Damian de Veuster

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Damian de Veuster (1888)

Damian de Veuster (born January 3, 1840 as Jef de Veuster in Ninde , Belgium ; † April 15, 1889 in Kalawao , Molokaʻi island , Hawaii , also Damian von Molokai , English Damien , Dutch Damiaan , baptismal name also German  Joseph ) was a religious priest the Arnsteiner Fathers and is a saint of the Catholic Church . His feast day in the liturgy of the Catholic Church is May 10th .

Life

Jef de Veuster was born the seventh child of a farming family. After graduating from elementary school, he worked on his parents' farm for four years and was then sent to a business school by his father. But he longed for a life in church mission . Therefore, in 1860, he entered the Belgian mother house of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the Eternal Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in Leuven and was given the religious name Damian . In 1863 he was sent to the Mission to the Sandwich Islands (today's US state of Hawaii ). There he was ordained a priest two months later in Honolulu Cathedral and was first sent to the island of Hawaii , to Puna and Kohala . Father Damian was known for his good constitution and built a number of chapels with his own hands. At his own request he was brought to the island of Moloka'i in 1873 , where around 600 lepers were expelled from society and lived without any medical care in an area ( Kalawao ) that was difficult to access and bordered by high cliffs . Through his work among the sick, Father Damian gained great fame and admiration as the “apostle of lepers”. Eventually he became infected with the then deadly disease. She was diagnosed by Eduard Arning in 1885, and Father Damian died four years later. His remains were brought to Belgium on the Mercator in 1936 and buried in the crypt of the monastery church of St. Anthony on Father Damiaanplein in Leuven, which has now become a place of worship. The Pater Damiaancentrum, a documentation and meeting center, is located there (Sint-Antoniusberg 5).

On June 4, 1995, Father Damian Pope was John Paul II. Beatified and on October 11, 2009 by Benedict XVI. canonized in St. Peter's Basilica .

Father Damian is the patron saint of lepers. This patronage was unofficially taken over by AIDS self-help institutions in the 1980s , as infected and sick people were sometimes treated in the same way as lepers. Several Damien Centers and Damien Ministries around the world are dedicated to caring for HIV- positive people and those suffering from AIDS. In the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Hollywood , the only chapel dedicated to the memory of people who died as a result of AIDS is dedicated to him .

Commemoration

Statue designed by Marisol Escobar for Damian de Veuster at the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu
Memorial at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Hōnaunau

In 1938, The Great Heart, an American short film that tells the story of Father Damian's work, was made. The film won an Oscar for best short film in 1939 . In 1959, the Spanish feature film Molokai, la isla maldita (director: Luis Lucia ) with Javier Escrivá in the lead role was made and also won several awards. The film Molokai: The Story of Father Damien , which was made in 1999 under the direction of Paul Cox with David Wenham in the lead role, has also received several awards .

The "Fondation Damien" was founded in 1964. This Belgian organization fights leprosy and tuberculosis in 16 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It also funds scientific research into these diseases. More than half of the financial expenditure is covered by donations from the Belgian population. To this end, the foundation organizes a donation campaign every year on the last weekend in January.

On January 25, 1964, a special stamp issue with the portrait of St. Damian de Veuster on the fight against leprosy. Both in Hawaii and Belgium, numerous monuments commemorate Damian de Veuster.

On December 12, 1989, the asteroid (4226) Damiaan was named after him.

On December 1, 2005, Father Damian was voted the greatest Belgian of all time by a wide audience in Flanders.

For the canonization on October 11, 2009, Belgium issued a 20 euro commemorative coin with Father Damian's image.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Damian de Veuster  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mercator. Retrieved June 17, 2017 (Dutch).
  2. ^ Page to the Sint-Antonius Kerk, Löwen
  3. ↑ a b Pope's sermon on canonization (Italian)
  4. ↑ Damien Center, Indianapolis, Indiana ( June 8, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Damien Center, Schenectady, New York ( January 13, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Damien Center, Albany, New York
  7. ↑ St Thomas Holywood - Parish - Damien Chapel ( Memento of December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 15576
personal data
SURNAME Veuster, Damian de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Veuster, Jef de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Religious priest, saint
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Tremelo , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1889
Place of death Kalawao , Molokaʻi Island , Hawaii