Father Damien

St. Damian de Veuster ( born January 3, 1840, Jef de Veuster in Tremelo, Belgium, † April 15, 1889 in Kalawao, Molokai Island, Hawaii, Damian of Molokai, Damien English, Dutch Damien wrote, baptismal name Joseph also German ) was Chaplain of Arnstein Fathers and is a saint of the Catholic Church. His feast day in the liturgy of the Catholic Church is May 10

Life

Jef de Veuster was born as the seventh child of a peasant family. After completing elementary school, he spent four years on the family farm and was then sent by his father to a trade school. But he longed for a life in the Church's mission. Therefore, he entered in 1860 in the Belgian mother house of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Leuven and was given the religious name of Damian. In 1863 he was sent on mission to the Sandwich Islands ( today the U.S. state of Hawaii). He already two months later was ordained a priest and was initially sent to the Island of Hawaii, Puna and Kohala after. Father Damien was known for his good physique and built a number of chapels with their own hands. At his own request, he was put in 1873 to the island of Molokai, where, in a hard to reach and bordered by high cliffs area ( Kalawao ) ejected about 600 lepers from society and lived without any medical care. Through his work among the sick Father Damien gained great notoriety and reverence as an "apostle of the lepers ." Eventually, he became infected with the then- fatal disease. In 1885 she was diagnosed of Eduard Arning, four years later died in Padre Damian. His remains were transferred to Belgium in 1936 and buried in a grave vault of the convent in Leuven, which has now become a place of worship.

On June 4, 1995, Father Damien of John Paul II beatified and on 11 October 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. canonized in St. Peter's Basilica.

Father Damien is the patron saint of lepers. This patronage was unofficially adopted in the 1980s by AIDS self-help institutions, as infected and those patients were partially treated like lepers. Several Damien Center and Damien Ministries worldwide, dedicated to the care of HIV -positive and AIDS sick people. In the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Hollywood him the only the memory of the person who died of AIDS dedicated chapel is consecrated.

Commemoration

1938 was shot with The Great Heart an American short film which retells the work of Father Damien. The film won an Oscar in 1939 for Best Short Film.

The " Fondation Damien " has existed since 1964. This Belgian organization fighting leprosy and tuberculosis in 16 African, Asian and Latin American countries. It also finances the scientific study of these diseases. More than half of the financial expenses are met by donations of the Belgian population. To this end, the Foundation organizes every year on the last weekend of January, a fund-raising campaign.

On 1 December 2005, Father Damian was elected by a wide audience in Flanders for the most Belgian of all time.

For canonization on 11 October 2009 Belgium issued a commemorative coin 20 euro with Father Damian's portrait.

Both in Hawaii as in Belgium remind numerous monuments to Damian de Veuster.

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