HCH photo/Patrick Downes

Sculptor Franciscan Sister Rosaire Kopczenski explains her work to fellow Sisters of St. Francis, Jan. 23.

Mother Marianne is back, an inspiration larger than life

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Mother Marianne is back in Hawaii, larger than life.

This time, she’s a bronze statue, striding on a grassy knoll at Honolulu’s Kewalo Basin Park toward the blue ocean lapping at a seawall a few short yards away. Her left arm is stretched toward Molokai hidden behind the hazy horizon.

Bishop Larry Silva blessed Hawaii’s first public sculpture of the saint-candidate on the morning of her feast day, Jan. 23, at a ceremony that brought together 150 people, including several dozen members of her own religious community, the Sisters of St. Francis, who commissioned the statue.

Also at the blessing was Meg Burnett of Atlanta, the great, great niece of Mother Marianne, who said she was “captivated” by the statue’s eyes.

“I think it is a wonderful statue,” she said. “I am very, very pleased. It is in the right spot.”

That spot is near the place in Kakaako where the ship Mariposa docked 126 years ago with Mother Marianne and six Franciscan sisters aboard, beginning a remarkable story of Catholic health care in Hawaii.

The spot is also a popular gathering point for south shore surfers.

Franciscan Sister William Marie Eleniki, the chief administrator of St. Francis Healthcare Foundation, who oversaw the creation and placement of the statue, told the Hawaii Catholic Herald that she chatted with some of the surfers who park their cars at the small waterfront park before paddling out to the breakers.

They told her, “We feel privileged that someone is watching over us,” she said.

“It’s peaceful here,” she said. “A lot of people just come here to pray. She [Blessed Marianne] adds to the spirituality of the park.”

The statue stands on a steel and concrete pedestal beneath two hala trees. Directly behind it, the boats of Kewalo Basin bob at their docks. Further in the distance: a cluster of condos.

The artist, Franciscan Sister Rosaire Kopczenski of Pittsburgh, was at the blessing. She told the Hawaii Catholic Herald that she tried to portray “the real truth of Mother Marianne — energetic, moving, reaching out.”

This statue was “not going to be standing still,” she said.

Sister Rosaire pointed out the nun’s veil which appears to be caught in a gust of wind, and her left foot frozen in a forward stride. The artist said the placement of Mother Marianne’s hands were inspired by the motions of a kumu hula.

“Her right hand is pointing to her heart, pouring out empathy,” she said, while the left hand reaches forward, “anxious” to serve.

Sister Rosaire said the pose embodies Mother Marianne’s well-known quote — “I am hungry for the work” — that was her response to the request for a community of sisters to care for Hawaii’s Hansen’s disease patients.

The artist said she made the statue six-feet tall, nearly a foot higher than Mother Marianne’s actual height of five-foot-one, to show that “she was larger and greater than she was.”

Hawaii-born Sister of St. Francis Candida Oroc’s eyes moistened a bit as she gazed at the likeness of the woman for whom she’s had a great devotion for years.

Sister Candida said ahe had come to know Mother Marianne through the stories of an older Franciscan Sister who actually knew her. She said she could see in the statue Blessed Marianne’s compassion and receptiveness for “souls that needed help.”

Guest speaker Sister Patricia Burkard, general minister of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities who came from New York for the blessing, said, “We come to honor a great woman of faith, hope and love. Marianne’s was a love that knew no barriers.”

“The statue stands as a testament to her faith, hope and love and her dedication to the Hawaiian people,” she said.

Bishop Silva, in his prayer of blessing, said that when the church blesses a statue, “we look at those who followed Christ … and who are joined to us in a remarkable communion.”

Later in his homily, the bishop said Mother Marianne could be considered “a little out of her mind” to travel to foreign islands 6,000 miles away to serve people with an incurable disease.

“But serving the Lord causes us to do crazy things,” he said. “She responded to those needs with great joy.”

The Blessed Marianne statue was commissioned in 2008 by the Sisters of St. Francis during their 125th anniversary in Hawaii.

Sister Rosaire first created a three-foot tall version after hours studying human anatomy, reading books about Mother Marianne, and five weeks in Hawaii learning about the local culture.

The original sculpture was digitally scanned and enlarged at the Carolina Bronze Studio in Seagrove, N.C. The entire process from conception to casting took about a year.

Helping the Sisters of St. Francis place the statue were the Hawaii Community Development Authority, Friends of the Kewalo Basin Park Association, R.M. Towill Corporation and Albert C. Kobayashi, Inc.

A trust has been set up for the maintenance of the statue.