(July 4, 2008) Fr. Damien Jozef De Veuster, the Belgian missionary priest who became
famous caring for the lepers in Molokai, Hawaii, received approval for sainthood on
Thursday when a miracle attributed to his intercession was recognized by Pope Benedict
and the Vatican. The miracle was among a total of 13 decrees for various stages of
sainthood cause that Pope Benedict authorized the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes
of Saints to promulgate. Two other miracles for sainthood also received the green
signal from the Vatican. They concern Italian priest, Fr. Bernardo Tolomei, founder
of the Olivetan Benedictine Congregation who died in 1348, and Portuguese professed
layman, Nuño di Santa Maria Álvares of the Order of Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary
of Mount Carmel, who died 1431. Another miracle for beatification was approved
for Servants of God Louis Martin and his wife, Marie-Zélie Guerin Martin, the parents
of the famous French Carmelite nun, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, popularly known as Teresa
of the Child Jesus. Of the 13 decrees promulgated on Thursday, one was for martyrdom
and 8 for heroic virtues of men and women from various countries. The miracle
that received approval for Fr. Damien’s sainthood is that of a Hawaiian woman, Audrey
Toguchi, a 79-year-old retired schoolteacher who became ill in 1997 with an incurable
form of cancer on her left thigh. She was healed in 2004 after she prayed to Blessed
Damien de Veuster. As a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and
Mary in Belgium, Fr. Damien was sent as a missionary to Honolulu in 1864, and shortly
afterward was ordained a priest. He worked for several years in Hawaii before requesting
to be assigned to Kalaupapa, a leprosy settlement on the island of Molokai. He 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’.