PAPAIKOU — The relic of Father Damien is wrapping up its week-long tour of Hawaii Island.

The bone from the right foot of Hawaii's first saint is at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hilo from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. today. A Vicariate Mass will be celebrated at 6 p.m.
Damien, born Joseph de Veuster in Belgium, was ordained in Honolulu and served the Big Island for nine years before going to Kalaupapa, Molokai, to serve the colony of patients with Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy. Living and working among his parishioners, Damien contracted the disease in 1885 and died four years later.
Pope Benedict XVI presented Damien's relic to Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva on Oct. 11 during the canonization.
Throughout the past week, the relic toured all the parishes of the Big Island.
After passing through Laupahoehoe, Naalehu, Pahala, Mountain View and Keaau on Wednesday, the relic spent the night and yesterday morning at the Pahoa Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Then, after an 11 a.m. prayer service, it was taken to Malia Puka O Kalani Catholic Church in Keaukaha and then to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Papaikou.
There, parishioners lined up to touch and pray before the locked, lei-draped koa case. They spoke in hushed tones or sat silently, enjoying the sounds of a piano that was played in one corner of the church. And on the altar stood a hala tree, to symbolize the tree under which Father Damien slept on his first night on Molokai.
The 7 p.m. Mass was followed by an anointing of the sick. Father Mike Scully touched the forehead and palms of the congregation with oil.
One of the first people to receive the sacrament was Evelyn Alleman of Papaikou, who has a condition that requires her to have a constant flow of oxygen through her nose.
Alleman said she was at the service "to pay tribute to St. Damien" and to be blessed.
"I think I need the extra blessing," she said. "For my health and to pay reverence. ... It's also nice to be here with other people.
"We're so lucky to have in our life a saint that has been in Hawaii," she said.
Joe Paiva, also of Papaikou, said he had a minor ailment — a sinus headache.
"I was kind of hoping it goes away. Hopefully I have enough faith," Paiva said. "I just wanted to respect one of the events of our religion, and also I want to be close to someone who is a saint."
Tomorrow, the relic will leave the Big Island for Maui, and spend the next week traveling to parishes across the state.
When the relic arrives in Honolulu on Nov. 1, it will be part of an interfaith service at'Iolani Palace and then be taken to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, where it will reside permanently.