Standing in front of the cabinet holding the remains of St. Marianne Cope in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Jan. 23, are her relatives, from left, Dr. Paul DeMare, Patricia Cope Wood, Denise Cope Parry, Meg Burnett and Shirley Koob. (HCH photo | Patrick Downes)
Two more blood relatives St. Marianne Cope, and a possible third, have introduced themselves.
Two great great nieces of St. Marianne visited Hawaii in January, escaping the New England winters to celebrate Island events commemorating the feast day of their canonized ancestor.
As it turned out, Patricia Cope Wood of New Hampshire and Denise Cope Parry of Vermont, who are sisters, grew up knowing they were related to a heroic missionary nun who dedicated her life to serving an isolated community of Hawaii leprosy patients. They also have a brother, Grant Louis Cope, who did not make the trip to Hawaii.
Their father, whose grandfather was Mathias Cope, the saint’s brother, had a book about Mother Marianne, most likely the 1935 biography “Mother Marianne of Molokai,” by L.V. Jacks.
Wood said their father predicted the canonization of his great grandaunt, not in his lifetime, but in theirs. Parry went to St. Marianne Cope’s canonization at the Vatican in 2012.
In Hawaii for the first time, to celebrate the Jan. 23 feast day Mass for St. Marianne in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, the two sisters also visited Kalaupapa where St. Marianne labored for the last three decades of her life and was originally buried.
They said it was more lush and green and beautiful than they expected.
Parry said she “felt so spiritually uplifted” when she was there.
Also making her appearance at the cathedral for the Jan. 23 Mother Marianne feast day Mass was Canadian Shirley Koob, whose uncommon last name is the same as St. Marianne’s before St. Marianne’s father Americanized it as Cope.
Though she has yet to find documentation that would link her to the saint’s family, she is convinced she is related.
“I feel it in my heart,” she said.
The Saskatchewan native, who has lived in Hawaii for several years, said she had a devout Catholic relative who knew all about Father Damien and Mother Marianne and Molokai, even before a family connection was contemplated.
It wasn’t until recently when reading about St. Marianne did she discover that the saint’s original immigrant surname was the same as hers. Because of their shared rare name and their families’ same place of origin in western Germany, she believes there is a connection.
Already long identified as relatives of the saint are Dr. Paul DeMare of Honolulu and Meg Burnett of Atlanta, her great great nephew and great great niece, respectfully. According to a former assistant of Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, the late director of the canonization cause of St. Marianne, there are a number of others who have never had the opportunity to visit Hawaii.
