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, Molokaçi, 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.
Before joining in the celebrations, patients and invited dignitaries were to celebrate Mass in a large tent at Ninde.
The patients were scheduled to be personally greeted by Belgium’s King Albert II and Queen Paola, before Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels celebrated Mass before the crowd. He was to be joined by Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva.
In addition to the royal couple, Belgium’s prime minister and a host of other dignitaries attended.
Everyone wanted a chance to meet the 11 Hansen’s disease patients, who traveled the 7,500 miles to Belgium along with 340 other Hawaiçi 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 Hawaiçi’s first saint.
They also were eager to meet Audrey Toguchi, the çAiea 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.”
Patient Gloria 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.”
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