Marianne Cope
German-American Franciscan Sister, missionary and saint (1838-1918)
Feast: 23 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Barbara Cope was born at Heppenheim, Germany, on 23 January 1838 and grew up at Utica, New York. In 1862 she entered the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse as Sister Marianne.
Known as Mother Marianne of Molokai, she worked with St Damien de Veuster among people with leprosy and carried on his work after his death in 1889. She died at Kalaupapa on 9 August 1918 and was buried among the people she loved.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A mother to the outcasts with leprosy on Molokai, who lived and died among them.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Marianna Cope
- Wikidata Q76680 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Marianne Cope (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.