Hawaii nuns moved by visit to origins of St. Francis order

ASSISI, Italy » Twenty-one nuns from Hawaii returned to the birthplace of their Sisters of St. Francis order Thursday and felt the power of their lineage that extended through soon-to-be-Saint Mother Marianne Cope, who will be canonized in Rome on Sunday.

Sister Candida Oroc, who lives in the Manoa convent of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, attended a Hawaii-themed Mass on Thursday in the medieval St. Francis Basilica. Oroc struggled to explain what it means for a sister of St. Francis to retrace the 13th-century footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi and his first female follower, St. Clare of Assisi, around the basilica where Francis is entombed.

Oroc finally came up with a single word: "Awesome."

"This is the birthplace of our order," she said. "You can’t explain fully the spiritual experience."

Similar emotions ran through many of the more than 200 Hawaii residents who made the religious pilgrimage through Assisi to witness Cope’s canonization in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, said Hono­lulu Bishop Larry Silva, who led Thursday’s Mass.

"It’s not just the sisters," Silva said. "Everyone’s touched by this place and the spirit of St. Francis and St. Clare."

But for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities who made the nearly 10,000-mile pilgrimage from Hawaii to Italy, Silva said, "there are these connections over the centuries that are still very much vibrant."

St. Francis was born in Assisi in 1182 and lived here until his death in 1226.

He had given up a life of prosperity to follow three basic traits: poverty, obedience and chastity, said Sister Jovita Agustin, also of the Manoa convent.

"They were the rules he lived by," Agustin said. "It’s what Jesus did."

The Manoa nuns traveled from Rome to Assisi on Thursday in a caravan of buses filled with Hawaii pilgrims.

What later became the Sisters of St. Francis was one of three orders that Francis created, "and St. Clare followed the same rules because she wanted to be one of his disciples," Agustin said. "She wanted to be like him."

So for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, "Assisi is a place of reverence because he lived and worked here. And St. Clare followed in his footsteps."

The basilica named in St. Francis’ honor rises out of the Italian countryside and represents the centerpiece of a series of hilltop homes, hotels, shops and restaurants that wind up and down cobblestone streets.

Navigating the picturesque but narrow alleys and streets proved a challenge for many of the elderly pilgrims from Hawaii and nine Hansen’s disease patients from Kalaupapa who relied on walkers, canes and wheelchairs for the five hours they toured Assisi and attended Mass.

But the payoff was worth the effort for the people from Hawaii — and for two other Sisters of St. Francis from Philadelphia and 60 more from Syracuse, where Cope served as mother superior before answering a call for nuns from King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani in 1883, said Sister Alicia Damien Lau, who also lives in the Manoa complex.

"St. Francis gave up everything, and Mother Marianne left her family and left everything to come to Hawaii," Lau said. "So this place is part of our history, part of our lives."