Ms. Garratt’s Blog
Here you’ll find a range of resources to help you get the most from your PSHE lessons. I’ve included links to recommended websites as well as a range of study materials to help you become increasingly independent and successful learners. If you need help come and see me or contact me through this Blog.Father Damien of Molokai – News of Canonization
As you will know from your ‘People of Faith’ studies, Father Damien was a a Belgian missionary priest who spent fifteen years caring for the lepers of Molokai.
He was born in 1840 and was ordained as a priest in 1864. At a time when there was no understanding of how the leprosy was transmitted and no treatment for the disease, Damien volunteered to go to as a resident priest to serve the 600 or so men,women and children who were confined on the Hawaiian island.
Damien worked on the island from 1873, acting not only as the lepers’ priest but also as a medical attendant, dressing their ulcers, tending them as the disease overtook them, building their coffins, digging their graves and praying for them as they died.
He contracted leprosy in 1885 and died in 1888.
Later this year, following over sixty years of scrutiny by the Catholic Church, the Pope will make Damien a saint. Damien’s canonization will take place at a ceremony in Rome on 11th October.
In order for any Catholic to be made a saint after their death, several criteria must be met. One of these is that two miracles must be proved to have happened following people’s prayers to the individual concerned.
There are now two miracles that have happened following people’s prayers to Father Damien.
Find out what the miracles are and summarise of one of them as a comment to this Post.
Father Damien’s story is so inspiring. Thankfully, leprosy is now curable and people can have hope. Check out the great work that American Leprosy Missions is doing at leprosy.org to end the suffering that Father Damien saw and experienced first-hand.