St. Damien of Moloka'i
I have a new devotion to St. Damien of Moloka’i.
If you don’t know about St. Damien, his story of devotion to the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i is truly inspiring. You would do well to read about him.
Here are a few links:
Dr. Paul Camarata and his SaintCast have a couple of episodes dedicated to St. Damien.
Article on American Catholic
Article on Catholic Online
Why the sudden new devotion?
Last night, I had the opportunity to see a performance of the one-man play “Damien” written by Aldyth Morris. It was performed by a wonderful actor, Casey Groves.
Although there was a very small audience for this particular performance, his portrayal was very powerful and captivating. Here’s a link to Casey’s website where you can see a bit of video of the play.
I seem drawn to missionary saints and truly respect the special devotion it took for them to leave family and home to serve God and the Church. So many of the struggled tremendously and faced certain martyrdom.
St. Damien is a great example of this type of devotion, knowing full well that he would face the same terrible disease afflicting his parishioners.
His relics are currently in Tulsa and I plan to visit them later today.