Father Damian - A Man Who Amassed Great Spiritual Treasure essays

Father Damian - A Man Who Amassed Great Spiritual Treasure essays "Turn all your thoughts and aspirations to heaven, Work hard to secure for yourself a place there for ever" Father Damiens full name was Joseph de Veuster. He was born at Tremeloo in Belgium on the 3rd of January 1840, and died at Molokai in Hawaii on the 15th of April 1889. Father Damien was a Belgian Roman Catholic who was sent on a missionary to the lepers of Hawaii. He was the son of a farmer, who had sent him to a college at Braine-le-Comte so he would be legible for a commercial profession later on in his life; however as a result of a mission given by the Redemptorists in 1858 he decided to become a religious instead. He entered the novitiate of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary at Louvain. There he took in the religious name of Damien. By the 7th of October 1860 he was admitted to the religious profession. In 1873, in an act of compassion, he volunteered to bring spiritual guidance and comfort to the abandoned lepers of Kalaupapa on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Conditions there were deplorable, with lack of proper housing, medical aid, and sanitary conditions. Father Damien devoted himself entirely to the spiritual and physical care of the lepers, he not only administered the teaching of the religion, but also helped the lepers with little medical services and providing them with comfort. He helped dressed their ulcers, erect cottages, even dig their graves and build their coffins. Father Damien obtained government aid for them and encouraged agriculture and local industry on the island. After twelve years on the island of Molokai he contracted leprosy himself, Father Damien continued his labours until he was helpless and passed away shortly after fifteen years of work with the lepers of Molokai. He was a man who amassed great spiritual treasure on earth. Today the remote northern peninsula of Kalaupapa is a National Historic Site, an area of breath ...