The Church will get a new saint later this week — one with a unique American connection — and visitors are already en route to Rome for the main event. 

Dozens of Maui Catholics have begun the half-way-around-the-world journey to Rome to see Father Damien de Veuster canonized as Hawaii’s first saint.

“It’s a spiritual once-in-a-lifetime moment,” said Pat Takushi, a lifelong Catholic and parishioner at Christ the King Church in Kahului.

“It’s going to be an awesome, awesome sight,” said Marie LaBanca, a Honokowai retiree who, along with her husband, Anthony, has prayed to Damien for more than a decade.

“I’m really looking forward to being part of the celebration,” said Mildred Chargualaf, secretary at St. Theresa Church in Kihei. “It will be probably be a chicken-skin moment when it happens.”

Pope Benedict XVI will canonize Blessed Damien with four other saints during a ceremony set for 10 a.m. Oct. 11 (10 p.m. Saturday HST) at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.

Father Damien, who was christened Joseph de Veuster in Tremelo, Belgium, is known to much of the world as Damien the Leper. In June 1995, he was declared by the late Pope John Paul II as “Blessed Damien, servant of God, servant of humanity.”

Damien ministered to people afflicted with Hansen’s disease for 16 years on Molokai, where he died at the age of 49 from the same disease.

In December 1999, the Vatican approved May 10, the day Father Damien arrived on Molokai, as his feast day. Last year in July, Pope Benedict signed a decree accepting the unexplained cancer cure of retired Hawaii schoolteacher Audrey Toguchi as the miracle required for Blessed Damien’s canonization.

The moment of canonization is now less than a week away.

Takushi, LaBanca and Chargualaf are among more than 600 travelers who have paid upward of $4,500 for travel costs alone so they could be present at the canonization.

Hawaii Bishop Larry Silva’s official entourage of some 530 left last week and is scheduled to be in Tremelo today for a hometown festival honoring the late priest and soon-to-be saint.

Seawind Tours & Travel in Honolulu, which coordinated the 1995 travel to Rome for Damien’s beatification, was commissioned by Silva to do the same for the canonization.

The main trip includes stops in Belgium, and a shorter one takes travelers straight to Rome. Kalena Yim, co-owner of Seawind, said about 22 employees are accompanying the travelers. Seawind’s staff made a variety of arrangements, from communication needs for traveling Honolulu media to medical care for the frail and elderly traveling in the entourage.

Silva and those traveling with him are considered “special guests” wherever they go, according to Yim, including in Tremelo, where they will help to dedicate a statue in his honor and visit his tomb.

“Everyone is so excited,” Yim said. “It’s a big deal to have people from Hawaii visiting.”

There’s more at the link.