Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 7, 1 July 1988 — 1989 Marks 100th Anniversary of Damien's Death [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

1989 Marks 100th Anniversary of Damien's Death

Sainthood May be Symbolic Victory Over Disease

By Linda Kawai'ono Delaney Land Officer E aha 'ia ana o Hawai'i? I nei ma'i o ka lepela? What will become of Hawai'i? What will leprosy do to our land? Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of Father Damien DeVeuster's death. Many expect that occasion will also be celebrated by Roman Catholic Church sainthood for the beloved priest who worked and died at the Hansen's Disease Settlement on Kalaupapa, Moloka'i. As former patient Richard Marks expressed it, Damien "wasn't the first to eome to Kalaupapa and work among the lepers. But he was the first to stay." Anticipating international attention and pilgrimages to the isolated peninsula when Damien is canonized, Congressional action in 1980 designated Kalaupapa a National Historic Park. A major eoneem in the development of the Park was the future status of Hawaiian Homes trust land. The National Parks were prohibited from leasing land, and Hawaiian Homes is barred from selling land. Special Congressional legislation allowing the Nahonal Parks to lease lands was successfully introduced. Additional assurances to allow the nearly 100 former patients still residing on Kalaupapa to stay for as long as they wish are also being negotiated. As part of the preparation for the centennial of Damien's death, his last parish church at Kalawao is being restored. Stacks of lumber and scaffolding fill the churchyard and interior of St. Philomena's. Unlike any similar project, though, even the wood scraps are arranged in neat piles, and the week-end-silence of painting ladders does not distract from the contemplative mood within the Church. Mute reminder of the suffering endured by the original congregations, square holes are cut through the floor at regular intervals whieh — assisted by a funnel shaped from 'ape leaves — allowed early patients to remain seated through services and relieve themselves of the discomfort of excess mouth fluids. Until the "sulfa drug revolution" of the 1940's, no cure was known for Hansen's Disease. Today, sulfone arrests the disease and eliminates any possibility of contagion. Even today, most people imagine Hansen's Disease literally decaying the body — causing fingers and toes to rot and drop off. In reality, the disease causes neurological damage leaving the hands and feet of patients without feeling. Simple chores or just walking become dangerous because severe burns, cuts, or broken bones ean occur and are unfelt. The damage from the injury or resulting infection ean mean amputation. The cruel isolation of the patients whieh began in

1866, though, had less to do with the nature of the disease than with public attitudes. Throughout the Bible, lepers were described as "unelean" and forced into exile outside city walls. Leprosy was equated with sinfulness, and being a leper was viewed as a divine judgment. The sainthood of Damien, then, may represent the final symbolic victory over the disease — a healing of a wounded heart. The toll of the disease, however, is clearly present in the more than 7,000 known graves on the small peninsula. Many are unmarked. Some are distinguished by elaborate reminders of earthly privilege or of undiminished love. Loeal history calls the hilltop crypts at Kauako Crater the "ali'i graves." And a now crumbling obelisk proclaims "ku'u wahine i aloha nui" — my greatly loved wife.

Such care, however, is not extended by the State of Hawai'i. Stone markers must be paid for by individual families — otherwise, the Department of Health only provides a wooden cross. When weather destroys the marker, no replacement is provided. The pain of Kalaupapa is indelible. Its history is etched as a trial of spirit revealing both valor and villainy . But we risk repeating the errors of the past when the saint and the sinner become indistinguishable. Maintaining grave markers keeps the memory of the individual, not just the record of the leper. I wonder how Damien would have reacted if he had heard the suggestion made by a federal health official to use Kalaupapa as an isolation area for AIDS patients?

This wooden cross was provided by the State. When weather destroys it, there is no replacement provided and this grave will be left unmarked like many others.

This tombstone marker remains a mueh visited destination.

This crumbling obelisk proclaims "ku'u wahine I aloha nui," my greatly loved wife.