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This American saint braved leprosy to follow God’s call

Marianne Cope Marianne Cope
(CNS photo/courtesy Sisters of St. Francis)

St. Marianne Cope

Feast day: Jan. 23

“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.'”

This was the enthusiastic response of St. Marianne Cope to the letter of a Catholic priest asking for help in treating lepers on the Hawaiian Islands in 1883. The 45-year-old Franciscan sister from New York already had many accomplishments in hospital administration. Nevertheless, she would travel thousands of miles to dedicate the rest of her life to nursing diseased people of a different culture in an unfamiliar land. A truly fearless leader, St. Marianne Cope was known for her indomitable spirit and cheerfulness in following God wherever he called her.

Born in Germany in 1838 as Barbara Koob (later anglicized to Cope), St. Marianne emigrated with her family a year later to Utica, New York. She was raised in a devout Catholic family, receiving the sacraments regularly, and she sensed a call to religious life. But God had other plans for her at first. When she was a teenager, her father developed a debilitating disability — a situation that required her to leave school and become the sole provider for her family as a factory worker. But this hardship formed her into a leader of intense compassion and generosity in the service of others for Christ.

By age 24, Barbara felt free to become a religious sister as her father had died and all of her siblings had become self-supportive. She entered the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis in Syracuse, New York, and took the name Marianne. She first worked as a teacher and principal in newly established schools in the area and then helped open two of the first Catholic hospitals in central New York.

Soon St. Marianne saw the need for basic health care for immigrants. So she and a small group of women purchased a saloon in Syracuse, New York, and turned it into a hospital to serve the needs of a multiracial community. At their hospital, everyone was welcome, including “outcast” patients, such as alcoholics. The sisters developed rules of patient’s rights, ensured proper hygiene and sanitation practices, and cared for all, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or economic means.

By 1883, St. Marianne was the head administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse and the provincial mother of her religious order. But her heart was moved with compassion when she received the letter from Hawaii asking for help caring for lepers. Knowing little about what she was getting into, she responded to the priest with a fervent “Yes!”. At 45 years of age, she journeyed with six other Sisters of St. Francis to the island of Oahu to supervise a hospital that received patients with leprosy from other islands.

Unafraid to serve lepers

Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, was little understood at that time, and so feared that many physicians and other health care providers refused to treat or even touch those who had it. In Hawaii, the most severe cases were exiled to a leper colony on the island of Molokai. St. Marianne noted that she was accepting her new assignment in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, who was also unafraid of serving lepers.

Arriving for the first time at the Kakaako Branch Hospital in Oahu, St. Marianne and her sisters saw patients lying on dirty mats and rugs in rooms infested with roaches. Immediately, they began cleaning up the environment and bringing joy to the sick. The sisters later founded the Kapiolani Home inside the hospital compound to care for the healthy daughters of leprosy patients. They also ran a hospital and a school at Wailuku on Maui.

Sisters of St. Francis who served in 1886 at the Branch Hospital for Lepers in Kakaako, Honolulu. Left to right: Sr. M. Rosalia McLaughlin, Sr. M Martha Kaiser, Sr M. Leopoldina Burns, Sr. M Charles Hoffmann, Sr. M. Crescentia Eilers, and Mother Marianne Cope. At center, rear: Walter Murray Gibson. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Their mission was not just to care for the sick, but to improve the living conditions of people with leprosy and ensure they were treated as human beings — as St. Marianne told her sisters, “to make life as pleasant and as comfortable as possible for those of our fellow creatures whom God has chosen to afflict with this terrible disease.” The work was demanding, and the sisters labored in conditions that could be alienating. Yet St. Marianne was known for her optimism, serenity and trust in God. She and her sisters found strength in the Eucharist, praying before the Blessed Sacrament every morning at 4:30 for an hour before Mass.

In 1887, St. Marianne faced a drastic change in her work when the government decided to close the receiving hospital at Oahu and exile all lepers to the colony on Molokai where St. Damien had worked since 1873. With faith, St. Marianne responded, “We will cheerfully accept the work.” On Molokai, St. Marianne was able to help take care of Father Damien until his death from leprosy in 1889 and temporarily managed the boys home he had founded until the Sacred Heart Fathers sent a permanent replacement.

With a deep faith and unconditional love for God’s people, St. Marianne continued her mission to serve patients with leprosy on Molokai for another three decades. “I do not think of reward,” she once said. “I am working for God and do so cheerfully.” St. Marianne Cope died of natural causes in 1918. To this day, none of the Sisters of St. Francis, who have served in Hawaii for over 140 years, has contracted Hansen’s disease.

Reflection

Dear Jesus in the Eucharist, you are the confidence I need to do the impossible to help people in the darkest situations. Come be my light of joy, peace, and strength to share your love amongst all people.

Prayer

O God, who have taught your Church to keep all the heavenly commandments by love of you as God and love of neighbor; grant that, practicing the works of charity after the example of blessed Marianne Cope, we may be worthy to be numbered among the blessed in your Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.