Leper Priest of Molokai: The Father Damien Story

by Richard Stewart

Overview

Leper Priest of Moloka'i traces the life of Father Damien from his boyhood in rural Belgium to his death at the Kalaupapa leprosy settlement after sixteen years of remarkable accomplishments. Damien overcame major obstacles to become a Catholic priest and serve as a missionary in Hawai'i. To his spiritual ministry he added the practice of medicine and the skill of a master builder of chapels, churches, and houses, both professions that he taught himself. He decried human suffering, and in his medical practice he emulated the example of his patron saint, Saint Damien the physician, who led many to Christianity by the example of the Good Samaritan.

This biography presents and analyzes much new information about Damien and his years in Hawai'i. The correspondence between Damien, his colleagues in the Catholic church, his Protestant supporters, and agents of the Hawaiian Board of Health gives a fuller understanding of the extent of Damien's work at the settlement and the tensions underlying his relations with Church bureaucrats, who were both impressed by his energy and zeal and irritated by his willfullness and independence. But even his detractors could not deny that he was almost singlehandedly responsible for tremendous improvements to Kalaupapa in the face of overwhelming odds. This is the story of one humble man with faith in God and in himself, who faced gargantuan challenges and triumphed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780824823221
Publisher:	University of Hawaii Press, The
Publication date:	07/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Sales rank:	553,238
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Prologue	1
1	Exile: Day One	3
2	Birth, Childhood, and Beyond	15
3	The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary	25
4	The Quest Begins: Hawai'i	34
5	Puna: Father Damien's First Parish	47
6	Kohala-Hamakua: The Second Parish	65
7	The Calm before the Storm of Moloka'i	76
8	Exile: The First Weeks	93
9	A Prisoner Forever!	109
10	Free at Last!	125
11	Like the Christ: Priest, Physician, Carpenter	138
12	"We Lepers ..."	150
13	Hutchison, the Survivor; Emerson, the Courageous Physician	164
14	His Finest Works	187
15	A Medal of Honor and a Crown of Thorns	203
16	The Year of the Nurses	219
17	Father Damien Denied	234
18	Damien, the Leper	250
19	Damien, the Martyr?	261
20	The Valley of the Shadow	274
21	"I Am Brother Joseph... I Have Come to Help"	286
22	Death's Dark Shadow	301
23	Thy Rod and Thy Staff, They Comfort Me	318
24	Hawaiian Sunset	335
25	Requiem for a Priest	351
26	Accolades and a Preacher's Curse	365
27	Response to the Curse	380
28	A Second Saint Damien	387
	Epilogue	397
	Notes	405
	Glossary	431
	Bibliography	433
	Index	441