Kate Mahoney believes her life was saved through the intervention of Mother Marianne Cope.So do a lot of other people, including her parents, members of the Order of the Sisters of St. Francis and even the Vatican.
Mahoney's recovery from serious complications after a 1992 cancer operation was determined to be a miracle by the complex official Vatican review process. That miracle led to Cope's beatification this spring, bringing the German-born and Utica-raised nun closer to sainthood.
But Mahoney and her family haven't told their story until now.
"I felt that to tell my story prior to the beatification would take away from Mother Marianne," 27-year-old Kate Mahoney of Syracuse said. "My role in her life is relatively insignificant, but her role in my life is huge."
In 1992, while on a family vacation on Lake Ontario, Kate Mahoney, then 14, realized she wasn't feeling well. She had a fever and chills, and couldn't keep any food down. Doctors at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse found she had a rare illness, germ cell ovarian cancer.
Though the cancer operation was successful, Mahoney's body didn't react well to the chemotherapy treatments her doctors prescribed. Within a few months of her release from the hospital, she was back. After a procedure in mid-December of that year to remove fluid in her abdomen, she suffered a nearly fatal heart attack, followed by multiple organ failure.
On Jan. 1, 1993, doctors said her body was in a process of "overall deterioration," the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse said in a prepared statement.
A plea for prayers
As her daughter lay in the intensive care unit at Crouse, Mary Mahoney contacted everyone she knew, asking them to pray for Kate. Mary Mahoney had attended the convent school of the Sisters of St. Francis while growing up in Syracuse, and knew about Mother Marianne from those days.
Additionally, her husband, John Mahoney, had worked for U.S. Rep. James Hanley. Hanley's sister, Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, is a nun with the Order of St. Francis.
Sister Mary Laurence visited Kate Mahoney at the hospital, and soon she and Mary Mahoney set up a prayer network to get people praying for Mother Marianne's intervention.
"I called Sister Mary Laurence every day," Mary Mahoney said. "Depending on Kate's condition, if it was her heart, her liver, her skin, I would call her very freely, and say, 'This is what you need to pray for today.'"
Sister Mary Laurence would then put out the word. Among the numbers she would call was that of Kate's Mahoney's school, Bishop Ludden High School, where the prayer request would be broadcast on the public address system.
"They would say, 'Today is the day you need to pray for Kate's kidneys,'" Mary Mahoney recalled. "That went over the loudspeaker, and they were very specific, that's what was unique."
Sister Patricia Burkard, head of the Syracuse-based Sisters of St. Francis, said the effort to save Kate Mahoney was to her knowledge the first time so many specific prayers had been directed toward Mother Marianne in such a concentrated effort.
And, Kate Mahoney's parents said, their daughter's condition started to improve.
"I saw with my own eyes organs that had been dysfunctional being restored to full health," John Mahoney said. "I would ask the physicians involved, and we had all sorts of specialists, and they could not give me a medical answer. They couldn't explain it.
"On her discharge papers, they said unanimously that Kate's recovery could not be explained medically. Now that's about as close to a miracle you could ever get a physician to admit," he said.
He also said two doctors who managed the intensive care unit at Crouse traveled to the Vatican to be present at Mother Marianne's beatification in May.
Looking back at miracle
Kate Mahoney said she couldn't remember much about her illness, and wasn't even aware of Mother Marianne until after she recovered.
Then, coming to terms with the possibility of a miracle took time.
"It was more of a process," she said. "But at the same time, it was never that I didn't believe. I always believed."
During high school, Kate Mahoney concentrated on the usual things young people do.
"I really just wanted to be a high school kid," she said. "I did all the normal things."
It wasn't until years later that she came face to face with Mother Marianne again. After spending time in New York City pursuing a career in acting, she returned to Syracuse. She needed a job and a friend gave her a lead at Franciscan Home Health Support, part of St. Joseph's, where they needed home health aides. She decided to give it a try.
"On the first day of orientation, I heard the history of the company," she said. "Up on the screen was Mother Marianne. It didn't come full circle to me till that moment."
And, she said, it was there that she began to feel reconnected to Mother Marianne.
"If somebody had asked me where my strongest connection with Mother Marianne is, it's through my work with patients there," she said.
She no longer works for Franciscan Home Health Support because her parents need her at home. Both were diagnosed with different types of cancer within days of one another about a year ago. Her mother is now in remission and her father's condition is improving, she said. She is also applying to master's of fine arts programs in acting.
Kate Mahoney said looking back, she's always felt that connection with Mother Marianne, and prays to her now in her times of trouble.
"My entire life I have felt that somebody was watching over me," she said. "There's a quality in a mentor – that they listen and tell me to trust my guts – that's Mother Marianne for me."
One more miracle needed
Sister Patricia Burkard said members of her order were happy about the miracle for many reasons.
"The sentiments of the Sisters of St. Francis is one of great rejoicing for Kate on her return to good health, and to see this young and beautiful woman to be able to plan for her future," she said.
For Mother Marianne to be canonized, there needs to be a second proven miracle. "We continue to hear about illnesses and people restored to health," she said.
Sister Mary Laurence Hanley is still on the case, she said, and as people report possible instances of intervention by Mother Marianne, Hanley researches them to see if they meet the Vatican's standard of proof.