Damien of Molokai
Saint Damien of Molokai is patron of lepers, outcasts, and people with HIV/AIDS because he gave his life entirely to the abandoned: a Belgian priest who volunteered for the leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, he spent sixteen years building homes, churches, and a hospital, dressing wounds, and burying the dead with his own hands — until he contracted leprosy himself and could preach “we lepers.” That self-offering made him the modern icon of those whom society casts out for their disease, and in our own time the natural intercessor for AIDS sufferers, who bear a like stigma. He is honored as a patron of Hawaii, where his memory is cherished as that of its great apostle of mercy.
Saint Damien of Molokai was a Belgian priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts who devoted his life to caring for lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Born Jozef De Veuster in 1840, he volunteered to serve the isolated colony and spent sixteen years building houses, churches, and a hospital. He eventually contracted leprosy himself and died in 1889.
