HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 33 



were too cowardly to visit the leper settlement and ob- 

 serve his work among the thousand unfortunates whose 

 pains he soothed and to whose spiritual needs he min- 

 istered with an unparalleled zeal and untiring devotion, 

 whose dying he consoled, and whose dead he buried in 

 coffins and graves often made by his own hands. As a 

 true minister of the gospel, he served his God and lep- 

 rous congregation with a devotion and faithfulness that 

 knew no limits, by day and night, in sunshine and 

 storm. 



Father Damien's name in the world was Joseph de 

 Veuster. He was born at Tremelo, near Louvain. Bel- 

 gium, Jan. 3, 1840. His parents were honest, hard- 

 working, devout peasants, who raised a family of seven 

 children, four of whom entered the service of the 

 church — his older brother, Pamphile, and two sisters. 

 The earliest desire of his boyhood was to become a 

 priest, in which vocation his older brother preceded 

 him. The parents being poor, he struggled with the 

 greatest difficulties to realize his desire. He finally en- 

 tered the College of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts 

 of Jesus and Mary, and entered holy orders at the age 

 of 19. The splendid health which he enjoyed through- 

 out his long student life was gained during his boy- 

 hood days, spent in hard work on the farm. The clois- 

 ter life made him abstemious, and he exhibited an irre- 

 sistible attraction for the rigors of austere penance. 

 Early piety and a tender affection for his parents, as 

 shown in all his letters, laid the foundation for a suc- 

 cessful priestly career. When he entered the cloister 

 he was the very embodiment of health, strength and 

 activity. Endowed with great mental power and ap- 

 plying himself closely to his studies, his progress was 

 rapid, and when he left the institution he was well 

 prepared for his chosen life work. Although serious. 

 he was not ascetic. In a letter to his parents during 

 his theological studies, in commenting on the uncer- 

 taintv of life, he says: "The thought of the uncer- 



