A lock of hair, carpenter tools and reading glasses are some of the artifacts that serve as reminders of a priest who ministered to the outcasts suffering from Hansen's disease — then known as leprosy — at Kalaupapa on Moloka'i in the late 1800s.

For about five years, these and other artifacts that were once part of Father Damien's everyday life have sat away from public view in an air-conditioned room of the Sacred Hearts Center in Kane'ohe, high above the Castle Hills subdivision.

But the pending canonization that will make Blessed Damien a saint has renewed interest in a museum for his artifacts.

St. Augustine Catholic Church in Waikiki, once home to the artifacts, has approval to build a museum and wants to purchase the ABC Store property in front of the church for the project.

The property is not for sale, but church officials aren't giving up hope of having a museum.

"We're hoping and praying there might be a compassionate heart where they would be open to at least looking to the possibility of selling," said Father Lane Akiona, the pastor at St. Augustine. "If that doesn't work out, we'll have to go to Plan B and do a new construction ... on the church property."

Damien's path to sainthood has generated interest throughout Hawai'i and raised the possibility of other miracles happening here, said Akiona, who grew up on Moloka'i.

When news came last week that miracles attributed to Damien have been recognized by the pope, Akiona gave a sermon about the man born Joseph de Veuster. After the Mass, all the booklets about him sold out, he said.

People are very interested in his life and want to learn more, and that interest will grow with his sainthood, Akiona said.

Purchasing the ABC Store property would give the museum a Kalakaua address and allow the church to design a plaza area where people can congregate, he said, but he didn't say how the church could afford such a property.

The store sits on about a 6,000-square-foot parcel and is one of the first ABC Stores that opened in Hawai'i, about 40 years ago, said Paul Kosasa, president and CEO of ABC Stores Corp. The company owns only a few properties and leases most of the land for the 77 stores it operates in the Islands, Guam, Saipan and Las Vegas, Kosasa said.

"In the commercial arena, it's pretty tough to part with a highly visible commercial area," he said. "We're owner/occupant, so there's no incentive to close our store and sell the property."

The church is not the first to inquire about the land, Kosasa said. Mainland corporations and developers have asked to purchase the land.

"People are asking all the time," he said.

MUSEUM THAT WAS

Father Damien, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, succumbed to Hansen's disease in 1889, 16 years after arriving on Moloka'i but not before improving the quality of life for his parishioners, providing houses, a church, an orphanage and a hospital.

He was 49 when he died.

For this and miracles attributed to him, Damien was chosen for sainthood, making the artifacts even more important to help people understand the history of this farm boy from Belgium.

A display of Damien's artifacts opened in the 1970s at St. Patrick's Church in Kaimuki and later moved to St. Augustine in Waikiki, where it was free to the public.

The display closed about five years ago when the museum operator, the Damien Museum and Archives nonprofit corporation, wanted to renovate the museum building, Akiona said, adding that the project stalled because of lack of funding.

Then two years ago, the church began a master plan process and the diocese approved a new museum there, he said.

Father Thomas Choo, who heads the board of the Damien Museum and Archives, said more needs to be done to make the exhibit museum-quality, including authentication of the artifacts.

"I don't doubt that they are authentic but if you cannot back it up, you're going to be in deep kim chee," said Choo, assistant pastor at St. Patrick's Church.

Choo said he's more concerned about doing it right and that will cost money, which the organization doesn't have.

The Sacred Hearts Fathers have considered other ways to make the artifacts available to the public, said Father Christopher Keahi, provincial superior for the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts.

Among the possibilities are placing the items at another location or creating a traveling display, Keahi said.

Last week, a display was sent to St. Ann's Church, where Mainland youngsters on their way to World Youth Day in Australia could see the artifacts and "have a more visual experience of the holy man," he said.

For now, the artifacts are stored in a special room at the order's offices and residence in Kane'ohe and are brought out only on special occasions.

CANE AND CHALICE

The collection comes from many sources, including the doctor who tended the patients at the Kalawao Settlement where Damien served (which is now generally referred to as Kalaupapa and is about a mile away from Kalawao).

Damien built St. Philomena Church at Kalawao.

When Damien died, Dr. Sidney Swift packed up a trunkload of Damien's things. Swift held on to the trunk until his death in California, said Patrick Boland, the interim archivist for the Damien artifacts. The trunk passed to Swift's son, who died without a will and the trunk sat in a coroner's office until Bishop Joseph Ferrario worked out a deal with distant relatives, Boland said.

"Most of the artifacts of Damien went back to Belgium," Boland said. "They even took his altar from St. Philomena. The Sacred Hearts Fathers and the people of Belgium were very proud of their guy, so they retrieved everything they could and turned his birthplace into a museum."

Joseph Dutton, a layman aide to Damien, also collected items and sent them to the then-bishop, Boland said.

"Some stuff came from patients," he said. "Father Damien would give them things like statues."

Damien's personal possessions include a black brocade chasuble, (a formal funeral garment), a walking stick, a silver chalice and a cane. A host maker, books, envelopes sent to him and bills are among the artifacts. There is an original parish record book of baptisms, deaths and other church services, and a log book of requests to Queen Lili'uokalani for items for the patients, including mu'umu'u and blankets. The book is written in Hawaiian, which Damien spoke fluently, Boland said.

The Damien artifacts reveal the everyday life of a man who tended to the secular as well as the spiritual well-being of the patients at Kalawao, Boland said.

"In some ways, his life was ordinary, in other ways it was extraordinary," Boland said, displaying a receipt for flutes for the children and tobacco for the men.