Marianne Cope

1838-1918

Feast Date: January 23

Barbara Koob was born in Germany, and moved to the United States with her family when she was 2. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, N.Y., serving for 20 years as a teacher and hospital administrator. In 1883 she traveled with six sisters to Hawaii to minister to people with Hansen’s disease, then known as leprosy. In 1888, they opened a home on Molokai for women and girls with the disease, and continued the work of St. Damien de Veuster after his death. Mother Marianne died on Molokai; her feast is her birthday. At her canonization in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI called her “a shining example of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved St. Francis.”

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Author: Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ news and information service.

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