Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On October 11, in Saint Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI canonized 5 new saints. One of these saints is the Belgian-born missionary Father Damien De Veuster, the “Apostle of the Lepers” who dedicated his entire life to the leper colony on Molokai, in the Hawaiian Islands. The ceremony was widely attended by groups of pilgrims from both Belgium and Hawaii, including 11 of the last remaining Hawaiian residents sent to the leper colony. Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu was presented with a relic of Fr. Damien: his right heel bone.
Following a special Mass for pilgrims from the United States on October 12, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, the relic will travel to the states of Michigan, California and, finally, Hawaii. The Archdiocese of Detroit (Michigan) will place the relic on display for veneration on October 14, at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The relic of the new Saint will then travel to the Archdiocese of San Francisco (California) on October 15, where it will receive public veneration in St. Mary’s Cathedral. In the Diocese of Oakland (California), at Christ the Light Cathedral, the relic will be displayed again on October 16 before finally resting on November 1 in a newly-constructed reliquary in Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu (Hawaii), the church where Damien was ordained in 1864. (AR) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2009)
