Saint Marianne Cope was born as Barbara Koob in 1838 to a farming family in West Germany, moving a year later to the United States. At age twenty-four she entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, with the intention of serving as a teacher. However, she instead participated in the founding of two of the first hospitals in the central New York Area, before serving as a nurse-administrator for six years, taking the time to treat patients rejected by society, such as those suffering from addiction. It was this work that would bring her to Hawaii to treat those suffering from Hansen’s disease, better known as leprosy. Due to a lack of information about how it was contracted, many healthcare providers refused to treat those with Hansen’s disease. Mother Marianne chose to care for them anyway, leaving behind her more prestigious position as a supervisor to manage the Kaka’ako Branch Hospital on O’ahu. She and two other sisters would go on to run the Bishop Home after O’ahu’s closing, sheltering one hundred and three girls, and taking over a Boy’s Home after the death of its founder, Father Damien. Mother Marianne stayed in Hawaii until her death in 1918, after a life of service and unfailing optimism.

Image:

http://www.sosf.org/marianne%20cope%201883.jpg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources:

“Blessed Marianne Cope (1838-1918) - Biography.” Vatican. Accessed August 14, 2025. https://www.vatican.va/news_services /liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20050514_molokai_en.html.

“Mother Marianne Cope and the Sisters of St. Francis.” National Parks Service. Accessed August 14, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/kala/learn/historyculture/marianne.htm.

You can read Mother Marianne's pamphlet through JSTOR:

Mother Marianne, Sister of St. Francis: A Brief Sketch of Her Life