Hawaiian Nurse

We have always been fascinated by those who would give their lives for others.  Today's saint gave her life to nursing the sick on one the of Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. We grew especially interested in her story when we were on vacation in Hawaii.  It was at this time that her canonization was officially announced to take place the following year.

Marianne Cope

Feast day: January 23
Birth: January 23, 1838
Death: August 9, 1918
Patron of lepers, outcasts, those with HIV/AIDS, Hawaii
from Germany but immigrated to US as a baby

Marianne lived a simple life as an immigrant to the United States.  Her father worked in the factories of New York.  She attended the local Catholic school until her father became an invalid.  She left school to work in the factory to help support her family.

Marianne always had a desire to become a nun.  When her father died and her siblings were old enough to assist the family, she was finally able to pursue this vocation.  Because of her German background, she was quickly placed in a position to teach the new arrivals from Germany.

Cope also helped direct the opening of the first two Catholic hospitals in central New York. She arranged for students from the Geneva Medical College in New York to work at the hospital, but also stipulated that patients should be able to refuse treatment by them. It was one of the first times in history that the right of a patient to refuse treatment was recognized.

In 1883, the king of Hawaii (King Kalakaua) sent out a plea for assistance for leper patients on the island of Moloka'i.  By this time, Marianne was the superior for the convent and she took it upon herself to answer this call.  She and six other nuns left to to attend to the sick.  Marianne would not only assist those on this island but also create a network of hospitals on all of the Hawaiian islands.

She continued to work for better treatment for her patients, their families, and those who cared for them.  She was responsible for orphans of women who had contracted the disease as well as clergy who had contracted the disease while working with lepers.  Even when her body became weak and she was confined to a wheelchair, she continued her work with compassion.

In all of this, Marianne never contracted the disease herself (a miracle?).   Mother Marianne passed away from natural causes in 1918 and was buried at Bishop Home on the island.  In the years following her death, several miracles were reported in her name. In 1993, a woman was miraculously cured after multiple organ failure following prayers to Mother Marianne.  Similar cures led to her canonization in 2012.

“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." (Marianne Cope, 1884)