Perhaps the best known member of the congregation is Fr Damien of Molokai also known as 'the leper priest'. In 1873, Fr Damien heard the story about Molokai in the Hawaiian Island, a place where the lepers were thrown away and shut from the outer world. He felt a call to serve the lepers there and insisted to be given permission to stay together with the lepers in Molokai. In 1884, it turned out that Damien contracted leprosy himself. He died on the 18th of April 1889 as a leper. Fr Damien was canonised as a saint in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.