By Sisters Alicia Damien Lau and William Marie Eleniki
In early 2008, S. Rosaire Kopczenski was commissioned to create a larger-than-life statue of Mother Marianne Cope to be placed on Oahu, facing Moloka’i. The plan was for Mother Marianne’s statue to look across the ocean toward Moloka’i, where she ministered to the Hansen’s disease patients of Kalaupapa.
S. William Marie worked with the Hawai’i Community Development Authority and Anthony Ching, the authority’s executive director. Any group that wants to erect a monument at the park is required to establish a connection between the subject and the place.
Mother Marianne certainly met that requirement: The nun from Syracuse, New York, who came here in 1883 as a member of the Sisters of St. Francis, was stationed at the Kaka’ako Branch Hospital, a receiving center for Hansen’s disease patients, Mr. Ching said. The request was approved, and the statue was placed at the Kaka’ako Waterfront Park. On January 23, 2010, we held a large dedication ceremony with Bishop Silva, the Sisters of St. Francis, and the Hawaii Community.
So why is St. Marianne’s statue so important to the people of Hawaii?
Working in the Honolulu Diocese Office, one always needs to be alert and on one’s toes, for you never know who will walk in. The other day, a woman arrived early for an appointment at the Diocesan Office, so S. William Marie invited her to come into the waiting area. As they talked, the woman shared that she and her mom frequently visited the Mother Marianne statue at the Kaka’ako Waterfront Park and prayed the rosary together. She mentioned that her mom was diagnosed with cancer and was very devoted to St. Marianne. One day, when she was weak and confined to bed, in her soft voice, her mother said, “Mother Marianne came to me. Her hands were soft and warm, not like the bronze metal statue that we visited often.” The woman said her mother felt comforted and at peace. She passed away peacefully four days later. During this woman’s visit to Kalaupapa, she also mentioned this incident to S. Barbara Jean Wajda and S. Alicia Damien Lau at St. Marianne’s grave site.
In Kalaupapa, many people bring stories and tell us about different events in their lives, including unexplained cures, answered prayers, and the moment they learned they were born in Kalaupapa or discovered that they have relatives here.
So, what is a miracle? A miracle is generally defined as an extraordinary, often supernatural, event that violates natural law or defies normal explanation, frequently interpreted as a sign of divine power or providence. As people come to St. Marianne, they bring their stories, events, etc., of divine intervention experiences.
As St. Marianne said: “What little good we can do in this world to help and comfort the suffering, we wish to do it quietly and so far as possible, unnoticed and unknown.”
Yes, this is one of St. Marianne’s miracles. St. Marianne Cope is still with us and watching over us.
