HUNTINGTON — Local actor Paul Neace said he’s never known of anyone who was truly selfless until he learned about Damien of Moloka'i.
 

Known as “the Apostle of Lepers,” Damien was a Roman Catholic priest who ministered to a leper colony and lost his own life to the disease in 1889.
 

He’s being canonized a saint Sunday, Oct. 11, by Pope Benedict XVI, and Neace is performing a one-man play about Damien’s life this weekend at the Huntington Museum of Art.
 

The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10; and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, at the museum. The show was written by Aldyth Morris and is being directed by Mary Williams.
 

A one-man show is a hefty endeavor, but Damien’s story deserves to be known outside the Catholic community, Neace said.
 

“I’m blessed to have this opportunity,” he said.
 

The story begins at Damien’s gravesite,  where he describes his life — his calling to the suffering leper colony, and his personal evolution from boyhood to sainthood, with its conflicts and challenges. Victims of leprosy endured isolation and abandonment at the time, often without basic needs met, let alone medical care. Damien cared for lepers for 16 years.
 

 The story illustrates how not to react to medical threats in the community, to care for each other instead, a press release said.
 

Neace has also appeared locally in productions of “Oliver,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Noises Off” and “Wizard of Oz.”
 

National Video