Father Damien, a Catholic priest, volunteered to help an island leper colony, saying " I make myself a leper to be with the lepers." There he turned shacks into painted houses, cultivated farms, and started schools. Doing do he contracted leprosy himself. He was canonized a saint in 2009. Father Damien, seen here with the Kalawao Girls Choir during the 1870s.Father Damien, a Catholic priest, volunteered to help an island leper colony, saying " I make myself a leper to be with the lepers." There he turned shacks into painted houses, cultivated farms, and started schools. Doing do he contracted leprosy himself. He was canonized a saint in 2009. Father Damien, seen here with the Kalawao Girls Choir during the 1870s.
Father Damien, a Catholic priest, volunteered to help an island leper colony, saying " I make myself a leper to be with the lepers." There he turned shacks into painted houses, cultivated farms, and started schools. Doing do he contracted leprosy himself. He was canonized a saint in 2009. Father Damien, seen here with the Kalawao Girls Choir during the 1870s.