Deacon Joseph Barron was in fifth grade when a priest visited his classroom to talk about St. Damien of Molokai, a 19th-century, religious-order priest who left his native Belgium to minister in Hawaii and, ultimately, to a Hawaiian leper colony. He led the building of houses, schools and a church, cared for the sick and buried the dead. Even when his community had scheduled another priest to replace him, Father Damien asked to stay to serve the lepers. He contracted the disease and, after 16 years ministering to others with leprosy, died in 1889.
