Father Damien Robert Louis Stevenson Books
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Father Damien Robert Louis Stevenson Books
If a rival in your chosen field of endeavor - one with whom you disagreed vehemently and fundamentally - garnered world-wide recognition, would you be able to restrain your envy? What if he were by all accounts unkempt, stubborn, pig-headed and the very idea of him rubbed you the wrong way; could you shield your animosity from view? If this same rival laid down his own life, nay, not for his friends, but for suffering strangers simply because he saw Christ in them, would you cast your human pettiness aside? Could you recognize a saint in your midst?Congregationalist minister Dr. Charles McEwen Hyde could not. He penned a letter to another minister, the Rev Gage, that sought to stain the memory of his deceased rival, repeating every nasty rumor about the man. This letter that McEwen wrote to Gage became public. Another Congregationalist read McEwen's letter, and could not keep silent. The result is this very short book, "Father Damien: an Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu" by Robert Louis Stevenson, author of, among many great works, Treasure Island.
If you don't know the story of Fr. Damien of Molokai, it is one of the most extraordinary tales of courage, humility, and sacrifice in imitation of Christ that you may ever hear. A Catholic priest from Belgium and a religious of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he ministered to the lepers quarantined on the island of Molokai, Hawaii for sixteen years before succumbing to the disease himself in 1889. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Stevenson dispenses no niceties in reproving Rev McEwen, in what amounts to a 30-page well-deserved verbal pummeling - not so much to hurt McEwen (he certainly strips him of his sinful pride), but to defend Fr. Damien, who Stevenson knows will one day be a saint. He gives the rational for his open letter in the very first paragraph:
"You know enough, doubtless, of the process of canonisation to be aware that, a hundred years after the death of Damien, there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the devil's advocate. After that noble brother of mine, and of all frail clay, shall have lain a century at rest, one shall accuse, one defend him. The circumstance is unusual that the devil's advocate should be a volunteer, should be a member of a sect immediately rival, and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly office ere the bones are cold; unusual, and of a taste which I shall leave my readers free to qualify; unusual, and to me inspiring. If I have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to arouse emotion, you have at last furnished me with a subject. For it is in the interest of all mankind, and the cause of public decency in every quarter of the world, not only that Damien should be righted, but that you and your letter should be displayed at length, in their true colours, to the public eye."
Further down, Stevenson, in perhaps one of the most moving tributes ever written describes in stark, horrible detail the essence of St. Damien's life and death:
"[Molokai is] the most distressful country that ever yet was seen. And observe: that which I saw and suffered from was a settlement purged, bettered, beautified; the new village built, the hospital and the Bishop-Home excellently arranged; the sisters, the doctor, and the missionaries, all indefatigable in their noble tasks. It was a different place when Damien came there and made this great renunciation, and slept that first night under a tree amidst his rotting brethren: alone with pestilence; and looking forward (with what courage, with what pitiful sinkings of dread, God only knows) to a lifetime of dressing sores and stumps.
You will say, perhaps, I am too sensitive, that sights as painful abound in cancer hospitals and are confronted daily by doctors and nurses. I have long learned to admire and envy the doctors and the nurses. But there is no cancer hospital so large and populous as Kalawao and Kalaupapa; and in such a matter every fresh case, like every inch of length in the pipe of an organ, deepens the note of the impression; for what daunts the onlooker is that monstrous sum of human suffering by which he stands surrounded. Lastly, no doctor or nurse is called upon to enter once for all the doors of that gehenna; they do not say farewell, they need not abandon hope, on its sad threshold; they but go for a time to their high calling, and can look forward as they go to relief, to recreation, and to rest. But Damien shut-to with his own hand the doors of his own sepulchre."
Amen. St. Damien, pray for us, that we find the courage to help our suffering fellows here on earth. And God bless Robert Louis Stevenson for coming to the defense of a humble, peasant priest.
This book is public domain and available in several electronic formats at gutenberg dot org - search "Father Damien".
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Father Damien Robert Louis Stevenson Books Reviews
If a rival in your chosen field of endeavor - one with whom you disagreed vehemently and fundamentally - garnered world-wide recognition, would you be able to restrain your envy? What if he were by all accounts unkempt, stubborn, pig-headed and the very idea of him rubbed you the wrong way; could you shield your animosity from view? If this same rival laid down his own life, nay, not for his friends, but for suffering strangers simply because he saw Christ in them, would you cast your human pettiness aside? Could you recognize a saint in your midst?
Congregationalist minister Dr. Charles McEwen Hyde could not. He penned a letter to another minister, the Rev Gage, that sought to stain the memory of his deceased rival, repeating every nasty rumor about the man. This letter that McEwen wrote to Gage became public. Another Congregationalist read McEwen's letter, and could not keep silent. The result is this very short book, "Father Damien an Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu" by Robert Louis Stevenson, author of, among many great works, Treasure Island.
If you don't know the story of Fr. Damien of Molokai, it is one of the most extraordinary tales of courage, humility, and sacrifice in imitation of Christ that you may ever hear. A Catholic priest from Belgium and a religious of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he ministered to the lepers quarantined on the island of Molokai, Hawaii for sixteen years before succumbing to the disease himself in 1889. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Stevenson dispenses no niceties in reproving Rev McEwen, in what amounts to a 30-page well-deserved verbal pummeling - not so much to hurt McEwen (he certainly strips him of his sinful pride), but to defend Fr. Damien, who Stevenson knows will one day be a saint. He gives the rational for his open letter in the very first paragraph
"You know enough, doubtless, of the process of canonisation to be aware that, a hundred years after the death of Damien, there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the devil's advocate. After that noble brother of mine, and of all frail clay, shall have lain a century at rest, one shall accuse, one defend him. The circumstance is unusual that the devil's advocate should be a volunteer, should be a member of a sect immediately rival, and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly office ere the bones are cold; unusual, and of a taste which I shall leave my readers free to qualify; unusual, and to me inspiring. If I have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to arouse emotion, you have at last furnished me with a subject. For it is in the interest of all mankind, and the cause of public decency in every quarter of the world, not only that Damien should be righted, but that you and your letter should be displayed at length, in their true colours, to the public eye."
Further down, Stevenson, in perhaps one of the most moving tributes ever written describes in stark, horrible detail the essence of St. Damien's life and death
"[Molokai is] the most distressful country that ever yet was seen. And observe that which I saw and suffered from was a settlement purged, bettered, beautified; the new village built, the hospital and the Bishop-Home excellently arranged; the sisters, the doctor, and the missionaries, all indefatigable in their noble tasks. It was a different place when Damien came there and made this great renunciation, and slept that first night under a tree amidst his rotting brethren alone with pestilence; and looking forward (with what courage, with what pitiful sinkings of dread, God only knows) to a lifetime of dressing sores and stumps.
You will say, perhaps, I am too sensitive, that sights as painful abound in cancer hospitals and are confronted daily by doctors and nurses. I have long learned to admire and envy the doctors and the nurses. But there is no cancer hospital so large and populous as Kalawao and Kalaupapa; and in such a matter every fresh case, like every inch of length in the pipe of an organ, deepens the note of the impression; for what daunts the onlooker is that monstrous sum of human suffering by which he stands surrounded. Lastly, no doctor or nurse is called upon to enter once for all the doors of that gehenna; they do not say farewell, they need not abandon hope, on its sad threshold; they but go for a time to their high calling, and can look forward as they go to relief, to recreation, and to rest. But Damien shut-to with his own hand the doors of his own sepulchre."
Amen. St. Damien, pray for us, that we find the courage to help our suffering fellows here on earth. And God bless Robert Louis Stevenson for coming to the defense of a humble, peasant priest.
This book is public domain and available in several electronic formats at gutenberg dot org - search "Father Damien".
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