Mother Cabrini is presented to Pope Leo XIII by Bishop Scalabrini to receive the mission to the United States (Luigi Arzuffi, Wikicommons).
"Despite hardship, poor health and disappointment, Mother Cabrini’s peace of soul enabled her to radiate a joy born of unfaltering trust in divine providence."
Welcome to "North American Sanctity," a series on holy men and women, boys and girls, saints and those on the road to sainthood, from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Some will be familiar, others less so; but all are inspiring!
By Kimberly Bruce
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, popularly known as Mother Cabrini (feast day: Nov. 13) and star of the recent popular film “Cabrini,” was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint.
Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Mother Cabrini established dozens of institutions aiding the poor and sick around the globe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An Italian immigrant, she became a U.S. citizen in 1909 and was officially named the “Patron Saint of Immigrants” by Ven. Pope Pius XII in 1946.
Hands and Feet of Jesus
Mother Cabrini was truly the hands and feet of Jesus upon the earth, due to her immense charity and desire to alleviate the sufferings of others.
As Jesus told St. Faustina:
Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1588).
Mother Cabrini pressed those sick and disadvantaged to her heart, responding to their needs. United to Our Lord, Mother accomplished heroic things despite tremendous obstacles, opposition, and prejudices against her. Wrote Sr. Mary Louise Sullivan, MSC, Ph.D., author of Mother Cabrini, Italian Immigrant of the Century:
Despite hardship, poor health and disappointment, Mother Cabrini’s peace of soul enabled her to radiate a joy born of unfaltering trust in divine providence. This total and unabashed trust in God was her outstanding personality characteristic and was the source of an inner strength, which propelled her to remarkable accomplishments in a relatively short amount of time.
Missionary
Born Maria Francesca Cabrini on Jul. 15, 1850, in Sant’Angelo, Italy, she was the youngest of 13 children to Agostino and Stella Cabrini. Stella was 52 years old when she gave birth to Francesca, and it is said that a flock of white doves circled high above their house just before her birth. One of the doves, which then nestled near the house, was picked up by Agostino who showed it to his children before letting it fly away.
As a young girl, Francesca dreamed of becoming a missionary to the Orient. She dressed up her dolls as nuns. She sent makeshift boats down the river pretending they were full of missionaries on their way to China and India.
After graduating from school at 18, Francesca sought entrance at the convent of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart but was denied due to her poor health. Born two months early, Francesca always remained slight of frame and frail throughout her life.
At the behest of the Bishop of Lodi, Francesca became a teacher and headmistress of an orphanage in Codogno, where he wished for her to begin an order of women religious. Joined shortly thereafter by other women, Francesca took religious vows in 1877. She added “Xavier” to her name after St. Francis Xavier, patron of the missions.
Not East, but West
In 1880, the nuns officially became the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with Mother Cabrini as their Mother Superior. The Sisters took in orphans and supported themselves by selling their embroidery and teaching needlework.
On a trip to Rome in 1887, Pope Leo XIII blessed Mother’s work and sent contributions from his own funds to aid her endeavors. Though Mother dreamt of being a missionary in the East, the Pope told her, “Not to the East, but to the West.”
The plight of the Italian immigrants in America had reached the Pope’s ears. They lived dreadfully in slums, were discriminated against by other nationalities, exploited by their employers, and lived in areas filled with disease. Wrote one immigrant, “Here we live like animals … one lives and dies without a priest, without teachers, and without doctors.”
Mother chose to become a missionary to these individuals. She arrived in New York City on Mar. 31, 1889, with six of her Sisters. They began classes for the immigrants, founded the Sacred Heart Orphan Asylum, and her Sisters begged for their needed necessities from neighbors. Mother returned several times to Italy to raise additional funds, each time returning to the U.S. with more nuns to aid missionary expansion.
Expansion
After purchasing a dwelling along the Hudson River as a children’s home, the nuns opened a school for girls in Nicaragua; then went to New Orleans to aid more Italian immigrants.
In 1892, Mother founded her first hospital, named the Columbus Hospital, in New York City. As other Bishops asked Mother to assist them in their countries, she and her Sisters established schools in Argentina, Panama, Paris, England, Spain, and Brazil.
Upon her return once again to New York, Mother opened an orphanage in Dobbs Ferry; parochial schools throughout the metropolis; and a training center for her nuns. They opened other schools and orphanages in Newark, Scranton, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, and in Colorado.
It was while in Chicago, in the fall of 1917, that Mother developed a recurrence of malaria and died suddenly of a heart attack on Dec. 22 at the age of 67.
Catholics began remarking, “Surely she was a saint.” After the miraculous healing of a one-day old infant from blindness, thanks to prayers asked through her intercession, she was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1938.
She was canonized by Ven. Pope Pius XII on Jul. 7, 1946, and her remains are located in Rome, in Codogno, and within the Saint Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City.
Resilience
Saint Mother Cabrini can teach us all something about resilience and trust in God, no matter our circumstances. Said Fr. Francis Clement Kelley, the homilist at her funeral Mass in 1917, “Discouragements did not cause her to hesitate for an instant. …[H]er confidence in God was so great that … she was far from discouraged.” Often, before night was to fall, Mother’s “confidence was rewarded,” he said, and whatever crisis she was dealing with would pass.
Saint Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us to maintain a spirit of joy and trust in God’s providence and that we, too, stive to be Christ’s hands and feet upon the earth. Amen!
Next in the series: Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, RSCJ, Nov. 18.
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