Biography
Barbara Koob, later Mother Marianne Cope, was born in Germany in 1838 and grew up in Utica, New York. After helping support her family, she entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse in 1862. She served as a teacher, administrator, and hospital leader, helping develop forms of care that welcomed patients who were poor or marginalized.
In 1883 Marianne answered an appeal for sisters willing to serve people affected by Hansen’s disease in Hawaii when many other communities had declined. She led a group of Franciscan sisters to the islands, organized hospital and residential care, and insisted on dignity, cleanliness, education, beauty, and companionship for patients facing both illness and social exclusion.
Marianne later moved to Kalaupapa on Molokai, where she cared for women and girls and continued work associated with St. Damien after his death. She died there in 1918 after decades of service. Her story connects New York formation, Hawaiian public-health history, Franciscan spirituality, and the difficult history of compulsory isolation on Molokai.
How to read this pilgrimage
Central New York preserves Marianne’s formation and leadership; Hawaii preserves the mission for which she is best known. At Kalaupapa, pilgrimage must respect a living community and the painful history of patients exiled by public policy.
St. Marianne Cope, pray for us.