January 23 | Saint Marianne Cope

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories. Today, picture white sandy beaches, bright blue water, and palm trees swaying in the breeze. Now imagine that same paradise is actually a prison.

Today, we are traveling to the islands of Hawaii, not for a vacation, but to meet a woman who walked straight into a nightmare and decided to plant flowers there. Her name is Saint Mary Ann Cope. If you were living in the late 1800s and heard the word Molokai, you probably would have shuddered. It was a place of banishment.

In Hawaii, people suffering from leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease, were separated from their families and banished to the Kalapapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai. But in 1883, a tough, no-nonsense nun from Syracuse, New York, received a letter asking for help running a hospital for these suffering people. While others turned away in fear, Mother Marianne Cope packed her bags. She arrived in the islands that November with six other sisters, ready to work. She is the patron saint of lepers, outcasts, and those with HIV and AIDS, and her story begins long before she ever saw a palm tree.

Born Barbara Kub in Germany in 1838, she immigrated to Utica, New York, when she was just a baby. Barbara wasn't a stranger to hard work or sacrifice. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be a nun, but life threw a massive obstacle in her path. When she finished eighth grade, her father fell ill. Barbara couldn't just leave to follow her dreams. Her family needed her, so she went to work in a factory. For nine long years, she worked to provide for her younger siblings.

It wasn't until her father passed away, and her siblings were old enough to take care of themselves, that she was finally able to enter the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse. It was there she received the habit and the name we know her by today. She started out wanting to teach, but her order realized she had incredible leadership skills.

She became a nurse administrator in local hospitals, and served as the provincial mother, the leader of her order, twice. What made Mary Ann truly special, even back in New York, was who she chose to help. She became known for treating outcasts, specifically patients struggling with alcoholism who many other hospitals rejected. She had a heart for the people society wanted to throw away. So, when that request from Hawaii came in 1883, Mary Ann was ready. But she didn't just go there to bandage wounds.

She went there to fight for dignity. When Marianne arrived in Hawaii, the hospitals were poorly run. Did she sit back and let it happen? Absolutely not. She worked tirelessly to improve them, and she wasn't afraid to butt heads with the government officials. In fact, she laid down the law.

She threatened that she and her sisters would pack up and go back to Syracuse if the government didn't allow the hospital to be run properly. She demanded high standards for her patients. She even opened a house on the hospital grounds specifically for the women who were related to sick patients, like a modern-day Ronald McDonald house. People criticized her for this, wondering why she would bother, but Mary Ann saw that nobody else would care for these women, so she did.

Eventually, the political situation in Hawaii changed. A new government closed the hospital on Oahu, and once again, the patients were banished to that isolated peninsula on Molokai. This is where Marianne's story intersects with another famous saint you might know, Father Damien, the apostle to the lepers. They were friends, and when Father Damien contracted the disease himself, Marianne ensured he was well cared for. After Father Damien passed away, Mother Marianne stepped up. She was appointed to oversee the work he had started on Molokai.

Life on Molokai was hard, but Marianne brought light to it. She didn't just offer medical care, she provided for their spiritual needs, including education and catechesis. She also helped make the community more beautiful. She understood that people don't just need medicine to survive, they need beauty, hope, and dignity.

Marianne Cope never returned to New York. She worked on that island, serving the outcasts of the world, until she died of natural causes, on August 9th, 1918. She gave everything she had, staying with her people until the very end.

Whether it was alcoholics in New York, or lepers in Hawaii, she gravitated toward the people everyone else ignored, or judged. Look around your world. Who is the outcast? Who is the person sitting alone, or the person everyone else thinks is weird?

Refuse to let that person remain an outcast. Today, make a point to say hello to them, sit with them, or just include them in a conversation. Bring a little bit of dignity and beauty into their day, just like St. Marianne did for the people of Molokai. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.