Barbara Koob, who was born in Germany, immigrated with her family to the United States when she was less than two years old. At the port of entry, the family name became Cope. In 1862, Barbara entered the Third Order Regular of Franciscans and received her religious name, Sr. Marianne. Her early years were spent teaching in her order’s school and later serving as administrator of a hospital. In 1883, now the superior general of her congregation, she received a request from King Kalakaua in Hawaii for help in caring for leprosy patients. Though fifty other congregations had already declined the king’s plea, Mother Marianne responded at one:
“I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen Ones, whose privilege it will be to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders.”
That year, she and six sisters sailed for Hawaii and immediately set to work establishing a hospital in Maui. Given the general fear of contagion and the social stigma attached to those suffering from Hansen’s disease, the sisters’ dedication to their patients won wide respect. Eventually, Mother Marianne consented to move to the island of Molokai, where the most serious cases were confined. There, one of her first tasks was to care for Fr. Damien de Veuster, the famous “Apostle to the Lepers,” who had succumbed to the disease during his long years of service. She embraced her work with joy: “Should I live a thousand years I could not in ever so small a degree thank Him for His gifts and blessings…I do not expect a high place in Heaven – I shall be thankful for a little corner where I may love God for all eternity.”
Apart from nursing her patients, Mother Marianne strove to create an atmosphere of beauty and peace. Planting flowers around the hospital, she transformed the barren landscape into a garden.
Mother Marianne died of natural causes on August 9, 1918. She was canonized in 2012.
Antonio Margil was born in Valencia, Spain. At a young age, he entered the Franciscans and adopted the nickname “Nothingness Itself,” by which he subsequently signed his letter. At twenty-five, after distinguishing himself as a preacher and theologian, he was ordained. Immediately, he volunteered to join the mission in New Spain.
Fr. Antonio spent many years as a missionary in Yucatan, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Always travelling on foot, he overcame the fears of the Indians by his poverty and simplicity, and his determination to dissociate himself from Spanish rule. For some time he interrupted his travels to preside over a missionary college in Zacatecas in Mexico, then travelled north to participate in missionary expedition to Texas. There he established six missions, including the mission of San Antonio. His reputation for holiness began to grow, fed by astonishment over his ability to traverse huge distances in no time, to read people’s souls and other miraculous signs. Above all, he was renowned for his charity. As he said,
“We must serve our neighbor more than ourselves, for by doing so we make Almighty God our debtor, and He will aid us in our necessities.”
Eventually he returned to Mexico, where he died on August 6, 1726. In 1836, Pope Gregory XVI issued a decree of his heroic virtues and he was declared venerable.
Solanus Casey, the son of Irish immigrants in Wisconsin, felt called to the priesthood after witnessing a drunken sailor stabbing a woman. Somehow, this scene of sin and suffering caused Casey to dedicate himself to God and to promote God’s love as the answer to the world’s troubles. After entering the Capuchins, he was ordained a priest. But in light of his academic difficulties, his superiors placed restrictions on his priestly faculties. He was not permitted to hear confessions or preach on doctrine. Instead he spent most of his life as a porter at St. Bonaventure’s monastery in Detroit and worked in the friars’ soup kitchen.
Despite his humble office, Casey’s extraordinary spiritual gifts were quickly recognized. A gifted reader of souls, he became particularly renowned for his ministry of healing prayer. Scores of people sought him out each day for spiritual counsel and intercession. Dutifully, he recorded their petitions in his prayer book and promised to ask God’s assistance. Even in his lifetime, hundreds of miraculous cures were attributed to his prayers. In his final illness, he remarked, “I’m offering my suffering that all might be one. If only I could see the conversion of the whole world.”
Since his death on July 31, 1957, at the age of eighty-six, the reports of healing miracles have continued unabated. In May 2017, one of these miracles was officially approved by Pope Francis, clearing the way for his beatification on November 18, 2017.
Louisa was born into the highest circle of nobility. Her father was the duke of Savoy, while on her mother’s side her uncle was the king of France. A pious child, she dreamed of entering religious life. But this way hardly an acceptable vocation for a child of her station. Instead, when she was seventeen, her uncle arranged her marriage to a young nobleman. Though they would have no children, the marriage proved a happy one. Her husband accepted her religious devotion, which she combined with an active role in court life. Together they set a high moral standard, requiring that anyone who cursed in their presence make a contribution to the poor. Meanwhile, Louisa engaged in a range of charitable activities, from care of widows and orphans to nursing the sick and even victims of the plague.
When she was twenty-seven, her husband died. After a period of mourning, she made preparations to leaved her privileged world – putting on the habit of a Franciscan tertiary and distributing her fortune. After two years she entered a convent of Poor Clares in Orbe. There she spent the rest of her life in prayer and poverty, eventually rising to the office of abbess. She died on July 24, 1503 and was beatified in 1839.
St. Kunigunde (or Kinga) was the daughter of the king of Hungary and a niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At the age of sixteen, she was married to King Boleslaus V of Poland. She waited until the night of their wedding, according to legend, to reveal that she had vowed herself to God and to a life of celibacy. Fortunately, her husband agreed to honor her wishes, thus earning the title Boleslaus the Chaste.
It was a happy marriage for the next forty years. Kunigunde wore a hair shirt and practiced other forms of mortification. From her personal fortune she endowed many churches, hospitals, and monasteries, and when her husband died, she retired from court and became a Poor Clare in a convent she had established. There she refused any acknowledgment of her former status, and devoted herself to prayer. In time, she became prioress. During an invasion of Tartars, the nuns were forced to flee. When the castle in which they found refuge was besieged, Kunigunde’s prayers were credited with the invaders’ withdrawal. She died on July 24, 1292. In 1999, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II.
A famous Polish legend credits St. Kunigunde with the discovery of a great salt mine in Poland. An underground chapel built in this mine, “St. Kinga’s Chapel”, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
