Laminated Holy Card of Saint Marianne of Molokai Plus a 1" Silver Oxidized Medal of Marianne. The medal has an image f Saint Marianne of Molokai and reverse side has pray for us.
Marianne
Cope, also known as Saint Marianne of Molokaʻi, (January 23, 1838 – August 9,
1918) was a German-born American religious sister who was a member of the
Sisters of St Francis of Syracuse, New York, and founding leader of its St.
Joseph's Hospital in the city, among the first of 50 general hospitals in the
country. Known also for her charitable works, in 1883 she relocated with six
other sisters to Hawaiʻi to care for persons suffering leprosy on the island of
Molokaʻi 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,
Cope was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI. Cope was declared a saint by the same
pope on October 21, 2012, along with Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century Native
American. Cope is the 11th person in what is now the United States to be
canonized by the Catholic Church.
Cope was
baptized Barbara Koob, later anglicizing her last name to "Cope". She
was born on January 23, 1838, in Heppenheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse to
Peter Koob (1787–1862) and Barbara Witzenbacher (1803–1872). The following year
her family emigrated to the United States, settling in the industrial city of
Utica, New York. They became members of the Parish of St Joseph, where Cope
attended parish school. By the time she was in eighth grade, her father had
developed a disability. As the oldest child, Cope left school to work in a
textile factory to support her family. Her father became naturalized as an
American citizen, which at the time meant the entire family received automatic
citizenship status.
By the
time their father, Peter Cope, died in 1862, the younger children in the family
were of age to support themselves, so Barbara pursued her long-felt religious
calling. She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of
Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After a year of formation, Cope received
the religious habit of the Franciscan Sisters and the new name Marianne. She
became first a teacher and then a principal in newly established schools for
the region's German-speaking immigrants. Following the revolutions of 1848,
more German Catholic immigrants entered the United States.
By 1870,
Cope had become a member of the governing council of her religious
congregation. She helped found the first two Catholic hospitals in Central New
York, with charters stipulating 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, serving
from 1870 to 1877.
As a
hospital administrator, Cope became involved with the move of Geneva Medical
College of Hobart College from Geneva, New York, to Syracuse, where it became
the College of Medicine at Syracuse 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.[6]
In 1883,
Cope, by then Superior General of the congregation, received a plea for help
from King Kalākaua of Hawaii to care for leprosy sufferers. More than 50
religious congregations had already declined his request for Sisters to do this
because leprosy was 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.'
Walter
Murray Gibson with the Sisters of St. Francis and daughters of Hansen's disease
patients, at the Kakaʻako Branch Hospital.
Cope
departed from Syracuse with six other Sisters to travel to Honolulu to answer
this call, arriving on November 8, 1883. They traveled on the SS Mariposa. With
Mother Marianne as a 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. 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 government's request, Cope set up Malulani Hospital, the
first general hospital on the island of Maui. Soon, she was called back to the
hospital in Oahu. 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. 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 Cope with the Cross of a Companion of the Royal Order
of Kapiolani for her care of his people. The work continued to increase. In
November 1885, Cope 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 Cope to establish a new home for women and girls
on the Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai. She accepted the call, knowing that it
might mean she would never return to New York. "We will cheerfully accept
the work…" was her response.
In
November 1888, Cope moved to Kalaupapa. She cared for the dying Father 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.
When
Father Damien died on April 15, 1889, the government officially gave Cope a
charge for the care of the boys of Kalaupapa and her current role in caring for
the colony's female residents. A prominent local businessman, Henry Perrine
Baldwin, donated money for the new home. Cope and two assistants, Sister
Leopoldina Burns and Sister Vincentia McCormick, opened and ran a new girls'
school, which she named in Baldwin's honor. A community of Religious Brothers
was sought to come and care for the boys. After the arrival of four Brothers of
the Sacred Heart in 1895,[9] Cope withdrew the Sisters to the Bishop Home for
leprous women and girls. Joseph Dutton was given charge of Baldwin House by the
government.
Cope died
on August 9, 1918, due to natural causes. She was buried on the grounds of the
Bishop Home. In 2005, her remains were brought to Syracuse for reinterment at
her motherhouse. In 2014, her remains were returned to Honolulu and are
enshrined at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace
In 1993,
Katherine Dehlia Mahoney was allegedly healed from multiple-organ failure after
praying to Marianne Cope for intercession. On October 24, 2003, the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared Cope to have been
"heroically virtuous." On April 19, 2004, Pope John Paul II issued a
papal decree declaring her Venerable. 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, Cope was
beatified in Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI in his first beatification
ceremony. 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. Her feast day was
established as January 23 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, Cope'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. Her
remains were interred in the new shrine on her feast day of January 23.
On
December 6, 2011, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints found that a second
miracle could also be attributed to the intercession of Cope. This finding was
forwarded to Pope Benedict XVI by its Secretary, Cardinal Angelo Amato, for
papal approval. On December 19, 2011, Pope Benedict signed and approved the
promulgation of the decree for Cope's sainthood and she was canonized on
October 21, 2012; a relic was carried to Honolulu from her mother church.
After
Father Damien, 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 the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu,
which was undergoing an extensive renovation. This is a more convenient
location for the faithful than the Kalaupapa National Historical Park on
Molokaʻi, where access is primarily by plane or mule train. She 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.