Hawaii Catholic Herald
The remains of St. Marianne Cope are on the move again, but this time the distance they are traveling is much shorter than their initial exhumation in 2005.
Twenty-one years ago, St. Marianne’s bones were removed from her grave in Kalaupapa and sent to Syracuse, New York, to reside in a shrine at the motherhouse of her congregation, now known as the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities. The transfer took place as part of her beatification process that year, according to a 2014 Hawaii Catholic Herald article.
During the exhumation, some of the dirt containing St. Marianne’s bones was retained and kept in Hawaii.
Now, in a partnership between the Diocese of Honolulu and Chaminade University of Honolulu’s Forensic Sciences Unit, that portion of dirt has been analyzed and St. Marianne’s remains are being extracted and collected.
The goal is to distribute first-class relics of St. Marianne — and of St. Damien de Veuster, which the diocese already has — to all islands in the diocese.
(St. Marianne’s remains returned to Hawaii from Syracuse in 2014 following news of the motherhouse’s impending closure and were enshrined at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu. They are currently at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu while the cathedral basilica undergoes an extensive renovation.)
According to a Jan. 26 news release from Chaminade, forensic anthropologist Vincent Sava is leading the work at one of the university’s forensic sciences labs — using microscopes and sifters to separate St. Marianne’s bone fragments from soil and rock.
Sava has worked with the Diocese of Honolulu over the years to do forensic work on the remains of Hawaii’s saints: He led the 2005 exhumation of St. Marianne’s bones and has also analyzed a first-class relic of St. Damien.
Sava offered to help the diocese with the new exhumation of St. Marianne’s remains. Due to the complexity of the project, he sought the assistance of his former student — Carlos Gutierrez Ayala, director of and assistant professor in Chaminade’s Forensic Sciences Unit.
In the news release, Gutierrez said the work with Sava and the Catholic Church “is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students and the university.”
Bishop Larry Silva visited Chaminade last month to observe Sava’s and Chaminade students’ progress on the project. Others who joined the visit included Chaminade President Lynn Babington and Sister Davilyn Ah Chick of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.
According to Bishop Silva, small reliquaries for the first-class relics of St. Marianne and St. Damien have been ordered and will be customized before they are distributed to each island.
Above: From left: Vincent Sava, Franciscan Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, Bishop Larry Silva (background) and Carlos Gutierrez Ayala in Chaminade University of Honolulu’s forensic sciences lab. (Chaminade University of Honolulu)