The cardinals and bishops of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously voted to affirm Mother Marianne’s heroic virtue, according to Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, director of the nun’s canonization cause at the headquarters for the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse, N.Y. Cope was a member of that religious order of women.

The vote is required before Pope John Paul II can declare her venerable, which is the first of three steps toward sainthood.

"There are three stages to a cause, and venerable is the toughest to achieve," Hanley said today. "This is a real step forward in that among all the thousands of causes they could’ve chosen, they took in Mother’s."

"I think it’s the biggest deal," added Hanley, who co-authored "Pilgrimage and Exile: Mother Marianne of Moloka'i." "This will be a big step in justice to have her life and virtue recognized."

Members of Marianne’s order in Hawai'i were also enthusiastic about the news.

"We have more than our foot in the door," said Sister William Marie Eleniki, the regional administrator of the St. Francis sisters. "We continue to pray that the process continues."

Mother Marianne spent 30 years ministering to the patients at Kalaupapa until her death in 1918 at age 80.

Her canonization cause was launched nearly 21 years ago. Vatican historians approved the accuracy of Marianne’s cause in 1996, but it wasn’t until October that theologians in Rome gave their approval as well.

Mother Marianne joins a waiting list of thousands of potential saints, including Father Damien de Veuster, a Belgian missionary whose work in Kalaupapa earned him the designation of blessed. The Vatican is now reviewing a second miracle attributed to Damien that could qualify him for sainthood.

Father Damien died of leprosy after 16 years in Kalaupapa.

Born Barbara Koob in Germany in 1838 but moving to the United States before she turned 2, Mother Marianne, whose father was a naturalized citizen, joined the Franciscan sisters in 1862. She came to Hawai'i in 1883, caring for leprosy patients at the Kaka'ako Branch Hospital for five years until volunteering to supervise a new home for girls in Kalaupapa. She eventually took over Kalaupapa’s home for boys, too.

Mother Marianne was known for brightening the otherwise dismal days of her young patients on the isolated Moloka'i peninsula, sewing them clothes, taking them on picnics, planting trees and flowers, and playing piano as they sang.

"(Mother Marianne’s virtues) were above the ordinary in duration and the way she performed them," Hanley said. "She always was cheerful, there was a spirit of joy in what she did and warmth about her.

"(People have said they) liked all the sisters who went to Kalapaupa, but they couldn’t have done it without her."