Hawaii celebrates feast day of Blessed Mother Marianne Cope

Published: 2006-02-06

KALAUPAPA, Hawaii (CNS) -- "What better place to start than here," Sister William Marie Eleniki told 75 people packed into tiny St. Francis Church for the first celebration in Hawaii of the feast day of Blessed Mother Marianne Cope. Sister William Marie, the regional administrator of the Sisters of St. Francis in Hawaii, made her comments at the end of a Mass honoring Mother Marianne at which Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva had presided. Coming to Kalaupapa "is like coming home for the Sisters of St. Francis," she said. The isolated Molokai peninsula was where Mother Marianne spent the three decades of selfless service that led to her beatification in Rome eight months ago. The beatification established Jan. 23 as her feast day. Her religious order decided to kick off its observance a day early in the place she labored and was laid to rest before her remains were exhumed and transported to the order's motherhouse in Syracuse, N.Y., a year ago.

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