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Mother Marianne Cope was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Sunday, October 21. CNY Central’s Matt Mulcahy and WCNY’s Liz Ayers were in the Vatican with Bishop Robert Cunningham of the Diocese of Syracuse for the canonization of Mother Marianne Cope.

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The Story of Marianne Cope: A Saint for Central New York

Mother Marianne, formerly Barbara Koob (1838-1918), was born in Germany and grew up in Utica. Her family was a member of St. Joseph’s Parish where she went to school and was confirmed. Even at a young age, she wrote about a religious calling.

She joined the Sisters of Saint Francis in Syracuse in 1862 and was invested at the Church of the Assumption where she was given the name Sister Marianne.

Mother Marianne became a founding leader of sisters and St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse in 1869. She discovered her greatest calling by helping people with leprosy, now called Hansen's disease. She took a week long train ride from Syracuse to San Francisco and a seasick ridden week long ship ride on the Pacific Ocean to reach the Hawaiian Islands. She never returned to Central New York, but discovered a new home on Molokai in a place called Kalaupapa.

Mother Marianne witnessed the worst of humanity upon her arrival at the Oahu Branch Hospital for people with leprosy. The 19th century Hawaiian government sent men, women and children to the fenced in compound at the first sign of a lesion hinting at the epidemic illness. The people were scarred by open sores and disfigurement and the corrupt administration of the compound left few resources to properly care for the sick.

Mother Marianne and five other Franciscan sisters did not flinch. They went to work cleaning the filthy compound and combating sexual abuse. They offered dignity and began to serve.

Nearly a century after her passing, Mother Marianne Cope is about to canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in the greatest of tributes offered by the Roman Catholic Church.

It took the miraculous cure of two women through the prayerful intercession of Mother Marianne for the church to elevate her from Venerable to Blessed to Sainthood. The miracles were authenticated in 2004 and 2011.

Pope Benedict XVI canonizeed Mother Marianne at the Vatican on October 21.