St. Marianne Cope

It is always exciting to find a saint who os from the Americas which is what we have for this day's Saint of the Day:
Today marks the feast day of the newly canonized American saint, Mother Marianne Cope, OSF (1838-1918). St. Marianne Cope emigrated with her family from Germany as an infant and grew up in Utica, NY. She joined the Sisters of St. Francis at the age of twenty-four and later helped to found and operate two regional hospitals in upstate New York. In 1883, she answered the plea of Hawaii's king to operate hospitals and care for the victims of leprosy, traveling to Hawaii with six Franciscan sisters. During the last thirty years of her life, she chose to be exiled on the island of Molokai where she cared for women and children with leprosy. She was a life-long witness to the equal dignity and value of every human being. She brought beauty and order to the lives of these outcasts, and provided them with educational and religious instruction as well as teaching them music and the decorative arts. St. Marianne, help us to see the beauty and value in every human life! (From USCCB 9 Days for Life Novena)