Festivities at the state Capitol tomorrow will honor Father Damien De Veuster, whose work with leprosy patients led to his designation as a saint.

The Damien statue outside the Capitol will be draped with leis in a 10 a.m. public ceremony. The program will include a hula performance by Sacred Hearts Academy students, music by members of several Catholic schools with talks by the Rev. Marc Alexander, vicar general of the Catholic diocese, and leaders of the Sacred Hearts religious order to which Damien belonged.

The annual celebration comes a few weeks before the opening of a new Damien museum in Waikiki.

Gov. Linda Lingle signed a proclamation establishing May 10 as St. Damien Day in Hawaii, affirming Act 10 passed by the state Legislature to commemorate the date in 1873 when the Belgian priest arrived in Kalaupapa, a remote peninsula on Molokai to which leprosy victims were banished. Damien died of the disease in 1889 after 16 years of service that included providing medical as well as spiritual care, building houses and coffins and helping establish an orderly society at what was once a lawless place of despair for patients.

Tomorrow's event will be a low-key celebration compared to events last year when Damien was named a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in a Rome canonization service attended by more than 10,000 people, including 600 Hawaii residents. Several hundred people attended a Nov. 1 celebration on Iolani Palace grounds honoring the priest who was recognized by Hawaiian monarchs for his service to the earliest patients, most of whom were of Hawaiian ancestry.

St. Damien will be remembered in the long term at a museum that will open next month in Waikiki. Items that belonged to Damien—carpentry tools, sacramental vestments and vessels used in the Mass, his books, pipe and cane—will be on display.

The Rev. Lane Akiona, pastor of St. Augustine Church in Waikiki, said the small museum, in a commercial building next to the church, will display the life of Damien and Mother Marianne Cope, leader of Franciscan nursing nuns who came here to work with leprosy patients. The items to be displayed are now held in archives here and in Syracuse, N.Y., headquarters of the Sisters of St. Francis.

“;We are looking at a mixture of museum of Hawaiian history and history of the church in Hawaii,”; said Akiona. The Waikiki pastor, who said he frequently encounters visitors seeking Damien information, led the effort to reopen the museum, which was closed by a previous pastor of the parish.

Akiona said church volunteers will renovate the second floor of the ABC Store in front of the church for the museum. He credited ABC Stores chief executive office Paul Kosasa for supporting the church's effort to open the museum.

“;By being advocates for marginalized people, like the homeless, bringing them to a level of respect and dignity, we raise the dignity and compassion of the whole society,”; Akiona said.