Conclusion
Mercy for the least: Saint Damien de Veuster
IN 1800 there was still no cure for leprosy. Those stricken with the disease were deported for segregation to Molokai Island in Hawaii. The Saints in Mercy of the Pastoral Resources for Living the Jubilee described the place as “lawless and devoid of all human solidarity. Mercy was no longer possible here.”
“Lepers’ bodies were breaking down from complete lack of hygiene, and souls from total depravity…. Sexual enslavement of women and children, all kinds of abuse, alcoholism and drugs, rampant theft, superstition and idolatrous practices” abound.
At 33, then-Father Damien volunteered to work permanently as a missionary of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in the Leper Colony. Bishop Louis Maignet introduced him to the lepers: “I have brought you one who will be a father to you, and who loves you so much that for your welfare and for the sake of your immortal souls, he does not hesitate to become one of you, to live and die with you.”
Father Damien, in his approach to win the 800 lepers to God, taught them first “how to die well in order to live well.” He taught them to “celebrate death with full human dignity—Christian faith in the resurrection.”
He built a beautiful cemetery, taught them how to lay the dead in coffins and, instead of anger and drunkenness while burying the dead, he taught them to pray with solemnity with the beating of drums.
He organized them to look after the important needs and care for abandoned children, visitation to the sick, construction and maintenance of huts, education of girls, church rites and perpetual adoration.
Soon the settlement had a school, a church, an orphanage and new houses. Thus, the morale of the community of lepers improved. After 12 years, he himself became a leper and continued to live and work in the colony, building hospitals, clinics and some 600 coffins to be used for the next four years.
He died on April 15, 1888, in Molokai and was buried in Kalaupapa.
In 1936 the Belgian government requested that his body be moved to Belgium.
He was declared venerable in 1977, beatified on June 4, 1995, by Pope John Paul II and canonized on October 11, 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI.
Mercy for the marginalized: Saint Martin de Porres
Saint Martin de Porres lived amid rejection and poverty. The illegitimate son of John de Porres, a knight of Alcantara, Spain, and Anna, a freed Negro woman from Panama, he developed love for his poor and unloved brethren.
At 12, “Little Mulatto,” as he was called, was an apprentice to a surgeon. He spent part of his salary for inmates of the city hospitals and prisoners. At 15, he was admitted as an oblate, in the Dominican Community of Lima.
His life of prayer, penance, humility and medical skills earned him recognition. He nursed the sick and the poor of the city that his superior admonished him “for overdoing charity.”
Gifted by prophecy, miraculous healing, invisibility, bilocation and levitation during prayer, he was an able fundraiser for orphanages and the abandoned poor. From wealthy conquistadores, he solicited funds for all who depended on the charity of this monastery.
The Holy Cross School was started through his efforts. He also built an orphanage and hospital for the poor. In the convent, he provided homes even for cats and dogs, and food for mice, according to Fr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI, in A Year with the Saints.
Aware that orphans who were left to themselves will be beggars in the streets, he founded El Asilo de Santa Cruz, the “first boarding school in the New World.”
Worn out for his dedication to the sick and the poor and the practice of penance, he died at the age of 60 as the entire city of Lima wept.
He was proclaimed “Patron Saint of Social Justice” in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
Gratitude for loving and merciful God: Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
When asked how she wanted to be called, “Little Thérèse,” was her reply.
“I am a very little soul who can only offer very little things to God,” she said. The only means of making progress spiritually is to remain always very little to a great and merciful God who made Himself a little child, she often said. In her writings, the word “little” is repeated 1,981 times.
In the Saints in Mercy, it is noted that her autobiography, the Story of a Soul, can be more aptly retitled Mercy.
The Mother Prioress entrusted Fr. Mauriece Bathelemy Baliere, an aspiring missionary, to Thérèse for her to pray for him. Thérèse wrote to Father Baliere: “I cannot fear a God who became so little. He is only love and mercy.”
Saint Thérèse started her childhood life by singing God’s mercies and concluded with “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 136.1).
As a Mistress of Novices at the age of 20, she taught the nuns the Doctrine of Little Way, a method of spirituality to perform all tasks with love.
Her profound trust and love for a merciful God inspired her to do every action, no matter how insignificant, as a divine service for the love and glory of the Lord.
Her nine-and-a-half years in the convent was a heroic and patient resignation to God’s merciful love.
For Thérèse, there is only one thing to be done on earth: “To love Jesus and to save souls for Him so that He may be more loved.”
Thérèse was beatified in 1923 and canonized on May 17, 1925, by Pope Pius XI. The Little Flower, as she is popularity called, was declared Patron Saint of Aviators and of Russia. With Saint Francis Xavier, she is also invoked as patron saint of Catholic Missions.
In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her Doctor of the Church.
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.