A crowd packs St. Peter’s Square as Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the canonization Mass for seven new saints at the Vatican Oct. 21. Among those canonized were two North Americans — St. Kateri Tekakwitha, an American Indian born in upstate New York who died in Canada in 1680, and St. Marianne Cope, who worked with leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Pope Benedict XVI canonized Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai. In remembrance of that historic event, the Hawaii Catholic Herald is republishing a shortened version of the story printed about the canonization in the Oct. 26, 2012, issue.
Pope Benedict canonizes Mother Marianne Cope with six others in joyful ceremony at St. Peter’s
By Patrick Downes Hawaii Catholic Herald
VATICAN CITY — Molokai has given the world a second saint. Pope Benedict XVI canonized Mother Marianne Cope Oct. 21 under glorious blue cloudless skies in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square just three years to the month after he raised Father Damien to the same consecrated status.
The new Franciscan saint once again brought honor to the 8,000 men, women and children — almost all Native Hawaiians — who died in banishment in Kalaupapa, a five-square-mile leaf of land protruding from the base of Molokai’s northern sea cliffs, from the misfortune of contracting Hansen’s disease.
Before a crowd of 80,000, the pope also raised six others to the ranks of sainthood: the first North American native, a Filipino teenager, a German mystic, two European priests and a Spanish woman who founded a religious order.
Tucked in the crowd in the square were at least 600 who came for Mother Marianne — from Syracuse where she started her religious life, from Hawaii where she served 35 years, and from her religious order, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.
Those from Hawaii included nine patients from Kalaupapa.
Seven tall tapestries of the new saints hung across the front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The ceremony included the much-anticipated canonization of the first native North American, the 17th-century 24-year-old laywoman Kateri Tekakwitha, known as “the Lily of the Mohawks.”
The long-awaited day
On the morning of the long-awaited day, the Hawaii pilgrims sat down for a hotel breakfast at 4:30 a.m. brightly decked out in Blessed Marianne aloha wear and a wide assortment of ribbon leis. The women wore their light-blue tour scarves with a St. Marianne pattern in an array of creative ways.
When the islanders arrived by bus around 6:30 a.m. to the canonization site, a line 10 people thick was already forming around the opening of St. Peter’s Square.
When the security gates which opened at 8 a.m. proved to be too slow, a makeshift “gate” was created by security staff who linked hands to create a human turnstile, as police did cursory body checks with hand-held metal detectors.
In the shifting river of bodies, it was impossible to keep any large group intact, but most of the Hawaii folk were able to reassemble in an area on the left of the square, thankfully closer to the front than to the rear.
In the area left of the high altar that stood under a massive white canopy on a plateau three quarters of the way up the steps to the basilica, were dozens of bishops and cardinals. On the opposite side were a few hundred special lay guests, mostly dressed in black.
First on the program was the recitation of a multilingual rosary. The voice of Franciscan Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Ewa Beach, announced the mysteries. She had been chosen by her religious community to recite one of the Prayers of the Faithful, and was then given extra chores making English-language announcements during the event.
At 9:20 the bells in the basilica’s left belfry began ringing, accompanied by the powerful strains of a pipe organ.
At about 9:40 a.m., the choir sang the first part of the Litany of the Saints and the concelebrating bishops and priests filed and took their places. In the large group of concelebrants, all in white vestments, were Bishop Silva, retired Maui diocesan priest Father Gary Colton and Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona.
Pope Benedict XVI entered wearing a white and gold chasuble and miter as 11 seagulls circled over the basilica under the cloudless sky. He took his place at the presider’s chair under a small red canopy up against the front of the basilica.
The Litany of the Saints resumed and continued to its completion.
A new shorter rite
The canonization rite was a new, shortened version, only announced a few days earlier. It took place before the start of Mass rather than during it, as had been the practice.
At 9:45 a.m., Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, accompanied by the postulators of all seven causes, formally asked the pope to enroll the day’s seven candidates as saints.
The pope answered with a prayer, introduced by this statement: “Dear brothers, let us lift up our prayers to God the Father Almighty through Jesus Christ, that through the intercessions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all his saints, he may sustain with his grace the act which we now solemnly undertake.”
In his second petition, Cardinal Amato again asked the pope “to enroll these … among the saints.”
Pope Benedict then introduced the hymn “Come Holy Spirit.” It’s a prayer to prevent error on the part of the church regarding the canonizations.
At 9:50 a.m., after Cardinal Amato’s third petition, which acknowledged the role of the Holy Spirit in this decision, the pope canonized Mother Marianne and the six others with one long sentence, the “Formula of Canonization.”
Then, as the choir led the singing of the “Te Deum,” representatives for each new saint presented a relic of their saint to the pope, placing its reliquary on a table beside the altar.
Carrying Mother Marianne’s relic was Sharon Smith, the New York woman whose cure from pancreatitis, attributed to Mother Marianne’s intercession, became the second miracle needed for her canonization.
Accompanying her was Hawaii-born Sister Michaeleen Cabral who first recognized Smith’s cure as due to Mother Marianne’s intercession and Dr. Richard Hehir, the first medical expert to review the miracle attributed to the new saint.
The relic, portions of bone from St. Marianne’s remains, was contained in a small circular glass case imbedded in a foot-tall Tao cross of polished pear wood. The distinctive Franciscan cross, shaped like a flared capital T, was embellished with a line of carved plumerias flowing down the left side.
The canonization rite lasted about a half hour. The Mass for Sunday followed, celebrated solemnly with all the major parts sung in Gregorian chant by a large choir. The Gospel was read in both Latin and Greek.
Pope Benedict’s homily was a collection of brief biographies of the new saints, read in their appropriate languages.
“These new saints, different in origin, language, nationality and social condition,” the pope concluded, “are united among themselves and with the whole People of God in the mystery of salvation of Christ the Redeemer.”
Sister Davilyn read in English the first of five Prayers of the Faithful. The other languages used were Mohawk, Portuguese, Cebuano and German.
Hawaii resident Dr. Paul DeMare, the great-great-grandnephew of St. Marianne, was among those bringing up the gifts in the offertory procession.
The names of all seven new saints were added to the Eucharistic Prayer III.
Among those who received Communion from Pope Benedict were Pauline Chow, a patient-resident of Kalaupapa, and Hawaii Sister of St. Francis Sister Alicia Lau.
Other Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities receiving the Eucharist from the pope were past general minister Sister Patricia Burkard, present general minister Sister Roberta Smith and vice postulator Sister Grace Anne Dillenschneider.
The Mass was followed by the noon Angelus, led by the pope. He then departed on the open popemobile through the massive crowd.
