BIG C CATHOLICS

Saint Marianne Cope was a 19th century Sister of Saint Francis, who dedicated her life to helping to care for the poor, especially those suffering from leprosy. In Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i, she set up a home for girls with leprosy and became friends with Saint Damien de Veuster. Here is her quote on imitating Christ with humility. What little good we can do in this world to help and comfort the suffering, we wish to do it quietly and so far as possible unnoticed and unknown. —  St. Marianne Cope  ______________________________________ Prayer for St. Marianne Cope’s Intercession 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, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. St. Marianne Cope, help us see Christ in the weak and those despised by society.

Optional Memorial - January 23rd  St. Marianne Cope was a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis and is recognized as an extraordinary woman of the 1800's and early 1900's. Her call to labor as a servant of God and the Franciscan spirit she embraced, provided a foundation of values that gave her the courage and compassion to accept difficult challenges with diplomacy and grace. She is a model of humility amid suffering. As a leader in her community, Mother Marianne was instrumental in opening two of the first Catholic Hospitals in Central New York: St. Elizabeth in Utica and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse. Recognizing the need for basic health care in a city of immigrants, she and a small group of women defied convention by purchasing a saloon in Syracuse, New York and transforming it into a hospital to serve the needs of a diverse community. Here they welcomed everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or means. They pioneered rules of patient’s righ

Saint Marianne Cope of Molokaʻi's feast day is January 23rd. Although St. Damien De Veuster has rightly been called the "Apostle to the Lepers" in Hawaii, he would be the first to acknowledge the invaluable help of a most kind, but seemingly unstoppable Sister of St. Francis named Mother Marianne Cope. It was she who, in the last years of the dying priest’s life, not only remained his friend, but assured him that the work he had begun for the lepers of Hawaii would continue long after his death. Mother Marianne was born to Peter and Barbara Cope in Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1838. She emigrated with her parents to the United States two years later, where they would eventually settle in Utica, N.Y. Although she knew at an early age that she had a vocation to the religious life, Barbara delayed entering the convent because she was needed at home; her father had become an invalid, and in order to support her parents and siblings, she went to work in a nearby factory