An extraordinary prediction

I have just been translating into Maltese the biography of the new saint known as Damien the Leper of Molokai, written in 1954 by film director John Farrow, father of actress Mia Farrow. Having come across an extraordinary prediction, I thought I would share it with readers.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish poet, essayist and author who wrote, among many other masterpieces, Treasure Island, one of the world's most enduring pirate stories, wrote a long letter in defence of Fr Damien de Veuster, who was viciously attacked by a Congregational minister, Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde, in a letter published in a newspaper.

Stevenson had seen for himself the good work done for the lepers, "the butt-ends of human beings", by the poor priest. He admitted that he felt so much for the sufferings of the leper children that he wept, but that he had an awed admiration for the priest who had given his life to attend to them.

So he took it upon himself to write and publish a very stern letter to his former colleague in religion.

He began this letter by reminding Rev. Hyde that "in the process of canonisation a hundred years after the death of Damien, there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the devil's advocate. After that noble brother of mine, whom you have vilified by your gossip, shall have lain a century at rest, one shall accuse, one defend him... If the world will at all remember you, on the day when Damien of Molokai shall be named saint, it will be in virtue of one work: your letter..."

Stevenson wrote this letter in 1890, a year after Fr Damien's leprous death. His prediction came true a month ago when Pope Benedict XVI canonised, in the author's words, "one of the world's heroes and exemplars, who toiled and rotted in that pig-sty of his under the cliffs of Kalawao".

In Malta we have the Order of Charity under the wing of the Malta Grand Priory of the ancient Order of St Lazarus.

Both orders dedicate their energy mainly to lepers around the world. It must be remembered that there are 700,000 new cases of leprosy every year. If you would like to help this worthy cause, please send your cheque to the Order of Charity, Catholic Institute, Floriana.