Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 4, 1 April 1992 — Mother Mananne book reissued [ARTICLE]

Mother Mananne book reissued

The University of Hawai'i Press announces the reissue of "Pilgrimage and Exile: Mother Marianne of Moloka'i" (464 pages, $16.95) by Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, O.S.F., and O.A. Bushnell. "Pilgrimage and Exile: Mother Marianne of Moloka'i" is the inspiring story of a great, and holy woman.

She was born Barbara Koob in Germany, and, as a child, she eame to America with her parents. Her family setteled in Utica, N.Y., where she grew up. She spent nine years as a factory worker there before joining the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse. lt was as a leader, teacher, and nurse in the pioneering institutions of health and education staffed by her Franciscan community that she learned mueh of what she would later put to use in Hawai'i.

Mother Marianne was successfully following her vocation when a priest, sent by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu, contacted her about serving in Hawai'i. In Hawai'i, Mother Marianne started her mission work caring for lepers and other sick under the wretched and filthy conditions at what was called the Branch Hospital of Kakaako. There, victims of Hansen's Disease suffered unspeakable tor-

ments. It was the plaee from whieh confirmed sufferers were shipped off to lifetime exile at Kalaupapa settlement.

In 1888, shortly before the death of Father Damien de Veuster, Mother Marianne went to Moloka'i to head the Bishop Home for women and girls at Kalaupapa. When Father Damien died five months later she also took on care of the boys in the Boys' Home he had established. Mother Marianne died on Aug. 9, 1918 at the age of 81 at Kalaupapa. Her cause for sainthood has been brought to Rome and presently is in the second of three stages for beatification.

Author Hanley, is one of four members of the Historical Commission for the Cause for Mother Marianne, as well as director of Mother Marianne's Cause at the headquarters in Syracuse, New York. Bushnell, retired professor of microbiology at the University of Hawai'i, is the state's foremost historical writer. The author of five historieal novels about the Hawaiian Islands, including "Moloka'i" and "The Return of Lono: A Novel of Captain Cook's Last Voyage," he is also a member of the Historical Commission