Father Damien

Father Damien (Damien de Veuster), 1840-89, Belgian missionary priest, originally named Joseph de Veuster. He went to Hawaii (1864) as a Picpus Father (Father of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary). He was ordained (1864) in Honolulu and worked among the islanders for several years. In 1873, at his request, he was sent to the lepers' colony on Molokai island, where he labored until his death from leprosy. Attention was called to Father Damien by a tract in his defense by R. L. Stevenson, An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde, addressed to a minister who had made some slanderous insinuations against Father Damien shortly after his death. In 1936 his body was removed in great state from Molokai to Antwerp.

Bibliography: See biography by G. Daws (1973).

Damien, Father (1840–89), leper missionary. Joseph de Veuster became a member of the Picpus Society (Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary) in 1859, taking in religion the name ‘Damien’. He was sent to the Hawaiian Islands in 1863 and in 1873, at his own request, to a settlement of lepers at Molokai. He ministered single-handed to the spiritual and physical needs of 600 lepers. He died of the disease.

Damien, Father (Joseph Damien De Veuster) (1840–89), Belgian missionary priest, went to Hawaii (1864), where he worked among the natives, and in 1873 went to the leper colony, where he ministered to the sick until he himself contracted leprosy, from which he died. His work was brought to public attention when Stevenson published a defense (1890) against a minister who had slandered Damien. C.W. Stoddard, who wrote about Damien in The Lepers of Molokai (1885), probably attracted Stevenson's attention to the subject.