An announcement of the date of canonization for the man being called Hawai'i's first saint is just around the corner.

Father Damien de Veuster was the Sacred Hearts priest who served Hansen's disease patients in Kalaupapa on Moloka'i, eventually contracting the disease, then called leprosy. He died of it in 1889.

Pope Benedict XVI signed papers last summer documenting a miracle involving Audrey Toguchi, the 'Aiea teacher who was cured of cancer, virtually assuring Damien — who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995 — will be the first person with Hawai'i ties to be named a saint.

While Hawai'i Bishop Larry Silva began an e-mail with this caveat — "I do not know for sure when a date for Father Damien's canonization will be announced" — he followed it up with what has widely been discussed around the chancery building on Bishop Street and in the Roman Catholic churches across the Islands.

"From those who have been Rome insiders and who know the normal (emphasized with capital letters) pattern of these things, I think it should be announced in mid-February," Silva wrote.

Also, a consistory is planned for that time at the Vatican, according to the Rev. Herman Gomes, the Sacred Hearts priest who preached about Damien at the annual Red Mass at the beginning of the 2009 Legislative session.

Silva and others previously predicted the announcement would be timed to occur at the time of the next consistory.

A consistory is a gathering of church hierarchy to make large-scale decisions. It is not known how many other saints will be canonized at the same time, but the assumption is Damien will not be the only one honored at the ceremony, expected to be held in Rome.

Silva heads the commission on sainthood for both Damien and Mother Marianne Cope, who also cared for the sick of Kalaupapa at the settlement.