Vicar's Family in Training » saints http://www.vicarsfamilyintraining.org.uk on being the family of a woman training to be a priest in the Church of England Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:54:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 A priest remembered in Belgium http://www.vicarsfamilyintraining.org.uk/archives/38 http://www.vicarsfamilyintraining.org.uk/archives/38#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:59:26 +0000 husband http://www.vicarsfamilyintraining.org.uk/?p=38 In my previous post I mentioned it had been an odd week, this half term. VIT in college, me with the kids. The second half of VIT’s week has less in the timetable, so my week has sort of returned to normal – i.e. I’m away from home. In fact I am writing this heading [...]]]> In my previous post I mentioned it had been an odd week, this half term. VIT in college, me with the kids. The second half of VIT’s week has less in the timetable, so my week has sort of returned to normal – i.e. I’m away from home. In fact I am writing this heading home on board a National Express Train which takes longer to do less distance than the Eurostar I took early this evening from Brussels. In the meantime I’ve been to Hendon and Leuven.

Leuven was interesting since it was just two weeks since the Pope has turned Father Damien, a Leuven boy, into a saint. His wish had been to be buried in Hawaii where he had lived and worked with lepers. And indeed this happened. Butin1935  the Belgian government asked for him back, and so his remains were moved to Leuven. In 1995 he was beatified, and at this point what was left of his right hand was sent back to Hawaii. There’s a picture of him here looking not unlike VIT’s grandfather.

Anyway, all up and down the streets in Leuven are billboard size photos connected with Fr Damian. There are photos of his gravestone, his body’s return to Leuven, all kinds of things associated with his life proudly displayed in the street, to celebrate his canonization.

I wonder who will remember our VITs when they’re gone.

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