Tabb Centenary Year XXV

A quatrain on Father Damien of Molokai by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Father Damien

O God, the cleanest offering
   Of tainted earth below,
Unblushing to thy feet we bring—
   “A leper white as snow!”

May 1889 (p. 347, Quatrains: Persons)

[Father Damien, Hawaii's Apostle to the Lepers, died this day, April 15, 1889; he was beatified by Pope John Paul II, June 4, 1995, and is scheduled to be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI, October 11, 2009. The concluding line of the poem is a Biblical reference; see, for instance, 2 Kings 5:27.]

The references (page number and section) are to The Poetry of Father Tabb, ed. Francis A. Litz, Ph.D. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1928). All of Tabb's poems published here in the Father Tabb Centenary Year were originally published before 1923.

Biblical references link to the New Advent Bible comprising Bishop Challoner's edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible (English) and the Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate (Latin), since they are the versions which Father Tabb would have used as a Catholic.

The year 2009 is the centenary of the death of Rev. John Banister Tabb, November 19, 1909.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 04/15/09 08:43:45 PM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.