Twice blessed

Just two years after Father Damien was canonized, Pope Benedict XVI on Monday named as a saint a woman who carried on Damien’s work with victims of leprosy on Molokai.

Sainthood for Blessed Marianne Cope came after a second miracle was attributed to her divine intercession.

"We’re very happy, very excited," said Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva, who noted there are fewer than a dozen American saints. "Not many communities have two saints among them. We have Damien and Marianne. We’re doubly blessed."

He pointed to their dedication in dealing with leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, a debilitating and disfiguring affliction well into the 20th century.

"I think great suffering brings great heroism sometimes," Silva said. "People who have faith and are devoted to God very often are so generous that they’re willing to give their lives for the sake of others, no matter how difficult it is."

Cope was a 45-year-old sister of Saint Francis and a hospital administrator from Utica, N.Y., when she answered the call by the Hawaiian kingdom in 1883 to provide health care in the islands, especially to Hansen’s disease patients. Only about 50 religious devotees did so, the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Neumann Communities said in a news release Monday.

Cope built on the work of Father Damien De Veuster, who died in 1889.

"She deserves it because she gave her life for us, our people," Hansen’s disease patient and Kalaupapa resident Clarence Kahilihiwa said by telephone. "Two saints from the same place, from Kalaupapa, but then that’s for all of Hawaii, for the whole world. Imagine now the influx of tourists and the influx of pilgrims."

Cope, formerly Barbara Koob, a native of Germany, was one of seven people named as saints Monday by the pope, including a Native American woman, Kateri Tekakwitha.

On Dec. 6 the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes for Saints ruled that a second miracle attributed to her intercession was an inexplicable medical recovery. Cope was proclaimed blessed in 2005 in Rome after the Vatican Medical Board ruled on the first miracle case.

The date of her canonization next year in Rome will probably be announced in February, Silva said.

But he said there is a universal message for all.

"We should be very proud, is one thing," Silva said. "But beyond that, the reason we canonize saints is to inspire us to be like them."

Quoting Cope’s words, "We are hungry for the work. … We do not fear any disease," Silva said her sainthood should inspire all to hunger "for the work of serving the poorest among us in the most trying of circumstances."

Many Hawaii women have followed in Mother Marianne’s footsteps by engaging in education, religious education, health care and social ministry, church officials said.

The Sisters of Saint Francis founded St. Francis Hospital and Saint Francis School, and they continue to work with home care, hospice and homes for the aged as well as a social ministry for the poor on Kauai. Three Franciscan nuns continue to serve in Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula on the north coast of Molokai.

"Leprosy is not a particular scourge at this moment," Silva said, but he added that homelessness, drug addiction and the disintegration of the family are "all great needs that we need to address today. I think Damien and Marianne and all the saints can inspire us to do so."

Mark Miller, administrator of the state Health Department Hansen’s Disease Branch, said, "Everyone’s been informed and they’re very excited. Our sisters were notified by fax on Sunday, and word has spread quickly throughout the community."

Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ewa Beach and a Hawaii native, said Cope inspired her, causing her to travel to Syracuse, N.Y., to enter the Sisters of Saint Francis community, where she also served.

"We as Franciscans are much, much encouraged by Mother Marianne’s legacy of her care and compassion, not only those who are in need of care, but especially those who are considered to be outcasts."

She said both Cope and Damien traveled a long distance to answer the call, not knowing what they’d be facing.

"They had the grace of God to pursue the care of God’s afflicted people."

She added, "Leprosy is repulsive for many people, but they were courageous enough to undertake (the work) because they knew that they were images of God. That’s why they cared for them in such a loving and committed way.

"Dignity of the person was primary. Despite the physical appearance of the person, there was something deeper in the person. With her selflessness she contributed her life to the poor and the disadvantaged."

Cope was a humble person who wouldn’t have imagined herself in such a lofty position, Ah Chick said.

"She had said that if she could only experience a little tiny part of heaven, she would be satisfied."

Sister Margaret Antone, 78, who was present at Cope’s exhumation on Molokai and beatification in Rome, said she will watch a televised announcement today by the bishop in Syracuse.

"I knew in my heart she would be a saint because she was such a good woman," said the counselor and former principal of Saint Francis School. "I’m happy for her."