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Saint Marianne Cope
Barbara Koob (now
officially "Cope") was born on 23 January 1838 in SE Hessen, West
Germany. She was one of 10 children born to Peter Koob, a farmer, and Barbara
Witzenbacher Koob. The year after Barbara's birth, the family moved to the
United States. The Koob family found a home in Utica, in the State of New
York, where they became members of St Joseph's Parish and where the children
attended the parish school.
Although Barbara felt
called to Religious life at an early age, her vocation was delayed for nine
years because of family obligations. As the oldest child at home, she went to
work in a factory after completing eighth grade in order to support her
family when her father became ill.
Finally, in the summer
of 1862 at age 24, Barbara entered the
Sisters of St Francis in Syracuse, New York, On 19 November 1862 she
received the religious habit and the name "Sr Marianne", and the
following year she made her religious profession and began serving as a
teacher and principal in several elementary schools in New York State.
She joined the Order
in Syracuse with the intention of teaching, but her life soon became a series
of administrative appointments.
As a member of the
governing boards of her Religious Community in the 1860s, she participated in
the establishment of two of the first hospitals in the central New York area.
In 1870, she began a
new ministry as a nurse-administrator at St Joseph's in Syracuse, N.Y., where
she served as head administrator for six years. During this time she put her
gifts of intelligence and people skills to good use as a facilitator,
demonstrating the energy of a woman motivated by God alone.
Although Mother
Marianne was often criticized for accepting for treatment "outcast"
patients such as alcoholics, she became well-known and loved in the central
New York area for her kindness, wisdom and down-to-earth practicality.
In 1883, Mother
Marianne, now the Provincial Mother in Syracuse, received a letter from a
Catholic priest asking for help in managing hospitals and schools in the
Hawaiian Islands, and mainly to work with leprosy patients. The letter
touched Mother Marianne's heart and she enthusiastically responded: "I
am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen
ones, whose privilege it will be to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of
the souls of the poor Islanders.... I am not afraid of any disease, hence, it
would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned
"lepers'".
She and six other
Sisters of St Francis arrived in Honolulu in November 1883. With Mother
Marianne as supervisor, their main task was to manage the Kaka'ako Branch
Hospital on Oahu, which served as a receiving station for patients with
Hansen's disease gathered from all over the islands.
The Sisters quickly
set to work cleaning the hospital and tending to its 200 patients. By 1885,
they had made major improvements to the living conditions and treatment of
the patients.
In November of that
year, they also founded the Kapi'olani Home inside the hospital compound,
established to care for the healthy daughters of Hansen's disease patients at
Kaka'ako and Kalawao. The unusual decision to open a home for healthy
children on leprosy hospital premises was made because only the Sisters would
care for those so closely related to people with the dreaded disease.
St. Damien and Mother Marianne
Mother Marianne met Fr
Damien de Veuster (today St. Damien is known as the "Apostle to
Lepers") for the first time in January 1884, when he was in apparent
good health. Two years later, in 1886, after he had been diagnosed with
Hansen's disease, Mother Marianne alone gave hospitality to the outcast
priest upon hearing that his illness made him an unwelcome visitor to Church
and Government leaders in Honolulu.
In 1887, when a new
Government took charge in Hawaii, its officials decided to close the Oahu
Hospital and receiving station and to reinforce the former alienation policy.
The unanswered question: Who would
care for the sick, who once again would be sent to a settlement for exiles on
the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai?
In 1888, Mother
Marianne again responded to the plea for help and said: "We will cheerfully accept the
work...". She arrived in Kalaupapa several months before Fr Damien's
death together with Sr Leopoldina Burns and Sr Vincentia McCormick, and was
able to console the ailing priest by assuring him that she would provide care
for the patients at the Boys' Home at Kalawao that he had founded.
Together the three
Sisters ran the Bishop Home for 103 Girls and the Home for Boys. The workload
was extreme and the burden at times seemed overwhelming. In moments of
despair, Sr Leopoldina reflected:
"How long, O Lord, must I see only those who are sick and covered
with leprosy?".
Mother Marianne's
invaluable example of never-failing optimism, serenity and trust in God
inspired hope in those around her and allayed the Sisters' fear of catching
leprosy. She taught her Sisters that their primary duty was "to make
life as pleasant and as comfortable as possible for those of our fellow creatures
whom God has chosen to afflict with this terrible disease...".
Mother Marianne never
returned to Syracuse. She died in Hawaii on 9 August 1918 of natural causes
and was buried on the grounds of Bishop Home.
വിശുദ്ധ മരിയന്നെ
കോപ്
റോമൻ കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭയിലെ വിശുദ്ധയാണ് മരിയന്നെ കോപ്. റോമൻ കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭയും, സഭയുടെ കീഴിലെ അമേരിക്കയിലെ എപ്പിസ്കോപ്പൽ സഭയും ഇവരെ വണങ്ങുന്നു. ജർമ്മൻ രാഷ്ട്രത്തിൽപ്പെട്ട ഗ്രാൻഡ് ഡച്ച് ഓഫ് ഹെസ്സിയിലെ ഹെപ്പെൻഹെയിം എന്ന സ്ഥലത്ത് 1838 ജനുവരി 23 - നു ജനിച്ചു. മരിയന്നെയുടെ ഒന്നാം വയസ്സിൽ കുടുംബം അമേരിക്കയിലെ ഉട്ടിക്ക (ന്യൂയോർക്ക്) എന്ന സ്ഥലത്തേയ്ക്ക് താമസം മാറ്റി.
1883 - ൽ 45-ാമത്തെ വയസ്സിൽ ആറു ഫ്രാൻസിസ്കൻ സന്യാസിനികലോടൊപ്പം മദർ മരിയന്ന ഹവായിയി എന്ന സ്ഥലത്തെത്തി. 1888-ൽ മരിയന്നെ കലൂപാപ്പ കുഷ്ഠരോഗീ കേന്ദ്രത്തിൽ ശുശ്രൂഷ ആരംഭിച്ചു. ഹവായിയിൽ 1918 ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 9 - ന് അന്തരിച്ചു.
ജോൺപോൾ രണ്ടാമൻ മാർപാപ്പ 2004-ൽ വിശുദ്ധപ്രഖ്യാപനത്തിനുള്ള നടപടികൾ ആരംഭിച്ചു. ബെനഡിക്ട് പതിനാറാമൻ മാർപ്പാപ്പ 2005 മേയ് 14-ന് വത്തിക്കാനിൽ സെന്റ് പീറ്റേഴ്സ് ബസിലിക്കയിൽ വച്ച് മദറിനെ വാഴ്ത്തപ്പെട്ടവളായി പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചു. 21 October 2012
–ന് ബെനഡിക്ട് പതിനാറാമൻ മാർപ്പാപ്പ വത്തിക്കാനിൽ വച്ച് മരിയന്നെയെ വിശുദ്ധയായി പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചു.
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