Father Damien and His Journey Between 1866 and 1873, seven hundred and ninety-seven lepers arrived on Molokai. Almost half of them died. Public indignation mounted, and the Board of Health sought to improve conditions. In April of 1873, Walter Gibson, a politician at the time, wrote a newspaper article that made a bold request. It called for a noble Christian priest, preacher, or Sister who would sacrifice their own life to console the lepers on Molokai. There were several men in Hawaii who were willing to respond, and one of them was Father Damien, a charitable Catholic priest with the Sacred Hearts order. It may have been presentiment or prophecy, but Father Damien had known for some time that he would eventually go to Molokai. When Father Damien arrived on Molokai, it was in a state of disarray. Sacred Hearts had previously built a tiny chapel, dedicated to St. Philomena, but attendance was scarce. There was no government on the island, and the lepers' days were filled with drinking, crime, and a general sense of hopelessness. Father Damien chose to rectify this in many ways.During the first weeks upon arrival, Father Damien took normal precautions to avoid contagion. He settled comfortably under a tree outside of the tiny chapel, and a large rock on the side of the tree served as his dinner table. But if Damien protected his body from the disease, there was nothing he could do to protect his eyes or ears from the shock of the contact with the lepers. Gathering his courage, he began to approach thelepers one by one. He embraced them, dined with them, and he cleaned and bandaged their wounds. On his first visit to a young girl, he found that worms had eaten at one whole side of her body. Now this must have been a shock to the lepers, who in the past had only seen people who had been sent by the Department of Health. These previous doctors were so afraid of contagion that they resorted to looking at their patient's s...
