Marianne Cope (1838-1918)

MARIANNE COPE was born in Germany, raised in New York state and died in Hawaii . . .

Marianne Cope

Feast Day: January 23
Canonized: October 21, 2012

Born in Germany as Maria Anna Barbara Koob (later changed to Cope), this future saint emigrated with her family to Utica, N.Y., in 1839. Cope joined the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis in Syracuse, taking the name Marianne. She became a teacher, and later a principal in schools established for German- speaking immigrants. Cope helped found the first two Catholic hospitals in Central New York,  was appointed as administrator for St. Joseph’s Hospital, and became a leader in the field of health care and education.

In 1883, she left for Hawaii with six other sisters in response to a plea from Hawaii’s King Kalākaua to care for those suffering from leprosy. Cope managed Kaka’ako Branch Hospital on O’ahu, a receiving station for those with the disease. The most severe cases were sent to the island of Moloka’i.

The hospital closed after a new government came to power 1887, and Cope established a home for women and girls on Moloka’i. There she cared for St. Damien de Veuster, who had contracted the disease while caring for the sick. She never contracted the disease and died of natural causes in 1918.

TIM DRAKE is Legatus magazine’s editorial assistant.