By 1886, three years after the arrival of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse in Hawaii, Mother Marianne Cope had already been instrumental in expanding health care in the islands. Here Mother Marianne is seen at far right with other sisters at Kapiolani Home, which she founded on Oahu to care for female children of Hansen’s disease patients. Accompanying Mother Marianne, from left, were Sisters M. Rosalia McLaughlin, M. Martha Kaiser, M. Leopoldina Burns, M. Charles Hoffmann and M. Crescentia Eilers. Behind them stands Walter Murray Gibson, prime minister of the Hawaiian kingdom. (Archive photo)
By Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Isle Catholics might recall that Mother Marianne Cope, whose tireless and loving ministry to Hansen’s disease patients in Hawaii helped elevate her to sainthood, was a Franciscan sister of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, a city in upstate New York.
St. Marianne didn’t just personify the compassion and humble service for which Franciscans are known; her arrival with six other sisters in 1883 laid the groundwork for the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse in Hawaii, where they’ve become a crucial part of the community. From health care to education to caregiving, many generations of isle residents have benefited from the sisters’ presence.
Nowadays, you will no longer find the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse except in historical documents. That’s not to say they’ve gone away — rather, they’ve returned to their roots as part of the greater Sisters of St. Francis community, which got its start 169 years ago in Philadelphia.
Twenty years ago this month, the Syracuse sisters joined their fellow sisters in New York — the Buffalo/Williamsville community and Hastings-on-Hudson community — to form a larger congregation to better approach the opportunities and challenges of today’s world.
The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, still based in New York, also include branches of Franciscan sisters who remained in Pennsylvania. Their name honors the bishop, now a saint, who was key to the founding of their order as the spiritual guide for the first three sisters.
St. John Neumann, who joined the Redemptorist order after being ordained a priest, is seen in a painting provided by the Redemptorists. (Redemptorist Archives / 2012)
In the mid-19th century, three women who had immigrated to the U.S. from Germany — Maria Anna Bachmann, her sister Barbara Boll and Anna Dorn, a novice in the Franciscan Third Order Secular — became acquainted and shared a desire to form a religious community.
Philadelphia Bishop John Neumann (who was canonized in 1977) asked Pope Pius IX for permission to establish an order of sisters, but he sought German Dominican Sisters for his diocese. The pope, himself a Franciscan Third Order Secular, instead gave permission for a Franciscan congregation.
Thus, on Easter Monday in 1855, Bachmann, Boll and Dorn gained new religious names — Sister Mary Francis, Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Mary Bernardina, respectively — as St. Neumann invested them as Franciscan sisters.
Over the years that followed, the three founders (who professed their final vows in 1856) made their way to New York and elsewhere in Pennsylvania as leaders in other dioceses sought the sisters’ help.
In locations such as Syracuse, Buffalo (later called Williamsville), Hastings-on-Hudson and Pittsburgh, the local bishops declared the Franciscan sisters separate from the original Philadelphia order, effectively creating new branches of the Sisters of St. Francis in each city.
In Syracuse, the sisters ran schools and hospitals. St. Marianne was the head of one of their hospitals when in 1883 she answered the call to help Hawaii’s victims of Hansen’s disease, also called leprosy.
Fast-forward to 1999: Sisters from the Franciscans’ three New York congregations formed a task force to discuss unification. The Syracuse, Buffalo/Williamsville and Hastings-on-Hudson communities took several years to work out the details of joining together, and on July 11, 2004, sisters from the three groups gathered to celebrate the culmination of the process.
(In 2007, the community also welcomed the Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale, Pennsylvania, and later sisters from Whitehall, Pennsylvania.)
Though the order currently ministers in multiple states across the country as well as overseas, in Peru, it has faced the challenges that many religious communities encounter today, such as financial concerns, fewer vocations and aging membership.
The unification of the three New York communities in 2004 has helped the order “as a whole to meet the signs of the times and to serve those God has entrusted to our care,” according to Franciscan Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, one of Hawaii’s regional ministers.
Sister Ah Chick said she is grateful for the unification “as we continue to reap God’s divine blessings in so many ways and to express and extend our blessings to all who graciously and generously journey with us to continue to build God’s Kingdom here in the universe.”
“Our congregation truly continues to be open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and in doing God’s will as we lovingly and actively live our mission statement: Rooted in the Gospel, we are sisters to all, serving with reverence, justice and compassion.”
Not long after the communities’ unification came the advancement of Mother Marianne to sainthood. Her life and faith have continued to inspire the generations of sisters who followed in her footsteps.
“Her very life, spirit and legacy live on with us,” Sister Ah Chick said. “We endeavor to model her values and virtues. We thank and praise God that Saint Marianne and six other Sisters of St. Francis responded ‘yes’ and ventured to serve God’s people of Hawaii, especially those who were the outcasts of society.”
The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities will celebrate 20 years of unity with a special Mass on July 21. It will take place at 11:30 a.m. at St. Ann Church in Kaneohe.
Prayer for 20 years of unity
Gracious God, we give thanks as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities and the journey that started so many years ago — and so many plans ago — and so many dreams ago.
We celebrate all the joys born in these 20 years. We celebrate all the happy times, all the accomplishments and all the triumphs. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us.
We acknowledge that there have been and will continue to be struggles. Yet we have traveled together under your protection and love. Thank you, Lord, for being with us in good times and bad.
We ask that you continue to protect, guide and sustain us as we carry on our journey together.
Celebrating 20 years of unity helps us rejoice in our present and look forward with eager eyes to the future. We pray that you will continue to make your love known among us. Give us zeal for mission.
Help us look beyond our walls to those who do not know you. Make this congregation be a blessing to those around us, and empower us to move forward with strength, hope and love toward what lies ahead. Amen.
