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Blessed Mother Marianne Cope

Blessed Mother Marianne Cope. Sisters of St. Francis What little good we can do ... to help and comfort the suffering, we wish to do it quietly and so far as possible unnoticed and unknown . - Mother Marianne Cope . Early years biography . Born Barbara Koob January 23, 1838 in West Germany

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Blessed Mother Marianne Cope

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  1. Blessed Mother Marianne Cope Sisters of St. Francis What little good we can do ... to help and comfort the suffering, we wish to do it quietly and so far as possible unnoticed and unknown. - Mother Marianne Cope

  2. Early years biography • Born Barbara Koob January 23, 1838 in West Germany • Family moved to St. Joseph’s Parish in Utica, N.Y. 1839, became US citizens in the 1850s. Last name Americanized to Cope • Called to vocation; but delayed, family needed her wages from factory work until younger siblings grown • 1862, age 24, entered into Sisters of St. Francis, took name Mary Anna (later known as Marianne)

  3. early biography, cont • First assignments were teaching • Served in leadership positions, 1870 made Superior of St. Joseph Hospital, NY • October 22, 1883 – at age 45 years old – answered Kingdom of Hawaii request for help at leper colony…Mother Marianne wants to answer the call…

  4. Her life work begins… “I hope the Fr. Provincial’s good heart will approve my wish to accept the work with leprosy patients in Hawaii in the name of the great Saint Francis." (1883) Blessed Marianne Cope www.catholichistory.net/images/MarianneCope.png

  5. Leprosy: Biblical and Franciscan significance Jesus Heals the Leper – Mark 1:40-45 Saint Francis, who overcame his fear of the leper by his embrace of one, came to see in the leper the very face of the crucified Jesus.

  6. Leprosy Infectious disease: Mycobacterium leprae, an acid-fast, rod-shaped bacillus. The disease mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and also the eyes. Bacteria identified in 1873 by Dr. Hansen Now called Hansen’s disease Treatment in 1940s http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.4.Health.htm

  7. Leprosy: only treatment in 1800s: isolation Hawaii was a Kingdom, actually known then as the Sandwich Islands Kalaupapa peninsula, Molokai The isolation law was enacted by King Kamehameha V

  8. The Sisters of St. Francis arrive in the kingdom Oct 22, 1883 – Mother Marianne and 6 sisters First 5 years they work on Kaka’ako, island of Maui Receiving station where patients were evaluated before being sent into isolation on Molokai

  9. Marianne arrives at Kaka’ako • A diary kept by one of the Franciscans, Sr. Leopoldina, described the patient wards: "Fat bedbugs nested in the cracks [of walls]. Brown stains upon walls, floors, and bedding showed where their blood-filled bodies had been crushed by desperate patients. Straw mattresses, each more or less covered by a dirty blanket, lay upon the unswept floor. . . . Blankets, mattresses, clothing, and patients all supported an ineradicable population of lice. No attempt had been made to separate patients according to age, sex, or stage of illness. . . ." From the book “A Song of Pilgrimage and Exile” by Sr. Mary Lawrence Hanley, OSF, and O.A. Bushnell

  10. "permeating everything; air, clothes, straw pallets, greasy blankets, even the wood of the walls and the dirt on the floors; hung the stink of lepers: the revolting stench rising from sores unwashed and uncovered, the miasma of dead and rotting flesh, in which voracious microorganisms by the billions eagerly devoured the debris from the tissues that they, and the implacable causers of leprosy, had killed in the bodies of their hapless hosts." From the book “A Song of Pilgrimage and Exile” by Sr. Mary Lawrence Hanley, OSF, and O.A. Bushnell

  11. The work was arduousthe Love and Service was equal Mother Marianne used her administrative and leadership abilities to clean up the receiving station. Within 2 years king recognized her accomplishments with a royal medal

  12. Blessed Marianne’s response • “For us it is happiness to be able to comfort, in a measure, the poor exiles, and we rejoice that we are unworthy agents of our heavenly Father through whom He deigns to show His great love and mercy to the sufferers." (1884) Blessed Marianne Cope • Receiving station closed in 1888: lepers sent directly to Molokai • Marianne and 2 sisters move to Molokai to care for them

  13. What were conditions on Molokai? 1000 forcibly exiled people…no hope…no cure…years to endure Lawlessness, despair, men preyed on the women; children had no protection Again, the sisters rolled up their sleeves and improved life for the lepers

  14. Measures to improve“Preach the Gospel always, use words when necessary” – St. Francis • Opened Bishop Home for Unprotected women and girls • Taught religion, morals, respect • Cleanliness • Joy, fun. Poet Robert Louis Stevenson sent a piano • Began gardens: vegetables, flowers, landscaping • Taught sewing…provided bright colorful scarves, pretty dresses • Continued to provide until her death at age 80

  15. St. Francis Church The Sisters of St. Francis tended to Fr. Damien when he fell ill with leprosy; and provided for his boys after his death St. Philomena Church on Kalaupapa Peninsula on Molokai, burial site of Father Damien. Photo by Terry Richard the Oregonian

  16. August 9, 1918Mother dies Mother Marianne Passes On byDr. A. Mouritz "The Venerable Mother Superior Marianne died at 10:50 p.m. on Friday, August 9, 1918, at the Bishop Home, Kalaupapa, Molokai; then the waiting Angels most assuredly guided her Spirit, heavenward. She had devoted 29 years of her life [plus] caring for the women and girls of the Home, and also five years previously at the Kakaako Hospital [island of Oahu] from November 8, 1883 to November 13, 1888. Her age at death was [80] years, 6 months and 17 days. The immediate cause of her death was kidney and heart disease…of several years standing." A Brief World History of Leprosy 1943 [Dr. Mouritz was Father Damien’s physician.] Photo taken shortly before her death

  17. 3 steps to sainthood Venerable Blessed Saint

  18. 1. Venerable Deceased person recognized as having lived heroic virtues Compilation of her life’s work provided to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints 1983 Vatican accepted report – Mother Marianne is venerable

  19. Shrine & Museum (reliquary) of Blessed Marianne CopeSisters of Saint Francis Motherhouse1024 Court StreetSyracuse, NY 13208 Visiting Hours 1-5 P.M. Wednesdays & Saturdays 2. Blessed To be recognized as a blessed, and therefore beatified, one miracle, acquired through the individual's intercession, is required. December, 2004 Vatican approves Miracle: Kate Mahoney, when she was 14 years old, was cured of multi-system organ failure by Marianne’s intercession Shown here presenting relic of Mother Marianne to Pope Benedict XVI

  20. 3. Sainthood Awaiting another confirmed miracle Canonization requires two confirmed miracles, though a Pope may waive these requirements. Martyrdom does not usually require a miracle.

  21. Kalaupapa Leper ColonyKalaupapa served as a leper colony from 1895 to 1969. Since 1980 is has been a National Historic Park. Kalaupapa Peninsula, Molokai, HI  United States2/28/2004 Image #7409 from the web at http://www.airphotona.com/image.asp?imageid=7390

  22. Natural isolation – peninsula and cliffs over 3000 ft high Kalaupapa peninsula is located at the base of the highest sea cliffs in the world, dropping about 3,315 feet (1,010 m) into the Pacific Ocean. The village is the site of a former leprosy settlement. The isolation law was enacted by King Kamehameha V and remained in effect until 1969, when it was finally repealed. Today, about twenty former sufferers of leprosy—now known as Hansen's Disease—continue to live there. The colony is now part of Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

  23. 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!— He marks the sisters on the painful shores, And even a fool is silent and adores. Robert Louis Stevenson Kalawao, May 22, 1889

  24. Peace Prayer of St. Francis Lord, make me a channel of your peace; Where there is hatred, let me bring your love; Where there is injury, your pardon Lord; Where there‘s doubt, true faith in you. Make me a channel of your peace Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope; Where there is darkness, only light; And where there’s sorrow, ever joy. O Master grant that I may never seek So much to be consoled, as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved as to love with all my soul. Make me a channel of your peace It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; In giving of ourselves that we receive; And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

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