Women in History: Saint Marianne Cope, a Model of Trust and Humility

 For Holy Women’s History Month, Maria Morera Johnson spotlights Saint Marianne Cope, best known for continuing the work of Saint Damien of Molokai. 

Learning about the saints sometimes reveals the complementarity of male and female saints who accomplish extraordinary things together. We might learn about one saint, who, through popular devotion, gained the spotlight, and then we encounter a partner in that ministry that either facilitated, co-led, or took on the continued efforts of the other. We know some examples of cooperation in Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross, and Saint Vincent de Paul with Saint Louise de Merillac.

Many of us are familiar with Saint Damien of Molokai, who dedicated his life to the care of persons in Hawaii who suffered from Hanson’s Disease and ultimately succumbed to the disease himself. Saint Marianne Cope, a formidable woman who had already dedicated much of her life to healthcare, took over this mission in the most heroic way.

Saint Marianne’s Story

Saint Marianne Cope was born in 1883 in Germany and emigrated to the United States. She settled in Utica, New York, and like so many immigrants, took on factory work to help her family. At 24, Marianne answered God’s call to religious life and entered the Sisters of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York, where she became an educator and quickly excelled at administration.

Saint Marianne’s leadership was further honed when she was appointed superior in various posts and then elected as Provincial. Her vision and leadership sent her into hospital administration and she founded several hospitals, including St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, and then St. Elizabeth Hospital in her hometown of Utica. Saint Marianne distinguished herself for a compassionate leadership style that recognized the dignity of the person.

Serving the Person, Not the Circumstance

In my work as an educator, I often faced the administrative challenge of reducing students to data points. I understood it as a practical need for assessment, but it never sat well with me. I loved the classroom and the one-to-one contact with students. My best work was relational, understanding where students were so together we could address their needs. Saint Marianne fostered this in nursing education. The nurses were not dealing with hypothetical patients; they were human beings with dignity and worthy of the best care.

Saint Marianne established a revolutionary approach to nursing by requiring clinical hours in a hospital setting concurrent with classroom instruction. A hundred years later, this approach serves as the foundation for nursing programs across the country. It was this success that drew the attention of the Hawaiian government, and in 1883 she went to Honolulu with a cadre of Sisters to work at the receiving station for patients with leprosy.

Although she did not initially work alongside Saint Damien on Molokai (the Hawaiian government was hesitant to expose women to the illness) her work on Maui supported the grave need for medical resources, building a hospital as well as a school for girls. When Saint Damien contracted Hanson’s disease in 1988, Saint Mariane took over his care on the colony, where she expanded the support system not only for the persons with Hanson’s disease, but for their families. When Saint Damien died the following year, she took over the administration of the colony.

Biblical accounts talk of “lepers” as outcasts and unclean, but both Damien and Marianne responded with great compassion and care for the dignity of the person. Rather than allowing the disease to define the person, they cared for the person. Damien was known to enter homes and eat with the residents of the colony. Marianne made every effort to provide normalcy for the residents, creating opportunities for education and participation in community, greatly improving the quality of life.

God’s Plan Requires Active Cooperation

God prepares us to fulfill the mission he entrusts for us. At every step of Saint Marianne’s work, she aligned herself with God’s will in such a way that she acquired knowledge and experience and developed her gifts to cooperate in God’s plan. Her trust in Him, expressed to her Sisters with the conviction that no one would contract Hanson’s disease in their move to Hawaii, speaks to this trust in God.

There was important work to be done, and she would carry forward the work Saint Damien started in a way that only she could do, adding new layers of care that her experience brought alongside the compassion for the human soul that Saint Damien first established as a hallmark of that colony.

I’ve been blessed with a lifetime of service as an educator and given the grace to see God’s hand in the work I’ve done. Today, I see not only the preparation through experience that I’ve gained, but also the importance of like-minded faith-filled companions who have accompanied me and shared in the mission we’re called to do. I look to Saint Marianne Cope as a model of trust and humility. Although we worked in different fields, we both came to our work with a love for the person, not their circumstances. And we understood the need to work with others who are also participating in God’s plan.

It is no surprise that we encounter saints who work together. Perhaps the heroic virtue that gives us saints is contagious. Let us endeavor to surround ourselves with holy men and women!

Saint Marianne Cope, pray for us.

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Copyright 2026 Maria Morera Johnson
Images: (banner) Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo; Wikimedia Commons