Printmaker Barbara Okamoto is filled with anticipation as she packs to leave for the Vatican.

Jared Wickware hangs images of Father Damien at the Cathedral Gallery on Fort Street Mall, assisting other artists before he prepares his own print.

Doug Tolentino is on his way to an afternoon gig playing music at the Halekulani, knowing he will fight back tears as he sings "Olu O Pu'ulani." The song tells of a family, split apart when one is diagnosed with Hansen's disease and sent to Kalaupapa.

"It is the story of my own family. My grandmother was a leper. When she gave birth to my father, he was taken from her," he said.

Tolentino only knew his dad was "from Moloka'i" until he was about 20 years old, he said. Finding legal records led him to the truth.

Okamoto, Wickware, Tolentino and 20 other printmakers have been etching metal plates, engraving sheets of copper and drawing on lithographic stones, making prints to honor a hero. Their work celebrates the Oct. 11 canonization of Father Damien de Veuster.

The exhibition, opening tonight, is being held in the gallery of the church where Damien was ordained a priest in 1864, Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. The art illustrates their vision of the man who lived with, loved and cared for the lepers exiled to Kalaupapa until his death in 1889.

"Jared (Wickware) really came up with the idea to honor Damien with what is called a portfolio," Okamoto said.

"Since I said yes when Bishop (Larry) Silva asked me to serve on the Father Damien Commission, I heard myself saying yes to be an organizer of the Cathedral Gallery exhibit."

Okamoto said she found the perfect format for the show on a trip to Assisi when she visited a small cathedral.

"I was greeted by a monk right out of a print — brown gown, rope belt. He invited me in to see the gallery, where he explained that printmakers created many portfolios honoring Saint Francis, selling for maybe 10 euros, to benefit the parish."

Her own print is created from the vantage point of sitting at the feet of Father Damien.

"I wanted to depict the power of his life rather than the debilitating aftermath of the leprosy that took his life," Okamoto said.

Wickware's print describes a younger Father Damien.

Tolentino's print tells the story of how Damien brought both life-saving water and faith to the colony. A full-time painter, Tolentino was taking his first printmaking class when he heard about the Damien print project, and asked to be included.

Laura Smith, head of the Hono-lulu Printmakers, said part of the challenge was making a plan for distribution of the finished art. The Cathedral Gallery is gifted with one set and can reproduce the prints for fundraising. One set is retained by the Honolulu Printmakers.

A full set of prints is usually given to each artist — but since printing 25 quality prints from the artists' plates would be "nearly impossible," Smith said, artist Gina Kerr came up instead with a complicated division of the prints.

Kerr's print is the only abstract image in the suite. "I wanted to portray the wind that wafted through Damien's being," she said. "He was so lonely, so un-supported in his work, I imagined that many times the wind was his only friend. I think it lifted him up."

At the Vatican on Oct. 11, Pope Benedict XVI will declare Father Damien a saint, "a designation," Tolentino said, "that he already held in the hearts of all of us who were touched by his work."