An American health care pioneer will receive the Roman Catholic
Church's highest honor this weekend. On Sunday, Mother Marianne
Cope -- along with another North American, Kateri Tekakwitha --
will become a saint, a designation so difficult to achieve that
only 10 other Americans have been canonized before her. Saint
Marianne Cope, as she will soon be known, may be best remembered
for her work with patients suffering from Hansen's disease -- or
lepers, as they were called at the time. In Hawaii in the late
1800s, people were so afraid of the disease that even those with
simple, unrelated rashes were often banished to the remote
island of Molokai. They remained at this leper colony for the
rest of their lives, far away from family and friends. Their
children became orphans. An island priest who was worried about
this health crisis wrote to nearly 50 different religious
congregations asking for help. But the work was perceived as so
dangerous that only Mother Marianne responded. Before she made
her long journey