Home
 Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Centenary of Death Scott 1657 (2017) Maria Francesca Cabrini was born on July 15, 1850, in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, in the Lombardy Province of Lodi, south of Milan. She was the youngest of thirteen children. Young Maria attended a school run by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and graduated with a teaching certificate. Upon the death of her parents, she wanted to join a convent but was refused due to poor health. Instead, she was assigned to teach and reorganize a mismanaged orphanage along with a group of companions. Eventually, she and her group formed the Suore Missionarie del Sacro Cuore di Gesù (Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or MSC). She finally took her religious vows in 1877.  "Mother Cabrini meets Pope Leo XIII" by Luigi Arzuffi (1887) Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Caselle Landi, Italy Photo by Rei Momo From Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain In early 1887, encouraged by Bishop Giovanni Scalabrini of Piacenza, Cabrini opened a convent in Castel San Giovanni in the Emilia-Romagna region. Bishop Scalabrini had recently founded an order of missionary priests to work with Italian immigrants in New York City and saw the MSC sisters as being a potential aid in this work. However, Cabrini still wanted to go to Asia. Scalabrini set up a meeting between Cabrini and Pope Leo XIII. Pope Leo was familiar Sister Cabrini's good works, and the two met in September of 1887. Cabrini hoped to gain papal approval for the MSC order, for permission to set up a convent in Rome, and to set up missions to Asia. Pope Leo XIII granted the first two wishes, but was thinking of a different destination for Sister Cabrini and the MSC: New York. The Pope convinced her to go to the United States since large numbers of Italian immigrants were entering the country, many in dire poverty. His famous directive: "Not to the East, but to the West". Standing just five feet tall and sometimes in ill health, Sister Cabrini met with obstacles in her mission but remained determined. A New York archbishop told her to go back to Italy because there was no place for her to stay in the city, but she refused, stating she had been sent to New York by the pope and she would stay. Mother Cabrini established schools and orphanages in New York for immigrants. Additional institutions were founded in the United States and abroad. She travelled all over the world, crossing the Atlantic 23 times. By 1917, her organization had 1,500 nuns and 67 institutions in eight countries devoted to education, nursing, and care of orphans. Mother Cabrini became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1909, and died in Chicago on December 22, 1917. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1946, becoming the first citizen of the United States canonized as a saint. Her remains are interred at the Mother Cabrini High School in New York. In 2024, the movie “Cabrini” was released, telling the story of Mother Cabrini. The movie brought renewed attention to the life and achievements of the first American saint, while focusing on the challenges of immigrants, in particular Italian-Americans, at the turn of the twentieth century. Mother Cabrini’s calls for fairness and social justice echoed those of her mentor, Pope Leo XIII. Last month, on June 20, Pope Leo XIV visited Pavia and Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, the birthplace of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. During his stop at the Parish of Saints Anthony the Abbot and Frances Xavier Cabrini, he venerated a relic of the heart of Mother Cabrini. During his remarks at the church, he recalled his connections to the saint: "I am here to pay homage to Mother Cabrini, Patroness of migrants, the first Saint of the United States of America, who was born here in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano in 1850, and died in Chicago, my native city, in 1917. When I learned that Sant’Angelo Lodigiano is only a few kilometers from Pavia, I immediately thought of taking the opportunity [to visit]... And here I am.'REFERENCES: |
