"Father Damien's Church" Kalaupapa Molokai

“Father Damien’s Church”

  St. Philomena, Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii

  by Bill Braden

I am humbled by the circumstances of this commissioned work in ways I’ve not been able to put in words.  Army Chaplain, Father  Jack Heron commissioned this work.  It is a place of such unique isolation – a peninsula separated from the world by the highest  sea  cliffs in the world on one side, a deep sometimes treacherous north facing sea on the other.  A place that is now a National  Historical  Park commemorating the settlement that Father Damien gave his life to improve the plight of those afflicted with Hansen’s  Disease  then shunned by the world – exiled to Kalaupapa.  I’ve depicted Father Hendricks praying next to his fellow Belgian’s grave. Can you  find father Dutton’s spirit in this scene?