of the disease itself."
-Father Damien, Report to the Board of Health (1886)
Photos courtesy of Saint Damien of Moloka'i Website.
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Video about Father Damien's contribution to the patients of Kalaupapa. Courtesy of ExploreTeam via YouTube (2011).
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"Daily he nursed the afflicted by bathing their bodies and dressing their ulcerated sores. Daily he consoled the dying, and daily he buried them...he constructed a major addition to the St. Philomena Church and Our Lady Health of the Sick Church. When the ever present need for water persisted as a problem, he successfully harassed the Board of Health to furnish water...More than once he found it necessary to pester authorities to provide cement, lumbar, clothing, better food, and in general, more necessary supplies." "He labored energetically...preaching and striving to improve the people morally, helping the patients to build houses and set up a water system, and seeking additional financial support from the Hawaiian government and from private contributors in order to improve the living conditions." |
Photos courtesy of Emmett Cahill's Yesterday at Kalauapa (1991).
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"In 1887, Damien had dormitories built for the orphan boys with materials supplied by the government Board of Health, which had responsibility for the settlement...Later on Henry P. Baldwin gave $5000 to enlarge the complex...in 1888, Charles Reed Bishop gave $5000 to establish the Bishop Home for girls and women."
-Charles Langlas, Ka'ohulani McGuire, Sonia Juvik, "Kalaupapa 2002- 2005: A Summary Report of the Kalaupapa Ethnographic Project" (2008)
"That the Board of Health individually and collectively are striving to save the highest interests of the whole community without prejudice...can hardly be doubted." |
"The construction of a regular hospital, on the beautiful sloping plain directly east of my house at this place, the only location in the settlement, where a good supply of water can constantly be had." |
"The honorable board of health who supplies the necessary and for the comforts...for the cure of our lepers and...the local administration should...give me all the help I may require." |
Letters of Father Damien Correspondence (1873-1887) courtesy of the Hawai'i State Archives.