A young Mother Marianne Cope

‘I am hungry for the work’

The Sisters of St. Francis mark 125 years in Hawaii caring for the sick, teaching children, lifting up the poor and comforting the dying

By Sister Marie J. Romano, OSF | Special to the Herald

Nov. 8: an invitation The Sisters of St. Francis extend to all the invitation to attend the grand celebration and reenactment of the arrival of Mother Marianne and the sisters. We are honored to have the Hawaiian Royal Societies’ participation in the procession. We are grateful to Halau Hula O Maiki, founded by Margaret Maiki Souza Aiu, and now under the direction of her daughter Kumu Hula Coline Aiu, who will pay tribute to first arrivals. We ask God’s blessing on all who have, in any way, been a part of the grace-filled 125 years of the Sisters of St. Francis in Hawaii. For information on the event and luau tickets, call 687-3420.

Reenactment of the sisters’ arrival

The 125th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Francis in Hawaii will culminate in a grand celebration and reenactment of the arrival of Blessed Marianne Cope and the first six sisters.

The pageantry will begin at 11 a.m., Nov. 8, on the Fort Street Mall at King Street. Seven sisters will ride a horse-drawn carriage, a replica of the royal coach that carried Mother Marianne, accompanied by approximately 100 members of the Hawaiian Royal Societies marching in procession along side. A conch shell blower will precede the procession to announce the arrival.

The procession will go two blocks down Fort Street Mall to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace where Bishop Larry Silva will be waiting on the church steps to bless the sisters as they arrive. Hula Halau O Maiki will perform a tribute to the sisters. All will then enter the cathedral for the noon Mass celebrated by the bishop. After Mass, a luau will be served in the parish hall next to the cathedral while the Royal Hawaiian Band entertains.

The early years

The sisters’ arrival on Nov. 8, 1883, was of great historic importance to the people of Hawaii. King David Kalakaua had been in near desperation trying to find help for the growing number of Hawaii citizens contracting Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy.

At the request of the king and government officials, Sacred Hearts Father Leonor Fousnel sought out an American religious community of sisters dedicated to works of charity. Of some 50 Catholic institutions contacted, only one, the Syracuse Franciscans, responded in the affirmative.

Mother Marianne, the second provincial superior of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, N.Y., and six of her sisters — Sister Bonaventure Caraher, Sister Crescentia Eilers, Sister Renata Nash, Sister Rosalia McLaughlin, Sister Ludovica Gibbons, and Sister Antonella Murphy — generously and heroically accepted the challenge.

“I am hungry for the work,” Mother Marianne wrote at the time. “I am not afraid of any disease, hence, it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned” person with leprosy.

They traveled by train across the country to San Francisco, and from there took the steamship Mariposa to Hawaii, arriving at the old Honolulu Harbor in Kakaako on Nov. 8, 1883.

An article in the Jan. 19, 1884, issue of the Syracuse Evening Herald gave a scant narrative of the arrival. “Father Leonor, rowed by two native men, …ventured out in a little boat to hail the ship off port. Upon learning that the sisters were aboard, he hastened back to shore and put his well-laid plans into operation. … By telephone, by messenger, by jubilant ringing of the cathedral’s bells, and in breathless person, he alerted the people.”

The Mariposa docked at about 1 p.m. King Kalakaua did not attend the arrival because of policy reasons, but sent five state carriages. Queen Kapiolani had intended to greet the sisters, but because of the serious illness of her sister Princess Kekaulike, she had to alter her plans. In her place she sent her maid of honor, Mrs. Frederick W. Beckley, wife to the king’s chamberlain.

“The procession was driven through the principal streets,” wrote the Syracuse reporter, “while the bells of the cathedral rang with joy.” At the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, the Bishop Hermann Koeckemann stood in the central doorway. Mother Marianne and the sisters approached the bishop and knelt for his blessing. In the church, Benediction was celebrated to bless the sisters and their new ministry in Hawaii.

The arrival marked the beginning of a rich legacy of compassionate care, courage and self-sacrifice on behalf of Hawaii’s people which continues to this day.

The sisters’ first assignment was at the Government Branch Hospital, a receiving station in Kakaako for Hansen’s disease patients. The work was difficult and demanding in an overcrowded, vermin-infested environment filled with the stench of rotting flesh. But the sisters persevered and did what was needed, scrubbing down the place and cleaning and bandaging the patients’ sores.

In January, 1884, Mother Marianne was asked to open and run a new general hospital in Wailuku, Maui. Princess Liliuokalani named it “Malulani,” which means “Under the Protection of Heaven.”

Malulani Hospital, Maui

The sisters opened Kapiolani Home for girls on Nov. 9, 1885, to care for the children of Molokai’s leprosy patients. The children, free of the disease, needed to be separated from the contagion of their parents. At the impressive opening ceremony, King Kalakaua composed a special hymn in honor of the sisters, which was arranged by royal band master Henry Berger and sung by the children, accompanied by the Royal Hawaiian Band. For this occasion, the king presented Mother Marianne with the pendant cross of the Royal Order of Kapiolani for her acts of benevolence for the suffering people of the Hawaiian kingdom.

It was five years before the sisters received permission to go to Kalaupapa, Molokai, where more than a thousand people with Hansen’s disease were exiled. The Kakaako Branch Hospital was closing, and Mother Marianne was asked to bring her work with women and girls to Kalaupapa where the patients were being transferred. Mother Marianne was eager to care for the patients there, even while being advised that conditions there were too dreadful for women. With courage and faith, she welcomed the task. Meanwhile, the Kakaako Branch Hospital gave way to the Kalihi Receiving Station, which the sisters also continued to serve for several years.

At Kalaupapa, Mother Marianne and two sisters took charge of Bishop Home for women and girls. They restored dignity and beauty to their lives, sewing dresses for them in the latest fashions and planting flower gardens and fruit trees. In the seemingly desolate, God-forsaken place, they brought to those they cared for the message that God had not forsaken them.

When the famed writer Robert Louis Stevenson visited the sisters in 1889, he wrote the following verse for “Reverend Sister Marianne, Matron of the Bishop Home, Kalaupapa.”

To see the infinite pity of this place,

The mangled limb, the devastated face,

The innocent sufferers smiling at the rod,

A fool were tempted to deny his God.

He sees, and shrinks; but if he look again,

Lo, beauty springing from the breast of pain!

He marks the sisters on the painful shores,

And even a fool is silent and adores.

With Father Damien’s death from Hansen’s disease in 1889, Mother Marianne took over the running of his home for boys at Kalawao and, in 1893, built the Baldwin Home for boys. Mother Marianne never returned to Syracuse. She spent the last 30 years of her life at Kalaupapa, dying in 1918 The sisters never contracted the disease due to Mother Marianne’s stringent rules on hand washing and sanitary procedures. They continue to minister to patients there to this day.

Health care contributions

Following in the footsteps of Mother Marianne, the Sisters of St. Francis continue to respond to the needs of Hawaii’s people. Besides Malulani Hospital in 1884, Hilo County Memorial Hospital was opened in 1915 and St. Francis Hospital in 1927 to care for the needy sick.

These laid the foundation for pioneering services to Hawaii patients over the years: kidney dialysis; home care; hospice care; kidney, bone marrow, heart, liver and pancreas transplants; a center for emotionally disturbed children; and an alcoholic treatment center for women. In 1990, St. Francis Medical Center-West opened to meet the health care needs of the West Oahu’s growing population.

Today, through St. Francis Healthcare System, the sisters offer home health care, palliative care and hospice care for the terminally ill, Stay Healthy at Home and other programs. These services become even more important as Hawaii’s elderly population continues to grow.

Franciscan Adult Day Center, formally known as the Sister Maureen Intergenerational Learning Environment (SMILE), was opened in 1996 to improve the quality of life of frail elders and provide respite to family caregivers. The sisters also extend their health care ministry through nursing homes in communities around Oahu.

Our Lady of Kea‘au was established in October, 2005, to provide outreach services to the homeless in Waianae.

Commitment to education

Education has also been a priority for the Sisters of St Francis. Beginning with St. Anthony School for Girls on Maui in 1884, they have administered, operated and taught in more than a dozen schools throughout the islands, educating while guiding thousands of youth to love and serve God.

In 1900, the sisters opened St. Joseph School in Hilo, the only Catholic school on the Island of Hawaii.

St. Francis School on Oahu was begun in 1924, first as a convent school to prepare young women for religious life to continue the work with Hansen’s disease patients, and soon after as a place where lay women could earn a diploma to enter nursing school. It developed into a girls’ high school, and after 82 years has opened its doors to boys. Today it serves students from preschool to high school. At one time, it also had a campus on Kauai.

Other places where the Sisters of St. Francis continue to have a presence are Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, St. Michael School and St. Theresa School on Oahu, Chaminade University of Honolulu, and on Kauai providing religious education at Immaculate Conception Parish.

In the past, the sisters served at Sacred Hearts School and St. Theresa Parish on Maui, Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish and School, Our Lady of Sorrows Parish and Our Lady of the Mount Parish on Oahu, and at the University of Hawaii’s Community Colleges.

For the sisters today, it has been a privilege to minister to the health, education, and social needs of the people of Hawaii in continuing the rich legacy of Blessed Marianne Cope.