Damien[1]
was Christlike when he went
out to live with the lepers, because in such service he realized fully what was
best in him. But he was not more
Christlike than Wagner when he realized his soul in music; or than Shelley when
he realized his soul in a song.[2]
[1] Blessed Damien de Veuster (1840-1889), born Jozef de Veuster and also known as Blessed Damien of Molokai, was a Roman
Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred
Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious order. It was announced in
2008, that Damien is to be canonized by the Catholic Church in 2009 by
authority of Pope Benedict XVI. Father Damien is known for his ministering of
people with what was then widely known as leprosy, who had been placed under a
government-sanctioned medical quarantine, on the island of Molokai in the
Kingdom of Hawaii. He eventually contracted the disease himself, and is widely
considered a “martyr of charity.” In the Roman Catholic and Anglican
traditions, as well as other denominations of Christianity, Damien is
considered the spiritual patron for Hansen’s Disease, HIV and AIDS patients as
well as outcasts. As the patron saint of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu
and of Hawaii, Father Damien Day is celebrated statewide on April 15. Upon his
beatification by Pope John Paul II in 1995, Blessed Damien was granted a
memorial feast day, which is celebrated on May 10. (Source: Wikipedia)
[2] This is
an excerpt from The Soul of Man under
Socialism by Oscar Wilde.
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