That's because most everyone involved in her cause is in Italy for her beatification ceremony.

A group of 300 pilgrims led by Bishop James Moynihan traveled to Rome to witness firsthand the Vatican ceremony that will elevate Mother Marianne to "Blessed" for her work ministering to leprosy patients in Hawai'i for more than three decades. The group also includes a large contingent of the Sisters of St. Francis, her Syracuse-based order, as well as 40 people from Hawai'i.

The Syracuse diocese will hold a special Mass to celebrate Mother Marianne's beatification when the travelers return, spokeswoman Danielle Cummings said.

Although newly elected Pope Benedict XVI will not officiate the ceremony, the group has been granted a special audience with the pope on Monday, Cummings said.

Cardinal Jose Saraiva-Martins, who heads the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will preside at the ceremony.

"We're very grateful. It doesn't bother us if it's not elaborate. We want her pronounced blessed. That's going to happen," said Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, who directs the office of the Cause of Mother Marianne.

Members of the Sisters of St. Francis and diocesan representatives will have significant roles in the ceremony, Cummings said. Those left behind at the Motherhouse in Syracuse planned to watch the ceremony on television, she said.

Moynihan will concelebrate the Mass and present the biography of Mother Marianne to Cardinal Saraiva-Martins during the ceremony. A choir of St. Francis sisters and lay people from New York and Hawai'i will sing before and after the Mass. Others will take part in readings, in bringing forward offertory gifts and in the relic procession.

Mother Marianne and six other Franciscan sisters came to Hawai'i in 1883 to work with leprosy patients at the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokai alongside the famous Belgian missionary, Father Damien DeVeuster, who also is a candidate for sainthood.

A German immigrant who was raised in Utica, Mother Marianne died in 1918 at age 80.

Cummings said St. Joseph and St. Patrick's Church in Utica will hold a special divine liturgy and rosary in Mother Marianne's honor.

Before her work in Hawai'i, Mother Marianne established a legacy in New York. She helped establish St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Utica in 1866, and three years later helped form Syracuse's first hospital — now St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center. In 1877, she was elected Provincial Superior of her religious community.

In December, the pope accepted a report of a miracle attributed to her intervention. Her body, buried at Kalaupapa, was exhumed in January and returned to Syracuse.

Once beatified, she will be assigned a feast day on the church calendar.

Acceptance of a second miracle that occurs after her beatification is required for sainthood.