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Father Damien de Veuster, Mother Marianne Cope, saint, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
When I was 13 years old my father’s job changed and we moved from Massachusetts to Syracuse, New York where I met and was educated for two years by Franciscan Sisters. It was during that first school year that I read a book about Mother Marianne of Molokai, later to be canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Mother Marianne Cope was already famous in Syracuse; she was, in the early years of the 20th century, the Superior General of the Sisters who taught in my school and lived only about a mile from there. Many of the Sisters in her community were born in or ministered to the people of Hawaii.
Today is the feast of Father Damien de Veuster who entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at age 19 and later volunteered to go to the Hawaiian Islands to replace his brother, a priest who had been assigned there but fell ill. In 1873 Damien went as a part-time chaplain to the Hawaiian government’s leper colony on the island of Moloka’i but soon volunteered to stay there permanently to serve the physical, medical and spiritual needs of the people, especially those with leprosy (now called Hansen’s disease.).
Needing help for this difficult ministry, Father Damien wrote to many communities of religious Sisters asking for volunteers to come to work with him. The story goes that he promised in his letters that no Sisters who volunteered would contract the disease (although he himself was later to die of Hansen’s disease). Of the reputed 50 communities to whom he made the request, Mother Marianne was the only Superior who responded affirmatively and volunteered herself to go with her Sisters to Moloka’i. As promised, none of the Sisters became infected with the disease which is now curable with multi-drug therapy and early treatment.
The courage and willingness of Mother Marianne Cope and Father Damien touched my heart as a young teenager and remains an example to me to this day. I honor all of those who follow in the steps of St. Francis and celebrate them especially in the heritage of Father Damien and Mother Marianne.
Today in churches and schools far and wide there will be infrequent guests lining up for blessings. It is the feast of St. Francis, of course, who loved all of creation but chose to possess nothing in order that he could be totally dependent on God. My favorite story about Francis may not be factual and it is not the one of the sweet stories of his relationship with the birds and the beasts (although those are also compelling). It comes from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis entitled simply Saint Francis, in which the narrator, Brother Leo, says something like the following:
St. Clare of Assisi, whom we celebrate today, was a great example of the adage “Behind every good man, there is a good woman.” While he did not see her often, St. Francis counted on her holiness and wisdom to shore up his determination in times of doubt and difficulty. Clare was a clear mirror of the presence of God for Francis and for those women who followed her to the convent of San Damiano, and he was the same for her. She was a woman of great strength and perseverance who believed that she was the one who knew best what should be written in a rule for women in a religious order. Although she easily accepted the rule that Francis has written in the early days, after the death of Francis she continued for 27 years to submit a revised rule to bishops and popes until she finally received and signed a constitutional document of her own two days before her death on August 11, 1253.
I’ve just been reading about St. Anthony of Padua on this, his feast day. While I have known many facts about this revered saint, (primarily because of having served in an Italian parish for eight years) stories at 
After all my preparation and the very meaningful retreat day yesterday for a wonderful group of welcoming parishioners, I have little to say today. I yield to St. Francis of Assisi for a poem that seems a perfect postscript for me and a meaningful thought for all of us.
Yesterday afternoon I was in a gathering where we were discussing change using a number of quotes on the subject. It was fascinating to hear the different reactions to the various quotes depending on our interpretations of how the words were used in the sentences, or how a little word like “all” could challenge someone who is uncomfortable with such determinism. It was a great, stretching conversation that pointed up the need to really listen to the voices of others who differed according to culture and life experiences. etc. when interpreting what was being said.
There are so many ways to say it – and so many reasons to consider it. The point to make every day really is that love is at the heart of every solution, every relationship…every success in life. It was what fueled Sts. Francis and Clare (see yesterday’s post) and today, the message in the readings couldn’t be clearer.
Some years ago I had the privilege of visiting the town of Assisi in Italy. The visit was brief and the focus was, as one might think, the holy places associated with St. Francis. It was an extraordinary six hours, and I often long to return for a longer visit. One of my most vivid memories, however, was not of the places and stories of Francis alone – although those remain as well – but of walking down the path to the Church of San Damiano. Somehow, the olive trees that lined the path seemed to shimmer in the sunlight as if they were saying to me, “Pay attention, for this place you are approaching is extraordinarily holy.” San Damiano became the home of St. Clare and her followers in 1212 and she never left but died there on August 11, 1253. The intense holiness of the saint and her Sisters, who lived a poor and very simple life of prayer, can be felt in the walls of the refectory, in the oratory where they prayed and the dormitory where a cross marks the spot of Clare’s death. What, one wonders, creates such a living vibration in a place where life was so “daily?” Intention and motivation, I suspect. A famous quote of St. Clare gives a hint of an answer.
Today is the feast of St. Dominic, another of the great founders of religious communities. Dominic’s religious order is called the Dominicans but the formal title is “Order of Preachers,” thus the sometimes puzzling designation “O.P.” after their names. Dominic was a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi and much like Francis in his asceticism and his desire to spread the Gospel. Reminiscent of the love Francis had for the poor, Dominic sold all of his books to help his neighbors who had survived a great famine. Like Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of religious organization, one whose members did not stay behind the cloistered walls of the monastery but rather traveled among the people, in the way of the first apostles, to spread the good news.
As a child in Catholic school, I offered my work, as did all my classmates, to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Especially on tests, our papers were signed at the top with a small cross and the letters JMJ. As a high school student studying Latin there often appeared a more sophisticated reminder at the top of our papers: AMDG under the cross reminded us that all our work was dedicated “for the greater glory of God.” (Ad majorem Dei gloriam) I doubt that I knew at that time the origin of that phrase as a motto although I was aware of the esteemed men’s religious community that claimed it: the Jesuits, formally named the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century. Today is the feast of St. Ignatius.