By Larry Peterson
Maria Anna Barbara Koob was born on January 23, 1838 in Germany. The year after her birth her mom and dad emigrated to America settling in Utica, N.Y. Devout Catholics, they joined St. Joseph's Parish near their new home. They also changed their name to Cope to become more "American". The years moved by and Maria's mom gave birth to nine more children. Life was never dull in the Cope household.
Maria felt a call to the religious life when she was very young. However, as the oldest of ten children, loyalty to family would take precedence over any personal ambitions she might have had. When her dad took ill and became an invalid, the eighth grader was forced to go to work in a textile factory to help support the family. Maria continued working in the textile mill for almost ten years.
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| St. Marianne Cope courtesy catholic.org |
Sister Marianne had wanted to be a teacher but for some reason began doing administrative work. She quickly found herself appointed to the governing boards of her religious community and helped establish the first two hospitals in central New York State. This was followed by becoming the nurse-administrator at St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse N.Y.
Sister Marianne had outstanding organizational and leadership skills but she also possessed a deep and almost natural affinity for those considered marginalized and treated as "outcasts". She was even criticized for her special devotion to those who needed help the most. It was also obvious to others that the Holy Spirit moved within her.
By 1883 she was the Provincial Mother in Syracuse and known as Mother Marianne Cope. One day she received an unexpected letter from a Catholic priest in Hawaii. He was asking for help in managing schools and hospitals in the Hawaiian Islands. The letter was also clear that the main focus of the work would be with leprosy patients. Mother Marianne's life purpose had just been laid before her.
Filled instantly with an overwhelming desire to help those who were not only seriously ill but also marginalized and rejected, she wrote back, "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." *
Today leprosy (real
name, Hansen's Disease) is readily curable. In 1980 there were over 5 million
cases worldwide. In 2012 that number was down to 189,000. In the past 20 years,
16 million people have been cured of this disease and only 200 cases are
reported in the United States each year. But in 1883, when Mother Marianne and
her followers arrived in Hawaii, that was not the case. Leprosy was widespread
and dreaded as extremely contagious.
People with Hansen's Disease were avoided
and prohibited from many public places. When Mother Marianne and her six
companion nuns arrived in Honolulu, they were directed to the Kaka'ako Branch
Hospital in Oahu. This served as a receiving station for leprosy patients from
all over the islands.
Within
a year they had founded the Kapi'olani Home for the purpose of caring for the
homeless children of Hansen Disease patients. The most severe cases were sent
to the island of Moloka'i and placed in the settlement known as Kalaupapa. This
is where Father Damien was working. Sister Marianne met the renowned priest in
1884. He was still in good health.
Father
Damien (now St. Damien of Moloka'i) was diagnosed with Hansen's Disease in
1886. When Mother Marianne heard that Father Damien's presence was unwelcome in
so many places she began to tend to him herself.
Things
fell into place when a new government came into power in 1887. They asked
Mother to PLEASE open a home for women and girls at Kalaupapa on
Molokai. She joyfully embraced the request knowing that her prayers
had once again been answered. In addition, she could now be closer to the
withering, Father Damien, who she cared for until his death in April of
1889.
Mother
Marianne and her assistants, Sister Leopoldina Burns and Sister Vincentia
McCormick opened Bishop House for women and girls and promised Father Damien they
would run his Boy's Home for him after he was gone. They did just that. She
also taught her Sisters that their primary duty was "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...".**
Mother
Marianne passed away on August 9, 1918. She was canonized a saint on October
21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
St.
Marianne Cope, please pray for us all.
*This article also appeared in Aleteia magazine on 10/09/2016
*This article also appeared in Aleteia magazine on 10/09/2016
**Both
quotes were taken from the Official Vatican website: Biography; Marianne Cope
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