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Mohawk and Nun to be Sainted
Kateri Tekakwitha stained glass window by Debora Coombs in St. Mary
Let’s hear it for the Mohawk Valley area of New York state! From that area of the world not one but TWO soon-to-be saints have emerged (not counting myself who was born a mere 3 hours away).
“The Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian, spent most of her life here during the 17th centurY. About 200 years later and 40 miles to the west, the Blessed Mother Marianne Cope began a religious life that focused on providing medical care in central New York and the Hawaiian islands.
On Dec. 20, Pope Benedict XVI certified miracles attributed to the two women, the final step toward sainthood. The women’s canonization is expected to happen this year.
When they are elevated to sainthood, they’ll be among just 12 of the Catholic Church’s thousands of saints who either were born in America or ministered in what is now the United States.” (source)
While many may be familiar with Kateri, let me fill you in a bit more on Mother Marianne. She belonged to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.
“Mother Marianne Cope’s roots in the Mohawk Valley began in Utica, where her family settled in 1840 after emigrating from Germany the previous year, when she was a year old. A factory worker until she joined the Franciscan sisters in Syracuse in the early 1860s, the young nun worked as a nurse and hospital administrator, helping to found two hospitals — St. Joseph’s in Syracuse and St. Elizabeth’s in Utica — that are still in operation today. Under her direction, no one was denied medical care, according to Sister Patricia Burkard, general minister of the Syracuse-based Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.” (source)
Marianne Cope in a 1883 photo provided by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities
She was “the only one of 50 religious leaders to respond positively to an emissary from Hawaii who requested for nuns to help care for Hansen’s disease patients on Kalaupapa.” This earned her the title “beloved mother of the outcasts.” The place where she went was a settlement on Molokai island run by Father Damien who was recently canonized a saint in 2009.
“Marianne was known for demanding money from the government to help the leprosy patients. She wasn’t “afraid to pursue anything for her people,” said Sister Davilyn Ah Chick of Honolulu….
The nuns said Marianne is credited with having a school built and teaching women and girls to sew and garden. She was also a source of support during a time of much suffering, which included abuse, families forced apart and the banning of pregnancies, [Sister Rose Annette] Ahuna said.
Marianne died there of natural causes in 1918.” (source: Hawaii nuns describe life of soon-to-be saint, Jan. 2, 2011)
We look forward to the canonizations!
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Thanks for this posting! Both canonizations are particularly gratifying to my parish (St. Lucy’s) in Syracuse, NY. Not only do we have parish ministers from the Franciscan Sisters, but the beneficiary of Mother Marianne’s first miracle (which led to her beatification) is a member of our parish–a great young woman who is now a professional actress, and her parents are wonderful, too. Meanwhile, we have a daily Mass chapel dedicated to Blessed Kateri, as well as an active Native American community among our members. You may be interested in this article which discusses the parish in regard to St.-to-be Kateri: http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf/2012/01/post_229.html (Sean Kirst, a wonderful local columnist, is also a member of the parish, by the way). Peggy