Vatican City, Dec 7, 2011 / 22:43 pm
Bl. Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan sister who ministered to Hawaiian lepers, advanced towards official sainthood on Dec. 6 when a Vatican congregation recognized a second miracle attributed to her intercession.
The cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints confirmed a medical board’s unanimous ruling that the medical recovery of a Diocese of Syracuse woman with an irreversible and fatal health condition was inexplicable.
The bishops also confirmed a theologians’ report saying the miracle was due to Bl. Marianne Cope, according to the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.
Pope Benedict XVI’s approval is all that remains for her canonization to proceed.
Bl. Marianne Cope was born in western Germany in 1838. She entered religious life in Syracuse, N.Y. in 1862. She served as a teacher and principal in several schools in the state and established two of the first hospitals in the central New York area: St. Elizabeth Hospital in Utica and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse.