Marianne Cope

Today is a memorial for St. Maryanne Cope.  She was a religious sister who answered the appeal to care for the lepers on Molokai, Hawaii.  

This is where this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson comes in.  Remember he wrote Treasure Island and other works.  While he was cruising the South Pacific, he met Mother Maryanne and was touched.  This poem was written for her.  He also sent the sisters and lepers a piano!  What a generous man!  May God bless him.

TO MOTHER MARYANNE
by
Robert Louis Stevenson

To see the infinite pity of this place,

The mangled limb, the devastated face,

The innocent sufferer smiling at the rod—

A fool were tempted to deny his God.

He sees, he shrinks. But if he gaze again,

Lo, beauty springing from the breast of pain!

He marks the sisters on the mournful shores;

And even a fool is silent and adores.

Guest House, Kalawao, Molokai.