Praise of Cope past due, admirer says

Blessed Mother Marianne Cope succeeded St. Damien de Veuster in his merciful care of leprosy patients banished to Molokai, but to the Sisters of St. Francis, she has earned sainthood in her own right.

"She was a woman of heroism," known as "the beloved mother of outcasts," said Sister Alicia Damien Lau, a local expert on Cope’s life who belongs to the same order as Cope, Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities in Williamsville, N.Y.

Lau said that as with other women who have had to contend with second-class citizenship, Mother Marianne is "absolutely not" getting the same kind of recognition given to Damien.

Lau said she doesn’t begrudge Damien the attention he has received — "I took the name of Damien because he was very special to me," she said — but she wants Cope to get equal recognition because "she did not just follow in his footsteps."

Cope, the first sister of the St. Francis order to come to Hawaii in 1883, along with six companions, in response to the plight of those ravaged by Hansen’s disease, is being elevated to sainthood at the Vatican in October for 35 years of service. Coming so soon after Damien’s 2009 canonization in Rome, the Catholic Diocese of Hawaii has called the upcoming event an extraordinary source of pride for Hawaii.

Lau, a retired health care systems consultant, acknowledged that Mother Marianne’s is not the household name that Damien’s has been in Hawaii history, with his pioneering role in Molokai.

Lau said Cope downplayed her accolades and had a quiet way of getting things done without conflict. And the St. Francis headquarters did not want to publicize its research and gathering of documents to substantiate her achievements until it was completed over 37 years, she said.

"Mother was always in the background," Lau said. "Mother herself did not want the publicity nor the recognition," such as when King Kalakaua decorated her in 1885 for her services to humanity in letters to the St. Francis order’s headquarters in New York. "She found the decoration to be of no significance, for she knew that only God’s judgment had meaning."

After 50 religious communities in the world turned down pleas by the monarchy of Hawaii in 1883 to help with its leprosy epidemic, Cope was the first to agree to help.

"She told the king, ‘I come with no gifts. I hold your suffering people in my heart,’" Lau said. "She took a dismal situation and made it so alive. She made a big difference."

After treating patients of leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, for five years in Hono­lulu, the government asked Cope to go to Molokai in 1888 when Damien was dying of the disease. "They knew from experience that no other capable woman would be willing to take up such an arduous and dangerous work," Lau said.

Cope worked there for 30 years, and not one sister contracted leprosy, as she promised them, "a miracle in itself," Lau said. Cope died in 1918 of natural causes at age 80.

The St. Francis leadership had been cautious about keeping the documentation of Cope’s work low-key until it was complete. One requirement for sainthood is that two miracles attributed to intercessory prayers in the name of a candidate be verified by the Vatican, which was recently done for Cope, Lau said.

Lau said Sister Mary Laurence Hanley of Syracuse, N.Y., who died in December at 86, made it her life’s passion since 1974 to compile the 27 volumes verifying Cope’s remarkable ministry.

"Our religious congregation knew in our hearts that she was a saint," Lau said. "As Sister Mary Laurence was working on it, her focus was to get all of the facts correct, not have a lot of hearsay. I remember Sister saying that Mother Marianne would not want a big to-do about anything."

According to a Dec. 9 story in the Hawaii Catholic Herald, Hanley "was continually defending Mother Marianne against those who negatively compared her humble but resolute ministry against Damien’s boisterous charity, who would ‘cheat her legacy by diminishing it.’ She bristled against those who implied that Mother Marianne wasn’t a saint in her own right, but only by association with Damien."

Lau said, "Mother gave her all, she gave the best she ever had, and was able to care for the people without knowing anything about the culture or the total disease process. She didn’t shun the patients like so many did. That example really touches me. So much about her life is a model. She was a risk-taker open to listening to what the needs of the people were."

Cope’s legacy includes the establishment of Maui Memorial Hospital, St. Anthony’s School in Wai­luku and St. Joseph School in Hilo. Carrying on Cope’s work, the Sisters of St. Francis are still at Kalaupapa; they established the groundbreaking programs of St. Francis Healthcare System, organizations that care for seniors and the homeless, and Saint Francis School in Hono­lulu. Their presence also continues in a multitude of schools and parishes. There are 46 St. Francis sisters left today, half of them retired or infirm, Lau said.

Lau is coordinating plans mainly for some 80 sisters of all religious orders and about 10 leprosy patients in wheelchairs to attend the canonization ceremony Oct. 21; at least 400 are expected to make the trip with Seawind Tours & Travel.

Lau did the same thing for Damien’s ceremony and was a personal caregiver for a patient. "Anything that has to do with Mother Marianne I will do," she said.