Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities sing a hymn to St. Francis as others look on after the enshrinement of St. Marianne’s remains at the cathedral. A small relic of the saint was placed on top of the tapa-and-lei-covered zinc box that holds the saint’s remains. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
The mortal remains of St. Marianne Cope found a final resting place in Honolulu’s Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace July 31, welcomed back in an exuberant two-and-a-half hour celebration of prayers, songs, gestures, reflections, dance, flowers and incense.
Nearly 700 people packed the church that first welcomed Mother Marianne 130 years ago when she first stepped foot on Oahu to begin her mission of charity to those no one else would dare touch.
Sister Roberta Smith, minister of the Sisters of St. Francis.
Ivy Kahilihiwa of Kalaupapa prays before the saint’s remains.
A worshipper venerates the remains of St. Marianne Cope.
Ikaika Bantolina dances hula kahiko before the remains.
Bishop Silva prays over St. Marianne’s remains in the cathedral.
Bishop Larry Silva presides over the arrival of the saint’s remains.
The event incorporated the church’s Midday Prayer and a Mass of Thanksgiving presided over by Bishop Larry Silva.
In welcoming the remains, the bishop said the bones of the saint have a spiritual power that can heal and move hearts.
Sealed in a 48-by-20-by-12-inch zinc-coated metal box, St. Marianne’s remains were driven to the cathedral in a police-escorted white hearse from the convent of the Sisters of St. Francis in Honolulu where they had been since arriving in Hawaii from Syracuse, N.Y., on July 27.
After a formal greeting outside the cathedral by the bishop and diocesan canonical officials, the box, wrapped in white tapa burial cloth and draped with a traditional Hawaiian quilt decorated with a Hawaiian flag pattern, was carried by four Franciscan sisters into the church on a canoe-shaped platform made of koa wood.
Accompanying the remains in procession were about 40 Sisters of St. Francis, some of whom carried feather kahilis, and members of Hawaiian royal societies.
Many of the Sisters of St. Francis, most of whom are from Hawaii, wore what could be regarded as a contemporary habit, variations of dress using aloha print fabric decorated with scenes depicting St. Marianne and St. Damien.
The ceremony that followed included a hula kahiko by a single male dancer in long black pants and long-sleeved white shirt accompanied by a Hawaiian chanter playing an ipu.
Among the special guests were the saint’s great, great niece and great, great nephew, Margaret “Meg” Burnett and Dr. Paul DeMare, and the Marquesa Esther Kapiolani Kawananakoa, a descendent of Hawaii royalty.
Most of the music for the prayer service and Mass incorporated traditional Hawaiian melodies.
‘A place of peace’
The service included brief reflections by Sister Roberta Smith, general minister of St. Marianne’s religious community, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, and others.
“How fitting that she be placed here in a place of peace,” Sister Roberta said. “She brought peace to many people.”
“She had the great courage to step out into the unknown,” she said. “Her simple yes affected a whole group of people. She brought love, care, dignity, respect to those who were cast off.”
Sister Roberta said that her congregational “sister” would be “flabbergasted” at the outpouring of affection and appreciation expressed in the cathedral that day.
But she said St. Marianne’s “great love” was a gift “not only for Hawaii but for the whole world.”
Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa spoke for the remaining Hansen’s disease patients of Kalaupapa, Molokai, several of whom were there for the saint’s homecoming.
“Aloha mai kakou,” he said in Hawaiian, expressing a fond welcome to all.
“We of Kalaupapa are so happy that St. Marianne’s remains have returned home to Hawaii,” he said.
“She was so special to our people. She cared for all with aloha, compassion and dignity,” Kahilihiwa said. “We love her.”
He thanked the bishop and the diocese of accepting the responsibility “to care for her.”
Devon Ibuos, a senior at St. Francis School in Honolulu, a co-ed pre-school through grade 12 institution, expressed his personal gratitude for St. Marianne’s sometimes overlooked educational legacy.
“If it weren’t for Mother Marianne and the Sisters of St. Francis, I wouldn’t be receiving the education I received at St. Francis School,” he said.
“If it weren’t for her,” Ibuos said, “I wouldn’t be as close to God, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, I wouldn’t have met such wonderful people.”
St. Francis School is a major component of the work of the Sisters of St. Francis in Hawaii.
A 20-minute lull between the formal midday prayer and the start of Mass at noon allowed time for veneration of the remains. What started as a single line of Sisters of St. Francis turned into a crush of faithful silently inching their way toward the flower-laden box to lay a hand, say a prayer or place a lei.
‘From these mortal bones’
Bishop Silva then concelebrated the one-and-a-half-hour-long Mass of Thanksgiving with 30 priests, many of whom wore stoles bearing images of St. Marianne and St. Damien de Veuster on each side.
The bishop said that the “physical proximity” of the saint’s remains provides a spiritual experience more enriching than contemplating her goodness “from afar.”
Using the Hawaiian word for spirit, Bishop Silva said that the bones of the saint have their own spiritual power.
“It is the ‘mana’ of St. Marianne that brings us together today,” he said. “The mortal remains of this frail creature of God, made from dust and returning to dust, have an incredible spirit of their own, an aura that makes us want to be near them.”
“We want to touch the relics of this woman who dedicated herself to healing, so that we may be healed and may be healers,” he said.
Bishop Silva said St. Marianne’s “‘mana’ radiates from these mortal bones so that the Holy Spirit may penetrate into our bones and lead us to feed the hungry on our streets, to welcome the stranger on our borders.”
The bishop used the liturgy as an opportunity to bless Father Arnold Ortiz, who recently left the congregation of the Oblates of St. Joseph in California to permanently join the Diocese of Honolulu.
After Communion, State representatives John Mizuno, Karen Awana and Suzanne Chun Oakland presented a proclamation to Bishop Silva commemorating the day.
Canonized in 2012
St. Marianne Cope and six companion sisters arrived in Hawaii in 1883 from Syracuse at the request of the Hawaiian Kingdom to help care for natives who had contracted the then incurable Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. What was supposed to be a temporary assignment for the nun, who was the superior of her New York community at the time, turned out to be a permanent one as she chose to stay where she felt she was most needed.
St. Marianne opened a hospital on Maui and a home for the healthy children of leprosy patients before moving in 1888 to the leprosy settlement in Kalaupapa. Among other duties there she ran Bishop Home, a complex of cottages for the female patients. She died of natural causes in 1918 in Kalaupapa and was the only Franciscan Sister to be buried there. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
In the 125 years since her arrival, her sisters have continued their ministry in Kalaupapa in addition to opening hospitals and schools on other islands and attracting scores of local vocations.
St. Marianne’s remains were exhumed in 2005 in preparation for her beatification that year and enshrined in her motherhouse chapel in Syracuse. Their return to Hawaii was necessitated by the closing and relocation of the motherhouse.
The remains were not sent back to their original grave in Kalaupapa where they had rested for 96 years because its remoteness and inaccessibility made it an unsuitable place for a shrine.
In closing the enshrinement Mass, Bishop Silva thanked the Sisters of St. Francis whom he said were “very happy” that St. Marianne has returned to Hawaii “where she grew into sainthood and where she will be a blessing for many generations to come.”
After Mass, while the congregation ate lunch in the Kamiano Center next door, the church was closed and the box of remains was fitted into the cathedral’s existing koa and glass display cabinet that up until then had held a small relic of St. Marianne.
In the cabinet, the original relic, encased in a gold reliquary, was placed on top of the box which was covered with leis. After the arrangement of the display was complete, the sisters spontaneously sang the “Hymn of St. Francis,” breaking into familiar harmony.
The cathedral opened after lunch to allow people to return to silently venerate the remains. Bishop Silva closed the day with a 4:30 p.m. Evening Prayer service.
A planned renovation of the cathedral will add a small chapel to display relics of St. Damien and St. Marianne. St. Marianne’s remains will be interred beneath the floor of the chapel.
St. Marianne is the only American saint whose remains are enshrined in a cathedral, the mother church of a diocese.
