Marianne Cope | |
|---|---|
 Marianne Cope shortly before her departure for Hawaii (1883) | |
| Virgin | |
| Born | Barbara Koob (1838-01-23)January 23, 1838 Heppenheim,Grand Duchy of Hesse |
| Died | August 9, 1918(1918-08-09) (aged 80) Kalaupapa,Territory of Hawaiʻi, United States |
| Resting place | Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace,Honolulu,Hawaii, United States |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church,Episcopal Church |
| Beatified | May 14, 2005,Saint Peter's Basilica,Vatican City, byPope Benedict XVI |
| Canonized | October 21, 2012, Vatican City, byPope Benedict XVI |
| Majorshrine | Saint Marianne Cope Shrine & Museum 601 N. Townsend St. Syracuse, New York, United States |
| Feast | January 23 (Catholic Church) April 15 (Episcopal Church) |
Marianne Cope,OSF (also known asMarianne of Molokaʻi; January 23, 1838 – August 9, 1918) was a German-born AmericanReligious Sister who was a member of theSisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, New York, and founding director of its St. Joseph's Hospital in the city, among the first of 50 general hospitals in the country.[1] In 1883 she led a group of six otherSisters to theKingdom of Hawaii to care for persons sufferingleprosy on the island ofMolokaʻi and aid in developing the medical infrastructure in Hawaiʻi. Despite direct contact with the patients over many years, Cope did not contract the disease.
In 2005, Marianne wasbeatified by decision ofPope Benedict XVI.[2] She was canonized (declared a saint) by the same pope on October 21, 2012, along withKateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-centuryNative American.[3][4] Cope was the 11th Catholic active in what is now the United States to be canonized by theCatholic Church.[3]
She was bornBarbara Koob (later anglicized to "Cope") on January 23, 1838, inHeppenheim in theGrand Duchy ofHesse to Peter Koob (1787–1862) and his wife Barbara Witzenbacher (1803–1872). The following year her family emigrated to the United States, settling in the industrial city ofUtica, New York. They became members of theParish of St Joseph, where Barbara attendedparish school. By the time she was in eighth grade, her father had developed a disability. As the oldest child, Barbara left school to work in a textile factory to support her family.[5] The family became naturalized as American citizens in the 1850s.[6]
Cope received herFirst Holy Communion andConfirmation at the historic Old St. Johns Church inUtica, New York.[7]
By the time that their father died in 1862, the younger children in the family were of age to support themselves, so Barbara pursued her long-feltreligious calling. She entered thenovitiate of the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis inSyracuse, New York. After a year of formation, Cope received thereligious habit of the Franciscan Sisters and the new nameMarianne. She became first a teacher and then a principal in newly established schools for the region'sGerman-speaking immigrants. Following the revolutions of 1848, more German Catholic immigrants entered the United States.[8]
By 1870, Cope had become a member of the governing council of herreligious congregation. She helped found the first two Catholic hospitals inCentral New York, with charters stipulating that medical care was to be provided to all, regardless of race or creed. She was appointed by theSuperior General to govern St. Joseph's Hospital, the first public hospital in Syracuse, serving from 1870 to 1877.[9]
As a hospital administrator, Cope became involved with the move ofGeneva Medical College of Hobart College from Geneva, New York, to Syracuse, where it became theCollege of Medicine atSyracuse University. She contracted with the college to accept their students for treating patients in her hospital to further their medical education. Her stipulation in the contract—again unique for the period—was the right of the patients to refuse care by the students. These experiences helped prepare her for the special ministry she next pursued.[10]
In 1883, Mother Marianne Cope, by then Superior General of the congregation, received a plea for help from KingKalākaua of Hawaii to care forleprosy sufferers. More than 50 religious congregations had already declined his request for Sisters to do this because leprosy was considered to be highly contagious. She responded enthusiastically to the letter:
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... I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned 'lepers.'[11]
Cope departed from Syracuse with six other Sisters to travel toHonolulu to answer this call, arriving on November 8, 1883. They traveled on theSS Mariposa. With Mother Marianne as a supervisor, the Sisters' task was to manageKakaʻako Branch Hospital onOʻahu, which served as a receiving station for Hansen's disease patients gathered from all over the islands. The more severe cases were processed and shipped to the island ofMolokaʻi for confinement in the settlement at Kalawao, and then later atKalaupapa.
The following year, at the government's request, Cope set up Malulani Hospital, the first general hospital on the island ofMaui. Soon, she was called back to the hospital inOahu. She had to deal with a government-appointed administrator's maltreatment of the leprosy patients at the Branch Hospital at Kakaako, an area adjoining Honolulu. She told the government that either the administrator had to be dismissed or the Sisters would return to Syracuse. She was given charge of the overcrowded hospital. Her return to Syracuse to re-assume governance of the congregation was delayed, as both the government and church authorities thought she was essential to the mission's success.
Two years later, the king awarded Mother Marianne with the Cross of a Companion of theRoyal Order of Kapiolani for her care of his people.[12] The work continued to increase. In November 1885, she opened the Kapiolani Home with the government's support to provide shelter to homeless female children of leprosy patients. The home was located on a leprosy hospital's grounds because only the Sisters were willing to care for children so closely associated with people suffering from leprosy.
In 1887, a new government came into office. It ended the forced exile of leprosy patients to Molokai and closed the specialty hospital in Oahu. A year later, the authorities pleaded with the Sisters to establish a new home for women and girls on the Kalaupapapeninsula of Molokai. Marianne accepted the call, knowing that it might mean she would never return to New York. "We will cheerfully accept the work…" was her response.[10]
In November 1888, Marianne moved to the "Charles R Bishop Home for Unprotected Leper Girls and Women" on Kalaupapa. She cared for the dyingFather Damien,SS.CC., who was already known internationally for his work in the leper colony and began to take over his burdens. She had met him shortly after her arrival in Hawaii.
In 1879, Father Damien had established a home atKalawao for boys and elderly men. Most of the work of the home fell toJoseph Dutton. When Damien died on April 15, 1889, the government officially gave Mother Marianne charge of care of the boys along with her current role in caring for the colony's female residents. The Board of Health provided a horse and carriage for the sisters to use in traveling between Kalaupapa and Kalawao. The sisters generally supervised the domestic operations. In 1892, a prominent local businessman,Henry Perrine Baldwin, donated money for the new home, which was named after him. A community ofReligious Brothers was sought to come and care for the boys. After the arrival of fourBrothers of the Sacred Heart in 1895,[13] Mother Marianne withdrew the Sisters to the Bishop Home for leprous women and girls. Joseph Dutton was given charge of Baldwin House by the government.[14]
Marianne Cope died of natural causes on August 9, 1918. She was buried on the grounds of the Bishop Home. In 2005, her remains were brought to Syracuse for reinterment at hermotherhouse.[15] In 2014, her remains were returned to Honolulu and are enshrined at theCathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace.[16][17]
The community which Cope founded on Molokai continues to minister to the few patients who have Hansen Disease. The Franciscan Sisters work at several schools and minister to parishioners throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
In 1993, Katherine Dehlia Mahoney was allegedly healed from multiple-organ failure after praying to Marianne Cope for intercession. On October 24, 2003, theCongregation for the Causes of Saints declared Marianne Cope to have been "heroically virtuous." On April 19, 2004, PopeJohn Paul II issued a decree declaring herVenerable. On December 20, 2004, after receiving the unanimous affirmation of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, Pope John Paul II ordered a decree to be issued authenticating this recovery as a miracle to be attributed to the intercession of Cope. On May 14, 2005, Marianne Cope wasbeatified inVatican City by decision ofPope Benedict XVI.[23][24]Over 100 followers from Hawaiʻi attended the beatification Mass, along with 300 members of Cope's religious congregation in Syracuse. At the Mass, presided over byCardinalJosé Saraiva Martins, the Hawaiian song "Makalapua" (a favorite of Cope) was sung.[25] Herfeast day was established as January 23 and is celebrated by her own religious congregation, theDiocese of Honolulu, and theDiocese of Syracuse.
After the announcement by theHoly See of her impending beatification, during January 2005, Mother Marianne's remains were moved to themotherhouse of the congregation in Syracuse. A temporaryshrine was established to honor her and by 2009, the erection of a marblesarcophagus in the motherhouse chapel was complete. Her remains were interred in the new shrine on her feast day of January 23.[26]
In 2007, a statue of her was erected at St Joseph's Church in her native Utica, whose parish school she had attended as a child.[27]
On December 6, 2011, theCongregation for the Causes of Saints found that a second miracle could also be attributed to the intercession of Cope. This finding was presented toPope Benedict XVI for his approval by CardinalAngelo Amato.[28] On December 19, 2011, Pope Benedict signed and approved the promulgation of the decree for Marianne Cope'scanonization, which took place on October 21, 2012;[29] a relic was carried to Honolulu from her mother church. Dr. Waldery Hilgeman was the Postulator of the Cause of Canonization.[30]
AfterFather Damien, Mother Marianne Cope is the second person to be canonized who had served in the Hawaiian Islands. She was both the first Beatification and the last Canonization under Pope Benedict XVI. In 2014, the Church announced that Saint Marianne's remains would be re-interred at theCathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, a more convenient location for the faithful than theKalaupapa National Historical Park on Molokaʻi, where access is primarily by plane or mule train. St. Marianne sometimes attended Mass at the cathedral, and it was where Father Damien was ordained. In New York, the Franciscan Convent which held her remains, moved to a new location because its former buildings needed extensive repairs.[31]
Cope is honored jointly withSaint Damien of Moloka'i on theliturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA). Their sharedfeast day is celebrated on April 15.[32]
Paul Cox directed the filmMolokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999). Marianne Cope was portrayed by South African actressAlice Krige.Father Damien was portrayed byDavid Wenham.[33]
