A relic of St. Marianne Cope will begin a five-day tour of Maui County Tuesday morning at St. Theresa Church in Kihei and culminate Saturday with a procession down the pali trail to Kalaupapa for events in the village where she served leprosy patients for more than three decades.
St. Marianne, who was canonized in Rome on Oct. 21, took over the work of caring for leprosy patients in the community after St. Damien died shortly after her arrival there. She cared for residents of Kalaupapa for 30 years beginning in 1888 and died there at age 80 in 1918.
Her remains were exhumed from her grave site in Kalaupapa in 2005 and taken back to the Motherhouse chapel of her Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, N.Y.
The Hawaiian Islands tour of her relic, a bone fragment, began on Oahu the day of her canonization.
The public tour has reached Maui County and the schedule follows:
Tuesday -- St. Theresa, 9:30 a.m., Maria Lanakila Church, Lahaina, 2 p.m.; Christ the King, Kahului, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday -- Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, Kula, 8 a.m.; St. Joseph Church, Makawao, noon; Holy Rosary Church, Paia, 3:30 p.m.; St. Anthony Church, Wailuku, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday -- Sacred Hearts Church, Lanai City, 10 a.m. There will be an Anointing of the Sick, 1 p.m., and Mass, 4 p.m.
Friday -- (Topside on Molokai) Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Church, Kaluaaha, 10:30 a.m.; St. Joseph Church, Kamalo, 11:15 a.m.; St. Damien Church, Kaunakakai, 6 p.m.
On Saturday, Bishop Larry Silva will greet the relic at the bottom of the pali trail to Kalaupapa at 9 a.m. From there, the relic will be taken to St. Philomena Church, the Baldwin Home, the landing and Judd Park in Kalawao.
Morning prayer is set for 10:30 at St. Elizabeth Chapel and Mass at St. Francis Church at 11 a.m. in Kalaupapa. A prayer of aloha will be said at 4:30 p.m. at Kalaupapa Airport.
The relic will end up at its home at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace on Oahu after an event at Iolani Palace the next day.
In addition to the viewing of the relic, which will be visible in the box with a glass top, there will be performances of "November's Song," a play about St. Marianne. Performances of "November's Song" will be held to coincide with the relic's visit to Maui County. It will play today at Maria Lanakila at 7 p.m.; at St. Anthony, Wednesday, 7:45 p.m. and at Sacred Hearts on Lanai, Thursday, 3 p.m.
For more on the tour, see Tuesday's Maui News.
