The path to sainthood has grown shorter for the Roman Catholic priest from Belgium who ministered to exiled leprosy patients in Hawaii in the 19th century. On Thursday Pope Benedict XVI was presented with a document confirming that a modern miracle had been attributed to Fr Damien de Veuster.
After that it is a question of waiting with "patience and prudence" for the Vatican's communication about what the Pope would do on foot of the document, said Rev. Ed Popish, treasurer of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Rome.
The Vatican office which supervises beatifications and canonisations, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, recently approved the miracle that was previously signed off by a panel of theologians and a five-doctor Vatican commission.
It had decided that a Honolulu woman's healing of terminal lung cancer defied medical explanation.
According to the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, Fr Damien's second miracle happened in 1999. An Oahu woman named Audrey Toguchi was dying of lung cancer when she went to Fr Damien's grave on Molokai and prayed to him. Although her condition was terminal, the cancer vanished and she is still alive today.
Damien was beatified in 1995 by Pope John Paul II. A date for canonisation isn't expected to be determined until February.
The news of Fr Damien's potential canonisation was celebrated in Hawaii, where the priest is revered for his sacrifice and compassion. There is a statue of Damien fronting the state Capitol and a Honolulu school is named in his honour.
"It's such an exciting time in our lives that one of our men, one of us here in Hawaii, has attained the highest rank of sanctity and will soon be declared a saint in the church," said the Rev. Christopher Keahi, head of the Sacred Hearts order of Hawaii.
Joseph de Veuster was born in the village of Tremolo in Flemish Brabant in1840. He attended college at Braine-le-Comte, then entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Leuven. He took the name of Damianus (Damiaan in Dutch) on the occasion of his first vows. In 1863 he went on mission to Hawaii, where he was ordained a priest the same year.
Nine years later he went to a remote peninsula on Molokai. This was where people who had contracted leprosy were banished. He ministered to the patients until he contracted Hansen's disease (leprosy) himself and died in 1889 at the age of 49.
“If you look at a young man who is from Belgium coming to Hawaii and giving up his life knowing the consequences of his work but doing it for religious purposes, it is very inspiring," said Bernard Ho, President and CEO of Damien School."The Catholic community and the Damien community have been waiting for this for a while. We've been praying for it for a while and we've finally got an answer to our prayers."
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