In fact, few people really are saints. Maybe Damien was one of them; I don’t know. The contemporary accounts of his life and ministry give conflicting views. No less a reporter than Robert Louis Stevenson, in a book that was supposed to revive Damien’s reputation after it had been attacked by Protestants, described him as “shrewd, ignorant and bigoted” “grumbling” “essentially indiscreet and officious” “domineering in all his ways” “incurably unpopular with the Kanakas (Hawaiians)” “destitute of real authority.” Stevenson accused Damien of having a “lack of control” and “slovenly ways and false ideas of hygiene”

This hygiene business seems to be a recurring theme, though how clean one could be in a leper colony might be a question. In an era when nearly everyone was dirty and unhygienic by modern standards, he must have been particularly dirty to merit specific criticism on that note. He’s also described as a womanizer (not uncommon among priests of that age; most of them weren’t gay in those days, and the Powers That Be gave a wink and a nod to priests keeping mistresses), and a rebeller against church authority.

His case rather reminds me of that of the WWII Italian partisan nominated for sainthood in Morris West’s great novel “The Devil’s Advocate,” which has been reissued in a nice paperback edition in the Loyola Classics series, who may or may not have been a saint. One also wonders whether, in this day and age of modern medicine, it will become harder to “certify” miracles attributed to saints.

Maybe Damien’s highest and best use as a “saint” is his example on how to treat people with diseases that others don’t find pleasant. The Wikipedia article on him says:

“In both ecumenical religious and non-sectarian communities, Damien is being adopted as the symbol of how society should treat HIV/AIDS patients in defiance of the misconceptions of the disease, much like leprosy treatment was an outgrowth of misconceptions. Several Damien Centers have been established worldwide to serve people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.”