An Army chaplain from Kansas who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor was honored Saturday in a ceremony at Punchbowl cemetery.

In April, President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest military honor to Capt. Emil Kapaun, who risked his life dodging gunfire to provide medical and spiritual aid to wounded soldiers before dying in captivity more than 60 years ago during the Korean War.

Because the Catholic priest’s remains were never recovered, his name is listed at the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Hono­lulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Commission Secretary Max Cleland and the Very Rev. Gary L. Secor, vicar general of the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii, presided over Saturday’s ceremony in which Kapaun’s name was written in gold leaf on the Honolulu Memorial.

A separate effort is underway seeking sainthood for Kapaun.

Kapaun died in a prisoner of war camp in North Korea, where his "extraordinary courage, faith and leadership inspired thousands of prisoners to survive hellish conditions, resist enemy indoctrination, and retain their faith in God and country," the cemetery said in news release Friday.

Kapaun served with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, in November 1950 during the Battle of Unsan.

During the battle, according to an Army fact sheet, "Kapaun moved fearlessly from foxhole to foxhole under direct enemy fire in order to provide comfort and reassurance to the outnumbered soldiers. He repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to recover wounded men, dragging them to safety. When he couldn’t drag them, he dug shallow trenches to shield them from enemy fire. As Chinese forces closed in, Kapaun rejected several chances to escape, instead volunteering to stay behind and care for the wounded."

He risked his life as a POW "by sneaking around the camp after dark, for- aging for food, caring for the sick, and encouraging his fellow soldiers to sustain their faith and their humanity," the Army says. He openly flouted his captors by conducting a sunrise service on Easter 1951.

When Kapaun began to suffer from the physical toll of his captivity, the Chinese transferred him to a filthy, unheated hospital, where he died alone on May 23, 1951.