WHO WERE Blessed Damien Joseph de Veuster, St. Nereus, St. Achilleus, & St. Pancras??

JOSEPH de VEUSTER (also known as: Father Damien)

Memorial: 15 April
Profile: Son of a small farmer. Studied at the College of Braine-le-Comte. Joined the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (Picpus Fathers) on 7 October 1860, taking the name Damien. Seminarian in Paris, France. Volunteered for missionary work while still in seminary, and was sent to Hawaii. Ordained in Honolulu on 24 May 1864. Missionary on islands where his single parish was the size of all of his native Belgium. Resident priest in the leper colony on Molokai where for years he worked alone to minister to the patients' spiritual and medical needs. His work turned a wretched dump for the unwanted into a real community with the best treatment of the day, and patients who lived strong spiritual lives. He contracted leprosy in 1885, and though severely crippled by the disease, Father Damien worked until the end.
Born: 3 January 1840 on the family farm at Tremeloo, Belgium
Died: 15 April 1889 at Molokai, Hawaii from leprosy; buried next to Saint Philomena Church, Molokai, Hawaii; interred in the cathedral at Antwerp, Belgium in 1936
Name Meaning: whom the Lord adds (Joseph)
Venerated: 1977 by Pope Paul VI
Beatified: 3 June 1995 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: pending

NEREUS

Memorial: 12 May
Profile: Soldier in the imperial Roman army, and a member of the Praetorian Guard. Convert to Christianity, baptized by Saint Peter the Apostle. Exiled for his faith, he suffered with Saint Flavia Domitilla, and was martyred with his brother, Saint Achilleus.
Died: beheaded in 98
Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Memorial: 12 May
Profile: Soldier in the imperial Roman army, and a member of the Praetorian Guard. Convert to Christianity, baptized by Saint Peter the Apostle. Exiled for his faith, he suffered with Saint Flavia Domitilla, and was martyred with his brother Saint Nereus.
Died: beheaded in 98
Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Also known as: Pancritas; Pancratius
Memorial: 12 May
Profile: Fourteen-year-old orphan, brought to Rome by his uncle, Saint Dionysius. Convert to Christianity. Martyred with Saint Nereus, Saint Achilleus, and Saint Domitilla for publicly proclaiming his faith. Pope Vitalian sent his relics from the cemetery of Calepodius in Rome to England as part of the evangelization of England, so they would have relics of the Church at large, and to install in altars in new churches. Saint Augustine of Canterbury dedicated the first Church in England to Saint Pancras, and subsequent churches throughout England are similarly named for him.
Born: c.290 at Phrygia
Died: beheaded c.304 on the Via Aurelia, Rome, Italy; relics interred in the Saint Pancras church, Rome, but were destroyed in 1798; his head is still in the basilica of Saint John Lateran
Patronage: against false witness; against perjury; children; cramps; headaches; Iserlohn, Germany; oaths; treaties