On Thursday, January 23rd we will celebrate the
Feast Day of our patron, St. Marianne Cope. All
Masses on the weekend of January 25-26 will be celebrated
in her honor. Normally, that would be the
Third Sunday in Ordinary time. However, according
to Canon law when there is a Feast Day of a patron
saint of a parish church, that saint may be celebrated
on the weekend as most of the parish is in church on
the weekend. The readings will be taken from the
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, but the prayers of
the Mass will be in honor of St. Marianne Cope.
That being said, it only seems fair to speak a bit
about our patron saint. She was born in Germany on
January 23, 1838, in the town of Heppenheim in the
Duchy of Hesse. (a duchy can best be described in
our terms as a County) She was baptized Maria Anna
Barbara Koob. When coming to the United States the
Koob family decided to change the name to “Cope”
for an easier pronunciation. Upon their arrival to the
United States they settled in Utica, New York, and
attended Saint Joseph Church.
Her father died in 1862. For a while Barbara went to
work to help support her family. In time she entered
the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, New York.
When becoming a nun, she took the name:
“Marianne”.
She became a teacher and principal of a Catholic
school, also she directed and planned the opening of
two Catholic hospitals.
In 1883, St. Marianne became the head of her community
and was known as Mother Superior, Marianne
Cope.
Receiving a plea from King Kalakaua of Hawaii to
come work with the lepers. She left Syracuse with six
sisters bound for Hawaii, on November 8, 1883.
Once in Hawaii, she and the sisters managed a hospital
in O’ahu where victims of leprosy were in great
number. The most severe lepers came from the island
of Molokai. She worked very closely with St. Damien
of Molokai.
As she became older, it seemed her workload increased.
She now was responsible for orphans of
woman who had leprosy as well as priests who had
caught the disease while working with the lepers.
Eventually, she was confined to a wheelchair. Yet,
from that wheelchair she worked tirelessly!
Mother Marianne Cope died on August 9, 1918. Not
too soon after; people were reporting miracles as a
result of her prayers. She was declared “Blessed” on
May 14, 2005, by Pope Benedict XV1 and declared
“Saint” on October 21, 2012, by Pope Benedict XV1.
Our parish received her name in 2017. It is fair to
note that this is Saint Marianne Cope Parish, comprising
the Churches of St. Philip and St. Catherine
of Siena.