His brother was bent on going to the South Seas for mission work, and all was arranged accordingly; but at the last he was laid low with fever, and, to his bitter disappointment, forbidden to go.  The impetuous Joseph asked if it would be a consolation to his brother if he were to go instead, and, receiving an affirmative answer, he wrote surreptitiously, offering himself, and begging that he might be sent, though his education was not yet finished.  The students were not allowed to send out letters till they had been submitted to the Superior, but Joseph ventured to disobey.

One day, as he sat at his studies, the Superior came in, and said, with a tender reproach, “Oh, you impatient boy! you have written this letter, and you are to go.”

Joseph jumped up, and ran out, and leaped about like a young colt.

“Is he crazy?” said the other students.

He worked for some years on other islands in the Pacific, but it happened that he was one day in 1873 present at the dedication of a chapel in the island of Maui, when the bishop was lamenting that it was impossible for him to send a missioner to the lepers at Molokai and still less to provide them with a pastor.  He had only been able to send them occasional and temporary help.  Some young priests had just arrived in Hawaii for mission work, and Father Damien instantly spoke.

“Monseigneur,” said he, “here are your new missioners; one of them could take my district, and if you will be kind enough to allow it, I will go to Molokai and labour for the poor lepers whose wretched state of bodily and spiritual misfortune has often made my heart bleed within me.”

His offer was accepted, and that very day, without any farewells, he embarked on a boat that was taking some cattle to the leper settlement.  When he first put his foot on the island he said to himself, “Now Joseph, my boy, this is your life-work.”

I did not find one person in the Sandwich Islands who had the least doubt as to leprosy being contagious, though it is possible to be exposed to the disease for years without contracting it.  Father Damien told me that he had always expected that he should sooner or later become a leper, though exactly how he caught it he does not know.  But it was not likely that he would escape, as he was constantly living in a polluted atmosphere, dressing the sufferers’ sores, washing their bodies, visiting their death-beds, and even digging their graves.  In his own words is a report of the state of things at Molokai sixteen years ago, and I think a portion will be interesting: 

“By special providence of our Divine Lord, who during His public life showed a particular sympathy for the lepers, my way was traced toward Kalawao in May, 1873.  I was then thirty-three years of age, enjoying a robust good health.