The Memorial of Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai

Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai is the Patron Saint of

• Against leprosy
• Lepers

Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai Date of Birth, Country of Birth, Profession, Place of Work, Date of Death, Place of Death, Feast Day, Beatification Date, Canonization DateMatrimony/Holy OrdersPriests who became Saints

Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai Short life History

Saint Joseph de Veuster is also known as
• Apostle to the Lepers
• Damian de Veuster
• Father Damien

• He was son of a small farmer.
• He studied at the college at Braine-le-Comte, Belgium.
• He joined the Picpus Fathers on 7 October 1860, taking the name Damien.
• He was a seminarian in Paris, France.
• He volunteered for missionary work while still in seminary, and was sent to Hawaii.
• He was ordained in Honolulu on 24 May 1864.
• He was a missionary on islands where his single parish was the size of all of his native Belgium.
• He was a resident priest in the leper colony on Molokai where for years he worked alone to minister to the patients’ spiritual and medical needs.
• His work turned a wretched dump for the unwanted into a real community with the best treatment of the day, and patients who lived strong spiritual lives.
• He contracted leprosy in 1885, and though severely crippled by the disease, Father Damien worked until the end.

Today’s Catholic Quote:

was born on 3 January 1840 on the family farm at Tremeloo, Belgium as Joseph de Veuster and died on 15 April 1889 at Molokai, Hawaii from leprosy. He was buried next to Saint Philomena Church, Molokai, Hawaii and interred in a basement chapel in the church of Saint Antonius, Leuven, Belgium in 1936.