This week in Christian history: First baptisms in Philippines

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, April 14, 2024

Father Damien dies – April 15, 1889

A photograph of Father Damien (1840-1889), a Catholic priest and missionary known for his ministry among lepers in Hawaii. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Father Damien, a Catholic priest and aid worker who famously lived and ministered among a leper colony in Hawaii, died of leprosy.

A native of Belgium, Father Damien traveled to the leper colony of Molokai in 1873 and proceeded to oversee the construction of chapels and wound care, among other efforts.

Eventually, he contracted the disease himself and died peacefully from the illness a few years later, having ministered among the Hawaiian lepers for 16 years.

“His mortal remains were transferred to Belgium in 1936, where he was interred in the crypt of Saint Anthony's Chapel, the Church of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Louvain,” according to the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

“In Father Damien, the Church proposes an example to all those who find sense for their life in the Gospel and who wish to bring the Good News to the poor of our time.”

Father Damien would be canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church in 2009.