Blessed Marianne Cope
From: Wikipedia Article
Cope was baptized Maria
Anna Barbara Koob (later changed to Cope). She was born 23 January 1838 in
Heppenheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (modern-day Germany) to Peter Koob (1787–1862)
and Barbara Witzenbacher (1803–1872). The following year her family emigrated
to the United States, settling in Utica, New York. They became parochial
members of the Parish of St. Joseph, where Cope attended the parish school. By
eighth grade, her father had become an invalid and, as the oldest child in the
house, she became a factory worker to help support the family. Her father later
became an American citizen, which at the time granted automatic citizenship
status to her entire family.
After Peter Cope's
death in 1862, at which time her younger siblings were of age to support
themselves, she felt sufficiently free of her family responsibilities to leave
home and to pursue a religious calling she had long felt. She entered the
novitiate of the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis based in
Syracuse, New York. At the completion of her year of formation, she received
the religious habit of the Franciscan Sisters along with the new name Marianne.
Cope then became first a teacher and then a principal in newly-established schools
for German-speaking immigrants in the region.
By 1870, she was a
member of the governing Council of her congregation. In this office, she was
involved in the opening of the first two Catholic hospitals in Central New
York. At the time, their Charter was stipulated so that medical care was to be
provided to all, regardless of race or creed. She was appointed by the Superior
General to govern St. Joseph’s Hospital, the first public hospital in Syracuse,
from 1870 to 1877.
During her period of
hospital administration, she became involved with the move of the College of
Medicine in Geneva, New York to Syracuse, where it became the Geneva Medical
College. She contracted with the college to accept their students in the
treatment of the hospital's patients, 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 that lay ahead of her.
In 1883, Mother
Marianne, by then herself Superior General of the congregation, received a plea
for help in caring for leprosy sufferers from King Kalākaua of Hawaii. More than 50 religious institutes
had already declined his request for Sisters to do this. She responded to the
letter enthusiastically:
“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.”
Mother Marianne set out
with six of her Sisters from Syracuse to travel to Honolulu to answer this
call, arriving on November 8, 1883. The bells of Our Lady of Peace Cathedrral
pealed to welcome their ship, the SS Mariposa, as it entered Honolulu Harbor.
With Mother Marianne as supervisor, the Sisters' task was to manage Kakaʻako Branch Hospital on Oʻahu, which served as a receiving station for
Hansen's disease patients gathered from all over the islands. Here the more
severe cases were processed and shipped to the island of Molokaʻi for confinement in the settlement at Kalawao,
and then later at Kalaupapa.
The following year, at
the request of the government, she set up Malulani Hospital, the first General
Hospital on the island of Maui. Soon, however, she was called back with haste
to the hospital in Oahu, where she had to deal with a government-appointed
administrator’s abuse of the leprosy patients at the Branch Hospital at
Kakaako, an area adjoining Honolulu. Her demand to the government to choose
between his dismissal or the Sisters’ return to Syracuse resulted in her being
given full charge of the overcrowded hospital. Her own expected return to
Syracuse to re-assume governance of the Congregation was then delayed when her
leadership was declared by both government and church authorities to be
essential to the success of the Mission.
Two years after the
arrival of the Sisters, her accomplishments had so stirred the admiration of
the Hawaiian government that the King himself bestowed on Mother Marianne the
Cross of a Companion of the Royal Order of Kapiolani for her acts of
benevolence to his suffering people.
Yet the work kept
increasing. Another pressing need was fulfilled when a year later, in November
1885, after Mother Marianne had convinced the government that it was of vital
need to save the homeless female children of leprosy patients, the Kapiolani
Home was opened. The unusual choice of location for healthy children to dwell
in a Home situated on the grounds of a leprosy hospital was made because no one
other than the Sisters could be found to care for those so closely associated
with people suffering from the dreaded disease.
A new government took
over in 1887, which changed the official policy toward leprosy patients. While
new patients had not been forced into exile at Molokai for several years, the
new administration decided to end that policy, and closed the hospital built
for them in Oahu. A year later, as the consequences of this decision became
clear, the authorities pleaded with Mother Marianne to establish a new Home for
women and girls on the Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai. Though this step meant
that she would likely never be able to return to New York and see her family
and friends again, Cope accepted the call. "We will cheerfully accept the
work…" was her response.
In November 1888 she
moved to Kalaupapa, both to care for the dying Father Damien SS.CC.--who was
already known internationally for his heroic care of the leper colony there—and
to assume his burdens. She had met him shortly after her arrival in Hawaii,
when, while still in good health, Father Damien had gone to Oahu to attend the
dedication of the chapel in the hospital she was establishing. After his
diagnosis as a leper, he was shunned by both civil and church leaders. It was
only Mother Marianne who gave him welcome, even arranging for the King to meet
him.
When Father Damien died
on April 15, the government officially gave Mother Marianne charge for the care
of the boys of Kalaupapa, as well as her original commission for the female
residents of the colony. A prominent local businessman, Henry P. Baldwin
donated money for the new home; Mother Marianne and two assistants, Sister
Leopoldina Burns and Sister Vincentia McCormick, opened and ran a new Girls
School, which she named in his honor. At her suggestion, a community of
Religious Brothers was invited to come and care for the boys. After the arrival
of four Brothers of the Sacred Heart in 1895, she withdrew the Sisters to the
Bishops School for Girls and "Brother" Charles Dutton was given
charge of the Baldwin House by the government. (He was a victim of the American
Civil War who had left behind in the United States a life broken by alcoholism,
and it was he who had been Father Damien's primary assistant).
Cope died in 9 August
1918 due to natural causes and was buried at the Bishops Home.
1927 — Saint Francis
Hospital was founded in Honolulu in her memory as a community hospital and to
train nurses to work with Hansen's disease patients.
1957 — St. Francis
opened the Child Development Center at the Honolulu Community Church for
preschool-aged children who demonstrated emotional problems.
1962 — St. Francis Home
Care Services was established, being the first in Hawaii to specialize in home
health for the care of Hawaiian people.
2006 — The Sisters of
St. Francis chose to divest themselves of acute care facilities and to focus on
long term care, thus the two facilities of St. Francis Hospital were handed
over to a private board, with the facilities now known as the Hawaiian Medical
Center East and Hawaiian Medical Center West.
Additionally, the Saint
Francis School was founded in her honor in 1924, operating as a girls-only
school for grades 6-9.The community which Cope founded on Molokai continues to
minister to the few patients afflicted with Hansen Disease while the Franciscan
Sisters now also work at several schools and minister to parishioners
throughout the Hawaiian islands.
On October 24, 2003,
the Congregation for the order of Saints declared her to have been
"heroically virtuous". In 19 April 2004, Pope John Paul II issued a
papal decree declaring her Venerable.
Beatification
In 1993, Katherine
Dehlia Mahoney was allegedly healed from multiple organ failure after praying
to Marianne Cope for intercession. 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 Mother Marianne. On May 14, 2005,
Marianne was beatified in Vatican City by Pope Benidict XVI in his first
beatification ceremony as pope.
Over 100 followers from
Hawaiʻi attended the beatification
ceremony, along with 300 members of Cope's religious Congregation in Syracuse.
At the ceremony, presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, C.M.F., the
Hawaiian song Makalapua (a favorite of Cope) was sung.[12] Her feast day was
established as 23 January and is celebrated by her own religious congregation,
the Diocese of Honolulu, and the Diocese of Syracuse.
After the announcement
by the Holy See of her impending beatification, during January 2005 the Blessed
Marianne's remains were moved to the Motherhouse of the Congregation in
Syracuse. A temporary shrine was established to honor her. By 2009, the
erection of a marble sarcophagus in the Motherhouse chapel was complete, and
her remains were moved one last time on her feast day of 23 January, when she
was permanently laid to rest, in a new shrine dedicated to her honor.
In 2007 a statue was
erected at St. Joseph's Church in Utica, which she had attended in her
childhood and where she had received her education.
Canonization
On 6 December 2011, the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints found that a second miracle could also be
attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Marianne. This finding was
forwarded to Pope Benedict XVI by its Secretary, Cardinal Angelo Amato, for
papal approval. On 19 December 2011, Pope Benedict signed and approved the
promulgation of the decree for her sainthood and is set to be canonized in
October 2012.
Ecumenical veneration
Cope is honored jointly
with Saint Damien of Moloka'i on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal
Church (USA). Their shared feast day is celebrated on 15 April.
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