![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Marianne-Cope-O.S.F..jpg\")
Reverend Sister Marianne<\/strong><\/span>
\nMatron of the Bishop Home, Kalaupapa<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nTo see the infinite pity of this place,<\/span>
\nThe mangled limb, the devastated face,<\/span>
\nThe innocent sufferers smiling at the rod,<\/span>
\nA fool were tempted to deny his God.<\/span><\/p>\nHe sees, and shrinks; but if he look again,<\/span>
\nLo, beauty springing from the breast of pain!\u2014<\/span>
\nHe marks the sisters on the painful shores,<\/span>
\nAnd even a fool is silent and adores.<\/span><\/p>\nRobert Louis Stevenson<\/span><\/strong>
\nKalawao, May 22, 1889<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nOn November 16-18,<\/strong> the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will convene in Baltimore for their Fall General Assembly.\u00a0 Among items for discussion this year, the bishops will consider whether to add the memorials of Blessed John Paul II<\/strong> (on October 22) and Blessed Marianne Cope<\/strong> (on January 23) to the U.S. liturgical calendar.<\/p>\n\u201cUh-oh,\u201d I think,<\/strong> looking at the new Chapel Edition of the Roman Missal sitting on my desk.\u00a0 The new translation of the liturgy won\u2019t be implemented until November\u2014but already the book needs revision, because these memorials are not included.\u00a0 This is proof positive that our Church is a living, breathing entity:\u00a0 Just as God welcomes new saints into His Kingdom, so the Church welcomes the saints\u2019 insights, their example, the inspiration they have left us, and continues to embrace their memory, to draw upon their wisdom and to honor their contributions to the faith.<\/p>\nBut here\u2019s my question:<\/strong>\u00a0 Everyone knows of Pope John Paul II, right?\u00a0 But do you know anything at all about Marianne Cope?\u00a0 Here is her story.<\/p>\n* * * * *<\/p>\n
Maria Anna Barbara Koob<\/strong> was born January 23, 1838 in Heppenheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (modern-day Germany).\u00a0 When she was just a year old, her family emigrated to the United States\u2014settling in the farming community of Utica, New York.<\/p>\nFrom early childhood Maria Anna was attracted to religious life.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Attending school at the Parish of St. Joseph, she admired the sisters who had devoted their lives to Christ. \u00a0However, her vocation was to be delayed:\u00a0 Her father became an invalid when Maria Anna was in eighth grade, and she went to work in a factory to help support her family.\u00a0 At age 24, when her younger siblings were old enough to assume responsibility for the family and after her father had died, Maria Anna entered the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis, based in Syracuse, New York.<\/p>\nAfter one year in the novitiate,<\/strong> Maria Anna received the habit of the Franciscan sisters and with it, her new name:\u00a0 Sister Marianne.<\/strong>\u00a0 She became a schoolteacher, then a principal, at newly established schools for German-speaking immigrants in the region.<\/p>\nBy the 1860s, Sister Marianne had been elected<\/strong> to the Governing Council of her religious order; and in that role, she was instrumental in opening two new hospitals in Central New York.\u00a0 She was appointed by the Superior General to direct St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital, the first public hospital in Syracuse, and she served in that role from 1870-1877.<\/p>\nUnlike other hospitals of the time,<\/strong> the Franciscan hospitals stipulated in their Charter that medical care was to be provided to all, regardless of race or creed.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0She helped to further patients\u2019 rights<\/strong>, insisting in a letter of negotiations with the Medical College at Syracuse University that it was the right of the patient in each and every case to decide whether or not he or she wished to be brought before medical students.\u00a0 Sister Marianne was often criticized for accepting into treatment \u201coutcast\u201d patients such as alcoholics,<\/strong> who were spurned by hospitals at the time; but she was well-known and loved among New Yorkers for her kindness, wisdom and down-to-earth practicality.<\/p>\nIn 1883, Mother Marianne\u2014by that time the Provincial Mother in Syracuse\u2014received a letter from a Catholic priest<\/strong> asking for help managing hospitals and schools in the Hawaiian Islands, mainly caring for leprosy patients.\u00a0 She responded enthusiastically, writing,<\/p>\n\u201cI 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\u2026. I am not afraid of any disease; hence, it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned \u2018lepers\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWith six other Sisters of St. Francis,<\/strong> Mother Marianne arrived at Honolulu in November 1883.\u00a0 The sisters would manage and serve at the Kaka\u2019ako Branch Hospital on Oahu, a receiving station where Hansen\u2019s disease (leprosy) patients from throughout the Hawaiian Islands were sent to prevent further spread of the disease.\u00a0 Within two years, the sisters had cleaned the hospital and treated the 200 patients, making major improvements in living conditions; and in 1905 they founded the Kapi\u2019olani Home, a residence for the daughters of leprosy patients, within the walls of the hospital compound.\u00a0 Fear of the disease had made public officials unwilling to care for the close relatives of those afflicted by the disease; only the sisters would welcome them and offer the home and education that these girls needed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Mother-Marianne-Cope-beside-funeral-bier-of-Father-Damian.jpg\")
In January 1884, Mother Marianne met Fr. Damien de Veuster,<\/strong> who would become known as the \u201capostle to the lepers.\u201d\u00a0 Two years later,\u00a0after Father Damien had been diagnosed with Hansen\u2019s disease, the Church and the Government were afraid to welcome him; only Mother Marianne offered hospitality, after hearing that his condition had made him an outcast.\u00a0 In 1888, in the last months of Father Damien\u2019s life, Mother Marianne became his caretaker<\/strong>\u2014promising him that she would continue to care for the patients at the Boys\u2019 Home at Kalawao which he had founded.<\/p>\nAfter Father Damien\u2019s death<\/strong> Mother Marianne, with Sr. Leopoldina Burns and Sr. Vincentia McCormick, cared for 103 girls at the Bishop Home for Girls, and operated the Home for Boys.\u00a0 Her cheerful countenance was an encouragement to the children and to the religious sisters in her order.\u00a0 Never fearful that she would contract leprosy herself, she said,<\/p>\n\u201cGod giveth life; He will take it away in His own good time. Meanwhile it is our duty to make life as pleasant and as comfortable as possible for those of our fellow-creatures whom He has chosen to afflict.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMother Marianne Cope, O.S.F., never contracted leprosy.<\/strong>\u00a0 She and her sisters were honored in the poem (above) written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1889. \u00a0She died of natural causes on August 19, 1918, and was buried at the Bishop Home.<\/p>\nOn April 19, 2004, Pope John Paul II issued the decree<\/strong> officially naming her Venerable.\u00a0 She was among the first group of people to be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI, and is now often referred to as Blessed Marianne of Moloka\u02bbi.<\/p>\nHer feast day (January 23) is celebrated<\/strong> by her Congregation, as well as by the Diocese of Honolulu and the Diocese of Syracuse.\u00a0 Should the U.S. Bishops, at their November meeting, vote to approve her memorial for the whole church in the United States, that day will become a day of celebration and commemoration for all American Catholics.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reverend Sister Marianne Matron of the Bishop Home, Kalaupapa To see the infinite pity of this place, The mangled limb, the devastated face, The innocent sufferers smiling at the rod, A fool were tempted to deny his God. He sees, and shrinks; but if he look again, Lo, beauty springing from the breast of pain!\u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,190,223,275],"tags":[2736,335,2748,479,539,2838,586,2889],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-character","category-poetry","category-saints","category-women","tag-beatification","tag-blessed-marianne-cope","tag-character","tag-hansens-disease","tag-leprosy","tag-missionaries","tag-o-s-f","tag-saints"],"yoast_head":"\n
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