TREMELO, Belgium — Thousands of Belgians, including the country's royal couple, converged today on this small farming town where Father Damien was born to celebrate his elevation to sainthood with some of the last remaining patients of the Hansen's disease settlement in Kalaupapa, Moloka'i, where the Sacred Hearts priest gained worldwide fame for volunteering to minister to the sick.

The festivities turned the streets of this quiet town — population 13,000 — into a raucous block party that was scheduled to go well into the night.

Preceding the celebration, more than 2,000 people crowded into a large white tent for a special Mass led by Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who was joined by Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva. In addition to Belgium's King Albert II and Queen Paola, the nation's prime minister and a host of other dignitaries attended, along with the 11 patients from Kalaupapa.

The royal couple sat in the front row as did several patients.

At one point, the halau traveling with the pilgrimage from Hawai'i presented lei to the royal couple.

Speaking to the assembled crowd — but actually addressing the patients — Danneels said:

"You come from so far, over two oceans to meet us here. You shouldn't thank us (for this celebration). We should thank you. We should thank you because we gave life to Father Damien ... but you gave him back as a saint. He didn't become a saint here."

Patient Gloria Marks spoke during the celebration Mass.

"We pray our Lord Jesus to look after his people," she read from a prepared text. "We especially pray for all our friends here in Tremelo, that the brotherhood between this community and the patients of Kalaupapa may become an outstanding example of God's love among mankind."

Everyone wanted a chance to meet the Hansen's disease patients, who traveled the 7,500 miles to Belgium along with 340 other Hawai'i residents as part of a pilgrimage to Father Damien's hometown and his tomb a few miles away in Louvain, before heading to Rome for the canonization of Hawai'i's first saint.

They also were eager to meet Audrey Toguchi, the 'Aiea woman whose cure from lung cancer after praying to Father Damien was the second miracle attributed to the priest, assuring his elevation to sainthood.

Toguchi said she is struck at the thought of a young Damien walking the streets she was standing on.

She said her "No. 1 priority" on the trip was to see Tremelo.

"I want to see how this young boy lived," she said.

She added that the attention she has gotten from Belgians is appreciated — but undeserved.

"It's a very humbling experience," she said, with a laugh. "They're just meeting a plain person."

Marks said she has visited Tremelo twice before, but added that the celebrations "are an honor and a pleasure."

She added, of the festivities, "It's once in a lifetime. I'm only sad that many of our people didn't get here," referring to patients who have died.

Marks' sister-in-law, Barbara, said she is honored to be visiting Damien's hometown.

"We call him hero man," she said. "It's something ... to see the place he came from."

Father Damien has rock-star status in Belgium, where he is known as "Pater Damiaan."

Some also call him "Kamiano," the Hawaiian word for Damien.

Though most Belgians today are not religious, Damien's canonization is an immense source of pride.

Randy King, president of Seawind Tours & Travel, which coordinated the pilgrimage, said the turnout in Tremelo today is evidence of that. He added that the presence of the royal couple is also pretty amazing.

"They usually don't do public events like this," he said.

MONTHS OF PLANNING

For the celebration, Tremelo was decked out. All the houses displayed white flags bearing pictures of Damien.

Tremelo has been planning the celebration for months and spent tens of thousands of dollars to coordinate parking, seating, the visits of dignitaries, speeches and entertainment.

Following the Mass, a new Father Damien statue was to be unveiled in Tremelo as part of the celebrations.

Tremelo then planned to treat attendees to cultural performances, and the Hawai'i contingent planned to do the same.

A 30-member halau on the pilgrimage and a Hawai'i choir were to perform Damien-centric pieces, and planned to stick around after the patients left to perform well into the night.

The patients and pilgrims arrived in Belgium yesterday, and were met at the airport by a Belgian news television crew. The crew followed the group around Brussels for hours, getting shots of them at the world-famous Atomium, a massive structure made to look like an atom, along with the Basilica of Koekelberg, where Father Damien was beatified, or given the title "blessed," by Pope John Paul II before a crowd of 30,000.

VRT News reporter Johan Ghysens, who was at the Tremelo event today, said, "Everybody who's somebody in Belgium" was there. He added that Belgians are fascinated by the lives of the remaining patients and very proud of Damien's sacrifice more than a century ago, when he volunteered to minister in Kalaupapa.

Ghysens spoke to some of the patients yesterday for a TV news magazine.

"I must admit," he said, "even this very objective reporter got a bit emotional."

DAMIEN'S EARLY LIFE

Father Damien was born in Tremelo in 1840, and was the seventh of eighth children. He gave up a lifestyle as a farmer for the priesthood, and left for the Islands as a missionary. In 1873, after a decade of ministering on the Big Island, Damien volunteered to go to Kalaupapa. He was supposed to be on a three-month rotation with other Sacred Hearts priests, but he asked to stay and was granted permission.

He lived in Kalaupapa for 16 years, tending to the sick and helping to create a community.

In 1885, he was diagnosed with Hansen's disease and he died four years later, at age 49.

While Father Damien was in Kalaupapa, more than 2,000 Hansen's disease patients in the Islands were wrenched from their families and sent to the isolated peninsula.

The state didn't lift travel restrictions for Hansen's disease patients until 1969.

Today, just 19 Hansen's disease patients who were subject to restrictions are still living.

Most still reside in Kalaupapa by choice.

Eight were not well enough to make the canonization trip.

GRATEFUL PILGRIMS

Father Damien, born Joseph de Veuster, will be canonized with four others Oct. 11 in Saint Peter's Square before an estimated crowd of more than 50,000. Some 600 Hawai'i residents have seats to the event — a number dwarfed by the expected Belgian contingent (3,000).

Many of the patients on the trip have been in Belgium before — for Father Damien's beatification.

But they said they are grateful they made the trip before they were no longer able to travel.

The patients range in age from 68 to 85, and many have mobility issues.

That hasn't stopped them from participating in any way they can.

At the Atomium yesterday, patient Norbert Palea smiled broadly as he posed for a photo.

In the windy weather, with highs in the upper 40s, he was wearing a short-sleeved aloha shirt and declining offers for jackets from friends.

"I feel exhilarated," said Palea, 68, as he rubbed his hands on his arms for warmth. "This is such a beautiful country."