Above, Kyong Son Toyofuku, left, her husband, Lance Toyofuku, center, and sister Alicia Damien Lau celebrate Mass at St. Philomena Church during a pilgrimage tour of Kalaupapa. 5/5 Swipe or click ...

Flags blow in the breeze at the grave of Father Damien outside St. Philomena Church on Kalaupapa, Hawaii, on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Damien was canonized a Catholic saint in 2009 for his work ...

Flags blow in the breeze at the grave of Father Damien outside St. Philomena Church on Kalaupapa, Hawaii, on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Damien was canonized a Catholic saint in 2009 for his work ...

Saint Philomena chapel is where Father Damien stayed to care for people who were alienated because they had Hansen's disease. He arrived in 1873 with the intention of staying permanently.

On May 10, the Catholic Church honors Father Damien, the Belgian priest who was elevated to sainthood for his work with Hansen’s disease patients in the leper colony at Kalaupapa.

A dark stone cross marks the original gravesite of St. Damien next to the church he largely built himself, St. Philomena, in Kalawao side on Molokai's Kalaupapa peninsula.

KALAUPAPA, Hawaii — Kalaupapa beckoned to Kyong Son Toyofuku. She had long prayed to visit the hard-to-reach Hawaiian peninsula, trapped by its deep-green, sheer sea cliffs and rugged, black ...

MOLOKAI (HAWAII NEWS NOW) - The newly-named Saint Damien returned to Kalaupapa Saturday in physical form. His relic, a piece of his heel, made its way into the peninsula after being buried in ...

But St. Philomena church still holds significance for the approximately 19 surviving patients, who've been officially free to leave since 1969, but choose to stay in Kalaupapa.

Below, Sister Alicia with a painting of St. Marianne and Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu at the Kalaupapa, Molokai, gravesite of his maternal great-grandfather, John Santos (1865-1921).

Flags blow in the breeze at the grave of Father Damien outside St. Philomena Church on Kalaupapa, Hawaii.(Credit: Jessie Wardarski/AP.) Listen KALAUPAPA, Hawaii — Kalaupapa beckoned to Kyong Son ...

Lance Toyofuku (left), talks with sisters Alicia Damien Lau (center), and Barbara Jean Wajda (right), after Mass at St. Philomena Church during a pilgrimage tour of Kalaupapa on July 18.