Spring Break
The Daily OrangeMother Marianne Cope comes back to Syracuse as part of her journey to sainthood
By Meredith Bowen
Posted: 2/11/05, 12:41 AM EST Section: News
Mother Marianne tended not just to the residents' physical needs, but also their spiritual and social needs. She planned activities for the children, some whom came to the island at only five years old. She worked in the outdoors, doing her best to make the island hospitable.
"There wasn't a tree or shrub there when Mother Marianne got there. They told her nothing would grow. She had her friends send in hundreds of trees from Honolulu and New York," Sister Mary Laurence said.
The trees still stood when Sisters Mary Laurence and Grace Anne traveled to Hawaii last month.
Mother Marianne remained on the island until 1918, when she died of natural causes. The Molokai nuns and patients began collecting her letters and personal stories in anticipation of her possible canonization right after her death, Sister Grace Anne said.
"It was great foresight," Sister Grace Anne said. "They felt this day would come."
Many hope the cause for canonization and Sister Mary Laurence's biography of Mother Marianne, entitled "Song of Pilgrimage and Exile," published in 1983, have the same effect on much-needed vocations today.
"It's an incentive for people to think about the ministry and the purpose of our lives," said the Rev. Richard Dellos, the pastor at St. Joseph and St. Patrick parish, where Mother Marianne grew up and where a group of parishioners has been meeting every Wednesday morning for the last 17 years to pray for her cause.
Mother Marianne's first miracle is currently in advanced stages of consideration by a Vatican tribunal, where "it passed unanimously the scrutiny of both medical and spiritual authority," Sister Mary Laurence said.
Thirteen years ago, a young woman in Syracuse was suffering from multiple organ failure, and doctors fully anticipated her death. A visiting nun touched the woman with a relic, an object touched or used by Mother Marianne. That night, her family, friends and the sisters prayed to Mother Marianne for the woman's recovery, Sister Mary Laurence said. That week, her organs started to function again.
"There wasn't a tree or shrub there when Mother Marianne got there. They told her nothing would grow. She had her friends send in hundreds of trees from Honolulu and New York," Sister Mary Laurence said.
The trees still stood when Sisters Mary Laurence and Grace Anne traveled to Hawaii last month.
Mother Marianne remained on the island until 1918, when she died of natural causes. The Molokai nuns and patients began collecting her letters and personal stories in anticipation of her possible canonization right after her death, Sister Grace Anne said.
"It was great foresight," Sister Grace Anne said. "They felt this day would come."
Many hope the cause for canonization and Sister Mary Laurence's biography of Mother Marianne, entitled "Song of Pilgrimage and Exile," published in 1983, have the same effect on much-needed vocations today.
"It's an incentive for people to think about the ministry and the purpose of our lives," said the Rev. Richard Dellos, the pastor at St. Joseph and St. Patrick parish, where Mother Marianne grew up and where a group of parishioners has been meeting every Wednesday morning for the last 17 years to pray for her cause.
Mother Marianne's first miracle is currently in advanced stages of consideration by a Vatican tribunal, where "it passed unanimously the scrutiny of both medical and spiritual authority," Sister Mary Laurence said.
Thirteen years ago, a young woman in Syracuse was suffering from multiple organ failure, and doctors fully anticipated her death. A visiting nun touched the woman with a relic, an object touched or used by Mother Marianne. That night, her family, friends and the sisters prayed to Mother Marianne for the woman's recovery, Sister Mary Laurence said. That week, her organs started to function again.
