Seeking to ‘connect with’ St. Damien

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The St. Damien relic tour is expected to draw hundreds, perhaps even thousands, as it makes its way through Maui beginning Saturday through Oct. 26.

Veneration of the relic is free and open to the public. Catholic parishes will host the first-class relic - a bone from the body of St. Damien - for a few hours at a time in churches around the island.

Most of the relic stops will include a Mass held in the saint's honor. Depending on the hosting parish, prayers, novenas and reflections on the life of Hawaii's first saint will be said during the relic tour.

Belgium-born Jozef de Veuster, also known as Father Damien, was canonized a saint Oct. 11 in a ceremony held in Rome and attended by more than 500 Hawaii residents. An estimated crowd of 100,000 was present for the canonization of Damien and four other saints at St. Peter's Basilica.

Damien died in 1889 from Hansen's disease after contracting it while working with ostracized patients living at Kalaupapa on Molokai.

His canonization has caught the attention of people of many faiths.

The Rev. Heather Mueller-Fitch, the rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in Keokea, said members of her congregation have connections with Damien because of relatives who lived on Molokai.

St. John's also has hosted Vinnie Linares' one-man theater portrayal of Damien, and the church financially supported a film on the life of Hawaii's first saint.

"We have a deep appreciation for Damien, and that he was willing to go out and serve. It's that inspirational aspect that all of us can connect with," Mueller-Fitch said.

Mueller-Fitch and at least a dozen other non-Catholic church leaders have accepted an invitation from the Maui Catholic community to join the Maui Vicariate Celebration set for 3:30 to 9 p.m. Oct. 25 at the War Memorial Gymnasium.

That celebration is one of the highlights of the relic tour on Maui. A dinner will be served between 3:30 and 5 p.m. outside the gymnasium. Tickets cost $8 per person and can be purchased at any Catholic church office on the island.

Tour events and the Maui Vicariate Celebration are free and open to the public.

The Oct. 25 celebration culminates with a 6:30 p.m. Mass featuring Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva as the main celebrant. About a dozen Maui priests and seven deacons will join Silva at the altar for the Mass.

Catholic churches on Maui have canceled Sunday evening Masses to give parishioners a chance to attend the Mass with Silva.

The choir singing at the Oct. 25 evening Mass will be made up of about 100 singers from parishes across the island. Bill Tavares, from Holy Rosary Church in Paia, has been asked to serve as lector for one of the Sunday readings.

"I consider it very much an honor," he said.

Tavares had helped raise approximately $100,000 for a memorial dedicated in 1976 to Damien outside Holy Rosary Church.

"I'm very pleased to see he's a saint now," he said. "I think it's a tremendous blessing for Maui and for the entire state."

The relic tour is to open on Maui at about 9:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Theresa's Church in Kihei where Monsignor Terry Watanabe, the Damien Relic Celebration chairman, serves as pastor.

It will wind down the evening of Oct. 26 at Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina. The relic will depart by ferry to Lanai at 6:45 a.m. Oct. 27.

Watanabe traveled to Rome for the canonization. He has been encouraging both Catholics and non-Catholics to attend the relic tour.

Mueller-Fitch said she did not hesitate to participate.

"It's an opportunity to be part of an incredibly important moment," she said. "It's an important historic moment for Hawaii."

St. Damien's right heel was presented to Silva following the canonization in Rome. The relic has since been making stops at various locations as it travels from Rome to Hawaii. Other stops for the veneration of the relic include Detroit, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.

The Damien relic will tour the islands before being placed at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, where Father Damien was ordained as a priest. On Oct. 31, the relic is scheduled to visit Kalaupapa, where Damien ministered.

The Rev. Roland Bunda, pastor of St. Anthony Church in Wailuku, explained that the relic tour gives people a chance to venerate the body of a saint.

"For us Americans it seems gross," he said. "But it's really considered respecting the body. The whole idea is making that connection from the divine to the human. That's why to us Christ, who is divine, became human."

At St. Anthony, Bunda will welcome the Damien relic with a Mass at 5 p.m. Saturday. Following Mass, both visitors and parishioners will be given the chance to reflect and pray together as the relic is held in front of the altar.

The relic will be secured in a small tin box housed in a 15-inch-long wooden reliquary that will travel in a larger koa case.

It's not the bone fragments themselves that have meaning, but what they represent.

Deacon Pat Constantino has been actively involved in the planning of the Maui Vicariate Celebration.

"We now have a saint here in Hawaii. Whatever your religious denomination is, we have a chance to come together and get behind this," he said.

Constantino said he hopes that Damien's canonization will inspire nonpracticing Catholics to consider returning to the church.

"Hopefully this would get them going again," he said.

Constantino has been fielding questions about the relic veneration in the churches and what people should do when they come to see it.

"I keep saying just bring your heart and your family. Come, look, see and experience," he said.

* Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.