Deacon Joseph Barron was in fifth grade when a priest visited his classroom to talk about St. Damien of Molokai, a 19th-century, religious-order priest who left his native Belgium to minister in Hawaii and, ultimately, to a Hawaiian leper colony.

He led the building of houses, schools and a church, cared for the sick and buried the dead. Even when his community had scheduled another priest to replace him, Father Damien asked to stay to serve the lepers. He contracted the disease and, after 16 years ministering to others with leprosy, died in 1889.

Deacon Barron, 28, doesn’t recall who the storyteller priest was, but he was taken by Father Damien’s self-sacrifice, heroism and “adventurous spirit,” he said. As the priest greeted students before leaving, he took note of Joe’s name and told him he should take St. Damien as a patron saint. Before the leper-priest joined his religious order and took the name “Damien,” he explained, his name was Joseph.

St. Damien’s story, plus the priest’s suggestion, planted in Deacon Barron’s heart a particular desire: to become a priest — and specifically, a mission priest.

The idea surprised him. Then a student at Holy Family Academy in St. Louis Park, it was the first time he had considered it, but it took hold— so much so, that in order to dissuade the attention of a girl with a crush on him, he kept an index card in his pocket, which he showed her on occasion. On it he had written a single word: “priest.”

Deacon Barron’s interest in priesthood waned, however, in his middle school years, and baseball became his focus after his family moved west of the Twin Cities to Winsted. But, before his sophomore year of high school, his family returned to the Twin Cities and he enrolled in the inaugural class of Chesterton Academy in the west metro. The liberal arts curriculum and engaging discussions in the fledgling school inspired him to start taking faith more seriously. When he describes his 2011 graduating class — Chesterton’s first — he says with a grin that 50% of it entered the priesthood: him. The other graduate is happily married.

Deacon Barron enrolled at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul planning to become a pharmacist. His first weekend on campus, he spotted from his dorm window St. Mark’s skinny spire a few blocks away. He decided to walk over, and while there, went to confession. It was in that confessional that he met Father Humberto Palomino, St. Mark’s pastor and a member of Pro Ecclesia Sancta, a Peru-based religious order serving St. Mark and other local parishes and schools. He was “blown away” by Father Humberto’s reverence, he said, and a couple weeks later, he began attending the Catholic Men’s Leadership group, which the priest led at St. Thomas.

Father Humberto encouraged the men to be deliberate about their prayer life, starting with just five minutes each day. Deacon Barron soon signed up for a 2 a.m. Saturday morning Holy Hour. The idea of priesthood grew stronger, and in January of his freshman year, he met with Father Humberto for advice. The priest invited the student to give more time to prayer, pondering a question from God: “Joe, I see that you’re willing to give me a little bit. What if you gave me everything?”

About a month later, he met again with Father Humberto and shared his continued desire for priesthood. “I think you should be one of us,” the priest told him. That surprised the college student, who hadn’t considered that some priests are called to serve in dioceses, and others serve in religious communities or religious orders. He left the meeting feeling inner turmoil over his next steps, and he went to St. Mark to pray.

As he finished prayer, Father Humberto saw him and invited him to dinner with the other PES members. At that meal, “I felt a sense of peace. I felt like I was with family,” Deacon Barron recalled. And it was there, at that table, that he believes God gave him consolation in his calling — to priesthood, and to PES.

“I thought the answer would come in Mass, but it came very naturally, during a meal,” he said.

After that evening, he was unwavering — even if his decision didn’t immediately make sense to family and friends. In April he moved in with the PES priests and brothers and began formation. He took the next year off college to work and discern. The following year, 2013, he and another PES aspirant (now also Deacon) David Hottinger moved to Peru for a two-year novitiate.

They professed their first vows in August 2015 — adopting the prefix “brother” — and returned to the states to continue formation. Then-Brother Barron finished his undergraduate degree — in philosophy, not chemistry — and enrolled at The St. Paul Seminary for intellectual formation the same year as then-Brother Hottinger. The other three dimensions of priestly formation — pastoral, human and spiritual — were chiefly developed within the local PES community, an aspect that distinguished their formation from the men preparing for diocesan priesthood.

Last year, Brothers Barron and Hottinger professed final vows to the PES community, becoming the first Americans to join the order. The profession was May 10 — which happened also to be St. Damian of Molokai’s feast day. They were also ordained transitional deacons that month.

It wasn’t until Deacon Barron was asked to speak about his vocation to a women’s group that he recalled that fifth-grade encounter with St. Damian and his early desire to emulate the missionary priest. As he looks back, he believes God prepared him in many ways for a life of ministry that may take him far beyond the Twin Cities: his large family, a good sense of humor, even moving around a lot as a kid.

“I feel like the Lord has blessed me with a religious family — we help each other out,” he said. It’s the familial aspect of PES — including branches for both men and women — that gives him courage to be a missionary, he said, because no matter where he is, he will be with family.

Following his May 29 ordination at the Cathedral of St. Paul, he will offer a Mass of Thanksgiving 9 a.m. May 30 at St. Mark.