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1 of 1977

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Title

Father Damien De Veuster, ss.cc., to Bishop Hermann Kockemann, ss.cc., Kalawao, December 30, 1885.

Creator

De Veuster, Damien

Dates of Creation

December 30, 1885

Object ID

2023.1.98

Object Name

Letter

Other number

2156

Scope & Content

V.C.J.S. Kalawao, December 30, 1885

Bishop,

From my exile, I take the liberty to throw myself for a moment at your feet, Your Excellency, to ask your blessing and to offer you my sincere wishes for a good year in asking God to fill you more and more with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and to keep you leading his flock ad multos annos [1].

I ask you Bishop to give to the pastor of Kalawao authorization to resolve from reserved sin [2] and to binate.

I had much work to do in the ministry these past two weeks. The midnight Mass at Kalawao and that at dawn in Kalaupapa nec plus ultra. Kani maoli no na leo o na keiki mai pake [3]. I baptized 17 adults. Two of my orphans left this morning for Heaven. Lino de Birikika Kane was one of them. Please inform his mother. Her daughter Philomena is also quite ill pleurisy. I hope to succeed in holding on to her although well prepared for heaven, where I hope her brother entered directly. The spirit of faith and piety were dominant in him as in his sister.

Father Léonor threatens me always with cutting off soon the small allowance which I asked of him not every month as was agreed but when I have need, only every two or three months. The Holy Childhood [4] in its turn would willingly aid me under your direction to continue this good work. It is the way to Heaven for these unfortunate children.

I complain also a bit against the tyrannical way this good Father wants to incarcerate me here. For as long as my health permits and the government does not oppose me, why do my superiors not permit me the liberty to move around when there is need for it? Poo paakiki no o Kamiano [5]. You know Bishop, better than anyone, the situation dealt to me. I still hesitate to expose the situation to the Superior General.

Pray for me.

Your submissive child,

J. Damien ss.cc.
__________

[1] For many years! A blessing that one may remain in office for a long time.
[2] A "reserved sin" is a sin which the Bishop alone can absolve but the permission to do so can be given by the Bishop to the ordinary priest. The permission has to be renewed each year. See Letter 263. For "binate" see Letter 82.10.
[3] Latin: were out of this world. Hawaian: The leper children really sang well.
[4] See Letter 40.2.
[5] Hard headed this Damien!

Admin/Biographical History

Jozef De Veuster was born on January 3, 1840 in the village of Tremelo, Belgium. He was the seventh of eight children born to Frans and Anne-Catherine De Veuster. His father intended for Jozef to take over the family farm someday. However, Jozef felt drawn to the religious life, like two of his sisters and a brother before him. At age 19, he entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Leuven. For his religious name, he chose Damien after a third-century physician-saint and early Christian martyr.
In 1863, Damien's older brother, Father Pamphile, was headed for the Sacred Hearts Mission in the Hawaiian Islands. A case of typhus prevented him from going. Brother Damien, with missionary zeal and unbridled enthusiasm, asked and received permission to take his brother's place. After a sea voyage of nearly five months, Brother Damien arrived in Honolulu on the Feast of Saint Joseph, March 19, 1864. For the next two months he studied the Hawaiian language and prepared for ordination to the priesthood at Ahuimanu College.
The ordination of Brother Damien and two others took place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, on May 21, 1864. His first assignment was to the island of Hawaii, where he labored for nearly nine years - first in the Puna district, and then in an area encompassing the districts of Kohala and Hamakua.
In May of 1873, Bishop Maigret blessed the first stone church of Saint Anthony in Wailuku, Maui. To the assembled priests, he expressed the dire need to provide spiritual help for the people of the Kalaupapa leprosy settlement. Realizing the risks and sacrifice that this would entail, the bishop asked for volunteers on a three-month rotating basis. Father Damien was the first to volunteer and accompanied the bishop to Kalaupapa. After seeing the paltry living conditions and despair of its residents, he decided to remain there. With no house to shelter him, he slept under the canopy of a pandanus tree for several days after his arrival. The tree stood next to the small Catholic chapel of Saint Philomena at Kalawao. This chapel was built a year earlier by Sacred Hearts Brother Victorin Bertrand.
Father Damien cared for the spiritual and physical needs of the residents of Kalaupapa. In addition to celebrating Mass and hearing their confessions, he built houses, an orphanage, and other structures. He constructed churches, both in Kalaupapa and on top-side Molokai. For those who died, he made their coffins and dug their graves.
His acts of compassion and advocacy for the patients of Kalaupapa earned Father Damien the respect and admiration of people around the world. In 1881, the Princess Regent Liliuokalani met Father Damien during her visit to Kalaupapa. She later made him, on behalf of her brother, King Kalakaua, a Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalakaua.
A medical examination in 1884 confirmed that Father Damien had contracted leprosy. In the face of this adversity, he stoically stated: "I have accepted this malady as my special cross." Despite his failing health, Father Damien continued to work up until a few days before his death. He died on April 15, 1889. He was buried beneath the pandanus tree that first sheltered him nearly 16 years earlier.
King Leopold III of Belgium later wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt requesting the return of Father Damien's remains to his homeland. On January 27, 1936, Father Damien's remains were exhumed from his grave at Kalawao. Much pomp and circumstance heralded the arrival of Father Damien's remains in Belgium on May 3, 1936. His remains now rest in Saint Anthony's Chapel in Leuven where Damien first entered religious life.
Public acclamation of Father Damien's sanctity was heard even during his lifetime. But, it would take 120 years after his death before he was officially recognized as a saint. Official acknowledgment began on July 9, 1977 when Pope Paul VI accorded Father Damien the title of Venerable. Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed on June 4, 1995. Finally, on October 11, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Father Damien a saint of the Church. His feast is celebrated on May 10, the first day of his arrival on the island of Molokai. A relic of Saint Damien is enshrined in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. His right hand, the hand of blessing, has been reinterred within his original grave site at Kalawao.

Language of Material

French / Hawaiian / Latin

People

De Veuster, Damien
Fouesnel, Leonor
Kockemann, Hermann

Subjects

Assistance
Baptisms
Benedictions
Charitable organizations
Charity
Children
Complaining
Death
Leprosy
Orphans
Religious services
Sick children
Singing

Search Terms

Binate
Sacred Hearts religious

Legal Status

All rights of reproduction and photography reside with Congregation of the Sacred Hearts United States Province.

Notes

Translation #223 found in Father Damien's Letters (Rome: General Postulation of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts SS.CC., 2017), pp. 483-484. Reprinted with permission.

Copyrights

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

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LITERARY RIGHTS NOTICE FOR ORIGINAL LETTERS

All requests for permission to publish, quote, or exhibit from Father Damien's original letters in this collection must be submitted in writing to the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts USA Province. Permission is given on behalf of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts USA Province as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must be obtained by the user.

LITERARY RIGHTS NOTICE FOR TRANSLATIONS

All requests for permission to publish, quote, or exhibit translations of Father Damien's original letters in this online collection must be submitted in writing to the General Postulation of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts SS.CC.in Rome. Permission is given on behalf of the General Postulation of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts as the copyright holder.