In the 1860s, Hansen’s disease — then known as leprosy — was rampant in the Hawaiian islands. When Father Damien de Veuster heard that there was no religious leader at the colony on Molokai for those with the disease, he volunteered, and in 1873 started his mission.
He soon realized he needed help caring for the people there and asked the Catholic bishop to find him some assistants, but none of the sisters in Honolulu would go.
At the same time, King Kalakaua asked the bishop to appeal to nuns to come to Hawaii and help run hospitals and schools. The Rev. Leonor Fouesnel, who had helped found Saint Louis School, was sent on a search mission that took him across the entire United States. Although he wrote or approached 50 religious communities, none was willing to join him.
Finally, he arrived in Syracuse, N.Y., and met the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. Mother Marianne Cope and the sisters were told of the need in Hawaii for nurses. It was a dangerous mission, he told them, but immediately 35 of the sisters volunteered to go. Mother Marianne chose six sisters, and they soon departed for the trip by train to San Francisco, where they boarded the steamer Mariposa for Hawaii.
On Nov. 8, 1883, 128 years ago this month, the Sisters of St. Francis arrived in Hawaii. King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani welcomed them and thanked them for taking up the burden that no one else would assume. With tears streaming down her face, the queen told them "you have left your home to come to these faraway islands to care for my poor afflicted children. I shall never forget you, and you are my sisters, and I shall always love you."
At first they cared for the patients with Hansen’s disease at the Kaka’ako Branch Hospital, and then Mother Marianne and two other sisters left for Molokai because Damien was dying from Hansen’s disease. He died on April 15, 1889.
Mother Marianne led the Kalaupapa settlement for the next 27 years, seeing it through a hurricane and a black plague epidemic, until she died in 1918. The Vatican is considering her for sainthood.
Besides their work at Kalaupapa, Mother Marianne and the Sisters of St. Francis established a variety of schools in Hawaii, including Saint Francis School in Manoa, St. Joseph’s in Hilo, Saint Anthony and Sacred Hearts schools on Maui, and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pearl City.
The Sisters of Saint Francis opened Maui Memorial Hospital in 1884, Hilo Hospital in 1915, and raised $24,000 to open St. Francis Hospital in Palama in 1927.
Sister M. Flaviana Engel was the first of nine female CEOs to lead the hospital. No other company in Hawaii has been run by nine successive female CEOs.
St. Francis Hospital was the first to offer kidney dialysis services in 1965 and kidney transplants in 1969. The first heart, liver, pancreas, lung and bone marrow transplants in the islands were performed there. In 1978 it opened the first hospice in Hawaii.
In 2007, the Sisters of St. Francis, with the approval of the Vatican, sold their two Oahu hospitals, which were renamed Hawaii Medical Center. HMC has been in bankruptcy twice, and a new buyer is currently being sought to operate the hospitals.
The St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii has not been slowed by the sale of its hospitals. It continues the legacy of Blessed Marianne Cope in many ways, says current CEO Sister Agnelle Ching.
"We care for Hawaii’s people through St. Francis Hospice, palliative care services, home care services, provide a bathing service for senior citizens, and teach children preventive health," Ching says.
"We feed the homeless at Our Lady of Kea’au, offer Lifeline services, provide adult day care, ethics education, provide chaplains for hospitals and hospice, and we have built low-income rentals in Ewa.
"These programs touch the lives of more than 90,000 patients and clients each year."
Bob Sigall, author of "The Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
