FATHER DAMIEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 107, 7 May 1936, Page 5

FATHER DAMIEN

SERVICE TO LEPERS HONOURED BY BELGIANS GCBNBS AT ANTWERP ANTWERP, May 4. From King to peasant, IUU.UUJ Belgian., and many representatives oj. other nations assembled to honour me remains of Father Damien, the cvie orated worker for the Molokai Island lepers, wDe nimseif died of leprosy, waiou arrixed aboard the Belgian three-masted cadet, ship Mercator. Eight, cadets bore tae coffin ashore. King stepped forward to i«ceivc it, followed by Cardinal van .Koey, Archbishop of Malines, and a concourse of biciiops, diplomats politicians, a-.d Father Damien’s nephews and nieces, while a salute of guns was fired. M. van Zeeland, the I’remier, rendering homage on behalf of- ifae Government and people, recalled Father Damien’s life of devotion to God and humanity. The coffin was borne to the cathedral, where a ceremonial service was lieki. T'ue rat hedral was “pen all night to enable the faithful to pass beiore the coffin, which will to-moiTO.r bo buried in the crypt at Louvain, where the grave will be linen with soil from the original grave at Molokai. Father Damien, lhe name in religion of Joseph de Veuster, a Belgian mi* sionary, was born on January 3, 1840. Ju 1858, be joined the Society ut the Sacred Heart ol Jesus and Alary (also known as the Piepus Cc-ngiegalion), and while still in minor orders, in 1803 went as a missionary to the Pacific Islands, taking the place of his brother who had been prevented by illne. s. Ou reaching Honolulu he was ordained priest in 1864. Struck with the sad condition cf the lepers, whom the Hawaiian Government deported to Molokai Island in J 873, he volunteered to take spiritual charge of the settleincut. Besides .attending to the spiritual welfare of the lepers, he managed, by the labour of his owu hands and by appeals to the Hawaiian Government, io improve, the water supply, the dwellings, and vae victualling uf the settlement, and after li'e years received assistance from other resident priests. He died of leprosy on April 15, 188 J. The remains of Father Damien reached Honolulu on January 27 last aboard an American arniy aeroplane on the first stage of tueir journey to Belgium. In the presence of Bishop {Stephen Alencasti-e, head of the Ko man Catholic Church in Hawaii, and other members of the i lergy, the coffin was removed from the vault beside Damien Church, in which it had been placed 46 years ago. The lid of the coffin was opened and title vestments in which Ibo priest had been clothed at his burial were found still to retain their form, and the priest's fingers still clasped the rosary that he had carried to the grave. A special mass was said in the church by Fathers Bruna, Cyril and Ernest, three surviving relatives of the martyr priest. The remains left Honolulu on February 3 last aboard Vhe American army transport Republic and at Panama they were transferred to the Belgian ship Merecator.