![[Bust of Father Damien - St. Philomena CHurch]](http://www.fenichel.com/damienbust.jpg)
Bust of Father Damien
This is in the church where Father Damien ministered to those condemned to face the ravages of leprosy (now curable, and respectfully referred to here as Hansen's Disease).
Indigineous Hawai'ians were displaced beginning in 1865, with then-incurable 'lepers' soon dispatched to this isolated peninsula, condemned to horrid conditions and little comforts - until Father Damien arrived and fought long and hard for things like basic necessities (such as beds) and medical care and spiritual support. (He was later joined by Sister Marianne, sainted along with Father Damien, for their dedicated and difficult work, and increasingly supported by public, church, and private - and even Royal - support. By the 1930's, most of the original (Kalawao) settlement had moved from here (windward side)to the warmer, calmer leeward-side of the peninusula, in Kalaupapa.
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