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Posted: Monday, October 8th, 2012 9:05 AM HST

Sainthood nears for Syracuse nun; Hawaii remembers

By Associated Press

KALAUPAPA, Hawaii (AP) — At 81, Barbara Marks is among the last 17 leprosy patients Hawaii banished to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa. Over more than 100 years, beginning in 1866, more than 8,000 were separated from their families and taken to this distant point on Molokai. There, Mother Marianne Cope, a nun from Syracuse, ministered to the settlement. With the Oct. 21 canonization of Mother Marianne at the Vatican, and their numbers dwindling, the remaining patients are eager to make sure their stories are recorded and their home preserved. The Syracuse Post-Standard sent a reporter to Hawaii to get their stories. Marks told the reporter she doesn't want Kalaupapa to become a resort. She says: "It's our home."