Damien: The Making of a Saint

Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for
his friends...
Damien lived and died by these
words, and by his life and death
he became a saint.
In his life he gave himself, body
and soul, to serve leprosy sufferers
at the isolated settlement of
Kalawao in the Hawaiian Islands.
What is the best way to tell his
story? The best way, the truest way, is also the simplest way: in
his own words. Damien's words
are the heart and soul of this
book vital testimony, all the
way to his innermost thoughts,
the meditations of his heart.
Together with photographs, other
images, and the voices of those
who knew him best colleagues,
patients, clergy, and physicians,
Damien: The Making of a Saint
brings us as close as we can come
to the man himself. Damien went to Kalawao in 1873. Among hundreds of doomed men,
women and children, he worked
every day, for more than ten
years, bandaging sores, building
hospitals and orphanages,
baptizing converts, administering
last rites, hammering together
coffins, digging graves.
In 1884, leprosy took him and he
died among his beloved people in
1889.
In 1995, Damien was beatified. In
2009, after a second miracle was
authenticated, he was canonized.