I feel it as a pity and an omission that our blessed (23th May 1982) Peter Donders is not mentioned as the apostle of the lepers. He worked in Suriname at the [leper settlement] Batavia along the Coppename River, isolated from the world. He worked for 27 years with the lepers, but he was never infected. The devotion for the Blessed ‘Peerke’ Donders is very strong. Last year there were special celebrations in Holland and Suriname on the occasion of his 200th birthday.
Bishop Wilhelmus de Bekker
Bishop of Paramaribo, Suriname, South America
