May 10 celebrated with music, prayer, dance, recitation and flowers

Representatives from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary joined Catholic schools students at the statue of Blessed Damien at the Hawaii state capitol on the morning of May 10 to celebrate his feast day with music, prayer, dance, recitation and flowers.

Father Christopher Keahi, the Hawaii superior of the priests and brothers of Father Damien’s Sacred Hearts order, offered the opening invocation.

He was followed by the Damien Memorial School Band performing the national anthem and Hawaii Ponoi, the state song.

Sister Helene Wood, the superior of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts, then gave a brief account of the life of Blessed Damien who arrived at the Hansen’s disease settlement on Molokai’s Kalaupapa peninsula 133 years ago and died there on April 15, 1889.

“His life of sacrifice turned attention to caring for the needy and rejected all around the world,” Sister Helene said.

Pope John Paul II beatified Damien in Brussels, Belgium, on June 4, 1995.

A tribute to Blessed Damien by the Sacred Hearts Academy Dancers was followed by an interlude from Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” and a hymn in honor of Blessed Marianne Cope by the St. Francis School Band.

Mother Marianne Cope was the Franciscan Sister who continued the work of Father Damien in Kalaupapa. She was beatified in Rome last year.

The ceremony for Father Damien continued with the draping of leis on his statue and the presentation of floral bouquets.

A prayer for the canonization of Blessed Mother Marianne, led by students from St. Michael School in Waialua, was recited by all.

The Damien Memorial School Band led the closing song, “Damien the Blessed.”