Photo by Maarten Jacobs, courtesy of the Sisters of St. Francis

Blessed Marianne’s reliquary in the Franciscan motherhouse chapel.

Blessed Marianne’s remains rest in a new reliquary in New York

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

The reliquary plaque is a representation of the statue at Blessed Marianne's original grave in Kalaupapa

Because she is a candidate for sainthood who has achieved beatification, Blessed Marianne Cope’s remains are now classified as relics. So they rest, not in a grave or tomb, but in a reliquary, a large polished mahogany box on display for prayer and veneration in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, N.Y.

Sealed in a zinc box since their exhumation in 2005 at Kalaupapa and held in a casket, Blessed Marianne’s bones were transferred to the reliquary this year on Jan. 23, her feast day.

Her new resting place is raised off the floor on two short thick pillars, and adorned at the top with a curvy half frame of plumeria blossoms sculpted in matching wood. In the center of its face is a rectangular plaque of koa on which is carved an image of the monument at Kalaupapa that guards her original grave.

The reliquary was created by artisan Eugene Cahalan of Greenleaf Cabinet Makers of Syracuse. He earlier had made a mahogany display box for a cross carved from the root of a tree planted by Blessed Marianne in Kalaupapa now shown at the Mother Marianne Museum in Syracuse.

The multi-hued wood is ribbon mahogany from the Memphis Hardwood Lumber Company of Memphis, N.Y.

The koa plaque was sculpted by Douglas Williams of Hawaii. His design reproduces in miniature relief the statue that stands where Mother Marianne was buried in Kalaupapa in 1918 — of St. Francis of Assisi being embraced by the crucified Jesus. It includes a carved maile lei frame.

Steven Hale of Baldwinsville, N.Y., carved the plumeria, a decoration suggested because of the blossom’s connections to Mother Marianne who was known for beautifying Kalaupapa with trees, plants and flowers.

According to Franciscan Sister Mary Laurence Hanley of Syracuse, the plumeria was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in 1860 by Dr. Wilhelm Hillebrand, who came to Hawaii to help stop the spread of Hansen’s disease. The doctor was from Germany, Blessed Marianne’s birthplace.

By coincidence, 1860 is the year the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse was founded. The Syracuse Sisters are now part of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.