The Catholic community celebrated the feast day of Saint Marianne Cope last month.
Mother Marianne Cope was canonized as a saint in 2012 because of her work with Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa on Molokaʻi.
Most of her remains are now at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu.
But the order of nuns at Kalaupapa reached out recently to Chaminade University’s Forensic Sciences unit and asked for help to examine the soil from Kalaupapa, where smaller particles of Mother Marianne’s remains were exhumed.
Bishop Larry Silva paid a visit to the laboratories, and the diocese says work is underway to have the additional relics on display in parishes across the state.
Carlos Gutiérrez Ayala is an assistant professor at Chaminade and director of the forensic unit. He discussed how science and the church were able to team up on this unusual project.
This story aired on The Conversation on Feb. 4, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
