The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1894-06-30
HERO AMONG LEPERS.
SACRIFICE OF A PRIEST IN
SOUTH AMERICA.
Don Unia, Member of the Salesian Faith
ers, Slowly Dying of the Terrible Dis
ease Caught While Ministering to the
Comfort of Sufferers.


ease Caught While Iinistering to the
Comfort of Sufferers.
Down in the South American Re-
public of Colon bia one of these days
a simple, pious man will die, and the
world will call him a hero. The
scales of leprosy cover his body and
ne must present a very unattractive,
perhaps hideous appearance. News
was recently received in this city
that the dread disease had at last
taken hold of him.
He is a Roman Catholic priest and
belongs to the order of Salesian
| Fathers. Like Father Damien, who
laid down his life for the lepers OF
Malokai this man, who is called Don
Unia. went out to minister to the
spiritual wants of a leper colony
For two years he has been among
| the |, 200 outcasts who compose the
leper settlement of Aqua de Dios
| The last heard of him he was consid-
cred as being dangerously i'll
! The story of his life among the
lepers has been obtained from his
own pen, but nothing has been heard
directly from him since he became d
| leper. Don Unia left Turin in 1889.
| He wrote to his superior two years
later from the South American Re-
public saying that he longed to de.
| vote his life to the services of the
lepers He was then in Sante Fe de
Bogota from which the leper colony
Of Aqua de Dios is about three days
march. Without waiting to secure
the desired permission to labor among
the lepers he hastened to the lazar-
| etto There was great Joy among
| the outcasts over his coming, says
the New York Herald. This is the
way Don Unia describes the recep-
ton
LAS we drew near about a hundred
little boys in Sunday clothes and
with shining faces advanced with
many little banners Tapping above
their heads. These were followed
by white-robed little girls bearing
palms and flowers and singing hymns.
1t was a simple scene and yet so
touching that it drew tears from my
| eyes.
"But the sight soon changed for
! lie when I visited those lying in t the
lazaretto. God help them!-breath-
| ing carcasses, in a long protracted
| putrefactiOn. One is without hands,
| another without arms, and another
has no feet. Here is one whose flesh
is dropping off piecemeal, and in
this awful condition they drag out a
miserable decade! My heart sank at
first, but as l found these afflicted
beings brighten at my presence !
felt that ghastly smile great re-
ward for weakness overcome"
Don Unia was the only priest
among the 1900 afflicted ones in that
outcast community. He looked af-
ter the ones who suffered most, Gel
ebrated mass, administered the sac
raments and paid consoling visits to
those in the last stages Of the dis
| ease.
Taking everything into account, y
he said in one of his letters, II
think work won't be wanting, so my
life will be a happy one"
He did not expect to escape the
disease, he said, but the fact that
even as leper he would be able to
hear confessions and console the af-
! aicted ones seemed to console him.
He would do this, he declared, though
he was covered with ulcers. The
only thing he complained of was the
heat, and all he said on this point
was that the temperature was Gun
pleasantly high"
| He described his quarters as a
| shed, divided into two little chambers
and covered with palm leaves,
| through which the rain passes beau
| tifully, but with the burning heat
one suffers a little water will do
no harm. "A fine little boy has
been told off to attend to my wants.
He brings me something to eat twice
a day, just as the crow used to DO
| by the old hermit"
| It took two months for his letter
| begging to be allowed to pass his
life with the lepers to reach the su-
| perior in Turin. Don Unia was al
| most heartbroken when he received
from the superior an order to take
! charge of the Salesian house in the
| City of Mexico. He believed that
this meant that his request had been
refused, but the fact was the order
had been sent from Turin before Don
Unia's letter had been received by
the superior. Don Unia's request
was granted. the superior wrote,
with tears and a heart full of zeal
GUS thankfulness.
i When the letter ordering him to
| go to the City of Mexico was re-
| ceived Dun Unia at once made prepa-
| rations to leave the lepers, and to
the superior he sent a letter of
| urgent entreaty, in which he said:
I'm order to render my departure
less bitter to those poor, agonized
souls I will not 1eave them without
| hope. shall give them to under
| stand that, after visiting Mexico, IN
| the lapse of a few months, I shall be
back again among them, to remain
with them forever. My dearly be-
loved superior will not surely make
me break my word. When all mat