Mission of Grace

“St. Marianne shows us that this world’s ways can lead us to the Most High in both darkness and light.”

—Sr. Margaret Carney, from the foreword

 

“I am hungry for the work. I am not afraid of any disease.” Mother Marianne Cope, July 12, 1883

A letter of invitation in 1883 beckoned her to travel from Syracuse, New York to the islands now known as Hawai`i. Surprised by grace, she gave an emphatic yes to God, even after she learned that her work would be among persons stricken with Hansen’s disease, known then as leprosy.

After ministering on several of the islands, she finally came to the settlement at Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka`i, where Fr. Damien de Veuster worked with those afflicted with the disease. With other sisters from her community, she cared for the residents and was instrumental in administering hospitals and schools until her death in 1918.

In Mission of Grace, Sr. Fran Gangloff tells the inspiring story of a woman committed to serving God’s neediest children with love, compassion, respect, and grace, often in the face of both hardship and resistance from authorities blind to the needs. At her canonization in 2012, St. Marianne was called the “beloved mother of outcasts.”