Optional Memorial of St. Damien de Veuster of Molokai, 1840-1889; went to the Hawaiian Islands in 1864 as a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; in 1873, he went to the leper colony on the island of Molokai, and volunteered to remain indefinitely; soon the settlement had new houses and a new church, school and orphanage, and morale improved considerably; Damien himself contracted Hansen's disease (leprosy) and died of complications