Marianne Cope

Life events

1. Born — 1838

   Born Barbara Koob on January 23, 1838, in Heppenheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse; her family emigrated to Utica, New York, the following year and became naturalized American citizens in the 1850s.

2. Tonsured — 1862

   After her father's death in 1862 freed her from family obligations, Barbara Koob entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York, receiving the religious habit and the name Marianne.

3. Other

   Appointed by the Superior General to govern St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse — the first public hospital in the city — Cope also helped found the first two Catholic hospitals in Central New York, with charters requiring care for all patients regardless of race or creed.

4. Pilgrimage — 1883

   In November 1883, Cope departed Syracuse with six Franciscan Sisters aboard the SS Mariposa to answer King Kalākaua's plea for religious to care for leprosy patients in Hawaii, arriving in Honolulu on November 8 and assuming supervision of Kakaʻako Branch Hospital on Oʻahu.

5. Other — 1885

   In November 1885, Cope opened the Kapiolani Home on the grounds of a leprosy hospital — with government support — to shelter homeless female children of leprosy patients, as no other congregation was willing to care for children so closely associated with the disease.

6. Other — 1888

   In November 1888, Cope moved permanently to the Charles R. Bishop Home for Unprotected Leper Girls and Women at Kalaupapa on Molokaʻi, caring for the dying Damien of Molokai and — after his death on April 15, 1889 — assuming official charge of the boys' home at Kalawao as well.

7. Died — 1918

   Cope died of natural causes on August 9, 1918, at Kalaupapa, and was initially buried on the grounds of the Bishop Home; her remains were transferred to Syracuse in 2005 and subsequently enshrined at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu in 2014.

8. Other — 2012

   On October 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Marianne Cope in Rome — the last canonization of his pontificate — following her beatification by Benedict in 2005 and a second authenticated miracle approved in December 2011.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Despite direct and sustained contact with leprosy patients at Kakaʻako and Kalaupapa from 1883 until her death in 1918, Cope never contracted Hansen's disease. (likely)
• When contracting with the College of Medicine at Syracuse University to use her hospital for student clinical training, Cope stipulated that patients retained the right to refuse care by students — an unusual provision for the 1870s. (likely)
• More than 50 religious congregations had declined King Kalākaua's request before Cope accepted; she wrote that she was 'not afraid of any disease' and called serving lepers her 'greatest delight.' (likely)
• The Episcopal Church (USA) has honored Cope jointly with Damien of Molokaʻi on April 15 since a formal calendar inclusion in 2022, making her one of very few modern Roman Catholic saints with an explicit Anglican feast. (likely)
• Marianne Cope was both the first beatification and the last canonization under Pope Benedict XVI, framing nearly the entirety of his pontificate's formal recognition of new saints. (likely)