Consistory for canonization of 10 new saints this weekend

(February 16, 2009) Pope Benedict will hold an ordinary public consistory of cardinals in the Vatican on Saturday for the canonization or sainthood of 10 Blesseds. Among the 7 men and 3 women, all from Europe, is the famous Belgian missionary priest who died caring for lepers in Molokai, in the Pacific. Last July 3^rd, Pope Benedict approved a miracle accredited to the intercession of Fr. Damien which cleared the way for his sainthood. Fr. Damien, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, was sent as a missionary to Honolulu in 1864, and shortly afterward was ordained a priest. He soon asked to be sent to Kalaupapa, a leprosy settlement on the island of Molokai where began working among the lepers not only as a pastor, but also saw to their medical needs, built homes and beds, and even coffins and dug graves. Father Damien was 49 when he died of leprosy on April 15, 1889. A miracle attributed to him cleared his way for beatification in 1995 when he was assigned the title ‘Blessed’. Among the ten is also Sr. Jeanne Jugan of France who in 1839 founded the congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor to care for the elderly poor.