KALAWAO, Molokaçi — The heel of St. Damien of Molokaçi sat in a clear box within a wooden box within a koa box today as a Belgian cardinal and 13 bishops honored Damien’s work in the modest church where he restored human dignity to the remote Kalaupapa Peninsula beginning in 1873.

The normal restriction of 100 visitors per day at Kalaupapa was temporarily lifted today for the 130 visitors, including Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop of the archdiocese of Malines-Brussels and primate of Belgium; Bishop Larry Silva of the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu; an archbishop from San Francisco; and 11 visiting bishops from California.
During a Mass today in Damien’s St. Philomena Church, which sits next to the grave that contains Damien’s right hand, Danneels recounted Damien’s work with a Hansen’s disease population that eventually grew to 8,000 patients.
“The church has solemnly confirmed what he has always been and it has set him as an example worth following for the whole world,” Danneels said.
Today marked the penultimate stop on a statewide tour for Damien’s heel. The tour began after the relic’s arrival from Rome on Oct. 17. More elaborate ceremonies involving Danneels and the bishops are planned for tomorrow in Honolulu for the relic. Afterward, it will take its place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, where Damien was ordained.
Today, the relic — either Damien’s right or left heel — was carried down a 3.2-mile, twisting trail from “Topside” Molokaçi by five boys who took turns shouldering it in the Billabong backpack of Kamalani Bicoy, a 16-year-old sophomore at Molokaçi High School.
Jerick Sablan, a senior at Damien Memorial School in Honolulu, called it an “honor” to take turns carrying Damien’s remains.
“It’s an experience that no one can take away, for sure,” Sablan said.
For more on this story, see tomorrow’s Honolulu Advertiser.