St. Marianne Cope

Curated and reviewed by Pastor Lyvers

St. Marianne Cope (1838 to 1918) was a German-born American Franciscan sister from Syracuse, New York, who founded hospitals and in 1883 led six sisters to Hawaii to care for people with leprosy (Hansen's disease). She spent her last thirty years at Kalaupapa on Molokai, where she nursed St. Damien before his death. She was canonized in 2012, and her feast is January 23.

Who was St. Marianne Cope?

Marianne Cope was a Franciscan sister who ran hospitals in upstate New York and then gave the last thirty-five years of her life to people with leprosy in Hawaii. When she sailed for Honolulu in 1883 she expected to stay a few months. She never went back. She worked first in Honolulu and on Maui, and from 1888 at Kalaupapa, the isolated settlement on Molokai where the Kingdom of Hawaii exiled people with the disease now called Hansen's disease. She died there in 1918.

Black-and-white photograph of Mother Marianne in a black Franciscan habit and white wimple, standing beside a chair and holding a book, with a rosary and crucifix at her side — Mother Marianne in her Franciscan habit, in a photograph from the Honolulu Advertiser archives.Unknown photographer, Mother Marianne Cope. Honolulu Advertiser Library Photo Archives. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

At her canonization in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI called her "a shining and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved Saint Francis."

From Heppenheim to Syracuse

She was born Barbara Koob on January 23, 1838, in Heppenheim in Hesse, Germany. The next year her family emigrated to Utica, New York, where the name became Cope. As the oldest child, she left school and went to work in a factory when her father became too ill to support the family. In 1862, after his death, she entered the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis in Syracuse and took the name Marianne.

She taught in schools for German immigrants, then turned to nursing. The Saint Marianne Cope Shrine and Museum says she helped open two of the first Catholic hospitals in central New York, St. Elizabeth's in Utica and St. Joseph's in Syracuse. For St. Joseph's, she and a few sisters bought a former saloon and turned it into a hospital that took patients "regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or economic means," with rules on patients' rights and cleanliness that were new for the time.

Hawaii and Molokai

The call to Hawaii

By 1883 Mother Marianne was superior general of her congregation. A plea came from Hawaii for sisters to nurse people with leprosy. Pope Benedict said she "willingly embraced a call to care for the lepers of Hawaii after many others had refused." She went herself with six sisters, and they reached Honolulu in November 1883.

Illustration of seven Franciscan sisters in black habits coming down the gangway of a steamship at Honolulu harbor in 1883 — Mother Marianne and six sisters arrive in Honolulu in November 1883.

The sisters took over the Kakaako Branch Hospital in Honolulu, where patients were held before being sent to Molokai. Mother Marianne also opened Malulani Hospital, the first general hospital on Maui, and the Kapiolani Home for the healthy daughters of patients, named for Queen Kapiolani.

Faded photograph of a row of Franciscan sisters, girls and a man in a dark suit standing in a dirt yard in front of a two-story wooden building with verandas — Walter Murray Gibson, the kingdom's prime minister, stands with Mother Marianne, the sisters and the girls of Kapiolani Home in 1886.Unknown photographer, Walter Murray Gibson with Mother Marianne and the sisters at Kapiolani Home, Kakaako, 1886. Hawaii State Archives. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Kalaupapa and Father Damien

In 1888 she accepted the hardest assignment: a home for women and girls at Kalaupapa itself. The shrine's novena preserves her answer: "We will cheerfully accept the work." She moved there with other sisters in November 1888 and ran the Bishop Home for women and girls. She made the place as much a home as a hospital, with gardens, music, sewing and games.

At Kalaupapa she met again St. Damien of Molokai, the Belgian priest who had served the settlement since 1873 and now had leprosy himself. Earlier, when Damien was shunned in Honolulu, she had welcomed him. She nursed him in his last months, and after he died on April 15, 1889, she also took charge of the home for boys he had founded until a permanent replacement came.

Black-and-white photograph of Father Damien lying in vestments on his deathbed with a crucifix in his hands, a Franciscan sister standing at each side of the bed — Father Damien on his deathbed on April 15, 1889, with Mother Marianne and Sister Leopoldina Burns beside him.Probably Sydney B. Swift, Father Damien on his deathbed, with Mother Marianne and Sister Leopoldina Burns, April 15, 1889. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

She lived at Kalaupapa for thirty years. She never caught the disease. The shrine in Syracuse points to her innovations in infection control and hospital cleanliness, learned in her years running hospitals in New York. She died on August 9, 1918, at the age of 80, and was buried on the grounds of the Bishop Home.

Black-and-white group photograph of an elderly Mother Marianne in a wicker wheelchair, surrounded by Franciscan sisters and Hawaiian girls and women in white dresses — Mother Marianne, elderly and in a wheelchair, with her sisters and the residents of Bishop Home near the end of her life.Unknown photographer, Mother Marianne with sisters and residents of Bishop Home, about 1918. Kalaupapa, Molokai. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Illustration of Franciscan sisters and Hawaiian girls planting flowers in the garden of a home at Kalaupapa, with sea cliffs behind — Franciscan sisters and girls of the Bishop Home plant a garden at Kalaupapa.

The miracles of St. Marianne Cope

Two miracles were approved by the Church after investigation by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, both in Syracuse.

Kate Mahoney (1993): a 14-year-old girl gravely ill with multiple organ failure after treatment for cancer recovered after prayers for Mother Marianne's intercession. This was the miracle for her beatification by Pope Benedict XVI on May 14, 2005.
Sharon Smith (2005): a Syracuse-area woman hospitalized for nearly a year with pancreatitis, which had eaten through part of her digestive tract. Catholic News Service reported that a sister pinned a bag of soil from Mother Marianne's grave at Kalaupapa to her hospital gown while friends prayed to her. Smith recovered fully. Pope Benedict approved the miracle in December 2011.

She was canonized in St. Peter's Square on October 21, 2012, the same day as St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

Symbols of St. Marianne Cope in art

Because she lived in the age of photography, most images of her are based on real photographs. She appears in the black habit and stiff white wimple of the Syracuse Franciscans, often with a rosary and crucifix at her side. A bronze statue of her stands in Honolulu, and her grave monument at Kalaupapa is a white statue between two pillars.

A stone path leading through a low lava-rock wall to a white statue between two white pillars, with a sign reading Mother Marianne Cope's Grave and Monument — Mother Marianne's grave and monument at Kalaupapa, now part of Kalaupapa National Historical Park.National Park Service, Mother Marianne Cope's grave and monument, Kalaupapa, 2016. Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Molokai. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Where St. Marianne is honored

Her remains were taken from Kalaupapa to the Syracuse motherhouse in 2005. On July 31, 2014, they were brought back to Hawaii and enshrined in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, the church where she first worshiped on arriving in 1883. The Hawaii Catholic Herald reported nearly 700 people at the ceremony. A first-class relic stays in Syracuse at the Saint Marianne Cope Shrine and Museum, which opened in 2014 beside St. Joseph's Hospital.

Two arched koa-wood reliquary cases side by side under framed photographs of St. Damien and St. Marianne, flanked by red and yellow feather standards — The remains of St. Marianne and a relic of St. Damien rest side by side in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu.Farragutful, Relic of St. Damien and remains of St. Marianne Cope, Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, 2020. Honolulu, Hawaii. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Kalaupapa is now a national historical park, where access is restricted, and her first grave and monument remain there. Her feast is kept on January 23. See our feast days calendar.

View from high green cliffs down to a flat, low peninsula stretching into the ocean under a golden sunset — The Kalaupapa peninsula, seen from the cliffs that cut it off from the rest of Molokai.National Park Service, The Kalaupapa Peninsula at sunset, 2016. Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Molokai. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Prayer to St. Marianne Cope

The Saint Marianne Cope Shrine and Museum publishes a novena and this prayer for her intercession:

Lord Jesus, you who gave us your commandment of love of God and neighbor, and identified yourself in a special way with the most needy of your people, hear our prayer.
Faithful to your teaching, St. Marianne Cope loved and served her neighbor, especially the most desolate outcast, giving herself generously and heroically for those afflicted by leprosy. She alleviated their physical and spiritual sufferings, thus helping them to accept their afflictions with patience.
Her care and concern for others manifested the great love you have for us. Through her merits and intercession, grant us the favor which we confidently ask of you so that the people of God, following the inspiration of her life and apostolate, may practice charity towards all according to your word and example. Amen.

The same novena quotes her own words: "I do not think of reward. I am working for God and do so cheerfully."

Frequently asked questions

What miracles led to St. Marianne Cope's canonization?

Two healings in Syracuse approved by the Church. In 1993 Kate Mahoney, a 14-year-old with multiple organ failure, recovered after prayers to Mother Marianne; this miracle led to her beatification in 2005. In 2005 Sharon Smith, near death from pancreatitis, recovered completely after friends and sisters asked Marianne's intercession; this was the miracle for her canonization in 2012.

Did Marianne Cope ever catch leprosy?

No. Despite thirty years of close contact with patients at Kalaupapa, she never developed Hansen's disease. The Saint Marianne Cope Shrine and Museum credits her careful practices of infection control and cleanliness.

Where is St. Marianne Cope buried?

She was first buried at Kalaupapa. In 2005 her remains were taken to her congregation's motherhouse in Syracuse, and on July 31, 2014, they were enshrined in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. A first-class relic remains at the Saint Marianne Cope Shrine and Museum in Syracuse.

When is St. Marianne Cope's feast day?

January 23, the day she was born in 1838. Her congregation and the dioceses of Honolulu and Syracuse keep it.