Saint of the Day: St. Marianne Cope

Franciscan Sister (1838-1918)

Her life 

+ Barbara Koob was born in Germany and her family immigrated to the United States in 1840, settling in Utica, New York. It was there that the family name was changed to “Cope.” 

+ Barbara was forced to leave school after the eighth grace to help support her family by working in a factory. 

+ In 1862, she entered the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, New York, receiving the religious name Marianne. After professing religious vows the following year, she worked for several years as a teacher and, later, as superior of St. Joseph’s Hospital. She was eventually elected provincial of her community. 

+ Inspired by the work being done among the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molka’I, Mother Marianne traveled with six companions to Hawaii in 1883, intending to establish a group of sisters to help the Belgian priest. While Mother Marianne planned to stay only a few weeks (to establish the convent and dispensary), she stayed for thirty-five years. 

+ Saint Marianne Cope died on August 9, 1918, and was canonized in 2012. 

For prayer and reflection 

“The charity of the good knows to creed and is confined to no one place.”—Saint Marianne Cope

Prayer

O God, who called us to serve your Son
in the least of our brothers and sisters,
grant, we pray, that by the example and intercession
of the Virgin Saint Marianne Cope,
we may burn with love for you and for those who suffer.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Father Silas Henderson, S.D.S.