The Priest Who Stepped Into the Colony

On May 10, 1873, a thirty-three-year-old Belgian priest named Damien de Veuster stepped off a cargo ship onto the rocky shore of Kalaupapa, Molokai. The Hawaiian government had banished nearly eight hundred leprosy patients to this remote peninsula, sealed off by towering sea cliffs. No one was forced to serve there. Damien volunteered. He had no reason to go. He was healthy, gifted, and had a promising career in the mission field.…