Feast day: 23 January
Saint Marianne Cope
A German-American Franciscan sister and hospital founder who answered Hawaii's call for help with leprosy when fifty other congregations refused, and cared for Saint Damien and the exiles of Molokai for thirty years.
- Born
- 23 January 1838, Heppenheim (Germany)
- Died
- 9 August 1918, Kalaupapa, Molokai (Hawaii)
- Canonization
- Beatified 14 May 2005 by Benedict XVI; canonized 21 October 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
- Religious order
- Sisters of Saint Francis of Syracuse
- Country
- Germany and United States
Biography
Factory girl and hospital foundress
Barbara Koob came as an infant to Utica, New York, and worked in a factory to support her family before entering the Franciscan sisters in 1862. As a superior she helped found two of the first public hospitals in central New York, insisting that patients of every race and creed be admitted.
The call from Hawaii
In 1883 the Hawaiian government appealed to religious communities for help with leprosy; more than fifty refused. Mother Marianne answered at once and sailed with six sisters, taking charge of hospitals in Oahu and Maui and of the home for the healthy daughters of patients.
Molokai
She nursed Saint Damien in his final illness and, after his death in 1889, took over the settlement, opening the Bishop Home for women and girls. She promised her sisters that none would contract leprosy, and none ever did. She died at Kalaupapa in 1918 after thirty years there.
Timeline
- 1838 — Born in Heppenheim, Germany
- 1862 — Professed as a Franciscan sister
- 1883 — Sails for Hawaii with six sisters
- 1888 — Moves permanently to Kalaupapa, Molokai
- 1918 — Dies at Kalaupapa on 9 August
- 2012 — Canonized by Benedict XVI
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Franciscan habit and nurse's apron — Contemplative life joined to professional nursing.
Hawaiian lei — Her adopted people.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Practical charity, administrative competence used for the poorest, fearlessness in contagion and respect for the dignity of the disfigured.
Importance in the Church
Together with Damien she is the great witness of the Church's care for those with leprosy, and a patron of Catholic health care and hospital hygiene.
Quotes
“I am hungry for the work, and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen ones whose privilege it will be to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor islanders.”
Reply to the Hawaiian government's appeal, 1883
Prayers
Prayer to Saint Marianne Cope
Saint Marianne, mother of the outcasts of Molokai, you went where no one else would go. Obtain for all who nurse the sick a steady hand and a reverent heart, and for us the grace to see Christ in the disfigured and the forgotten. Amen.
Prayer used at her shrine in Syracuse, New York.
Places
Kalaupapa, Molokai — Where she served thirty years and first was buried.
Saint Marianne Cope Shrine, Syracuse, New York — Where her relics rest today.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)