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Updated: September 24, 2025
He may have contracted the disease from them, and it may have been well along in its mysterious period of incubation at the time he was officially inoculated. Then there is the case of that hero of the Church, Father Damien, who went to Molokai a clean man and died a leper. There have been many theories as to how he contracted leprosy, but nobody knows. He never knew himself.
He saw that they really believed what they stated, and were not seeking to soothe his fears; but he went to a German doctor who had not been present with the rest and told him the symptoms he had himself noticed. 'You are right, said the doctor after a pause, and Father Damien went out and sat in a lonely place by the sea.
We do not know exactly what took place, but when Monsieur Damien returned to fetch Joseph, his son told him that he had made up his mind to follow in his brother's steps, and to be a priest also. Monsieur Damien was not surprised; he had long seen whither things were tending.
But I understood my lady's warning was true; his earnestness convinced me. "Where do you carry them?" "Sewn in the lining of my cloak," I replied. A lie, but pardonable. "Why, you careless fellow; they maybe lost. Where is your cloak?" seeing I did not have it. "In charge of Damien; he is trusty." "Better have it yourself; wait here, I will go and fetch it."
I congratulated myself on this diplomatic stroke, for Jerome was about to start off in all haste when Damien himself appeared, and before I could stop him, delivered the message. "The horses are saddled and at the door." "Go and wait with them." Jerome had taken my cloak from the fellow's arm, for in fact he had it, and now laid it across his knee.
It seemed as if eyes looked down on him from the dark sky and pierced him through and through. His whole life had been an imposture from the first his quarrel with his father, his taking Orders, his entering the monastery and his leaving it, his crusade in Soho, his intention of following Father Damien, his predictions at Westminster all, all had been false, and the expression of a lie!
There was Father Damien, a Catholic priest, who so pitied the lepers that were confined to an island, deprived alike of the comforts of this world and of the consolations of religion, that he went and lived with them. He knew that when he once joined them he would probably take their disease, and, in any case, could never leave them.
Many have visited the station before me; they seem not to have heard the rumour. When I was there I heard many shocking tales, for my informants were men speaking with the plainness of the laity; and I heard plenty of complaints of Damien. Why was this never mentioned? and how came it to you in the retirement of your clerical parlour? But I must not even seem to deceive you.
In the year 1873 Father Damien happened to be sent to the island of Maui, where the great volcano has burnt itself out, and while he was there the bishop came over to consecrate a chapel which had just been built. In his sermon he spoke of the sad condition of the colony at Molokai, and how greatly he wished to spare them a priest who would devote himself entirely to them.
In Paris Joseph served as a novice and when this term was ended he went to Louvain where his brother was already a priest in holy orders, having adopted the name of Father Pamphile. Joseph himself planned to take the name of Father Damien.
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