| Name | Saint Francesca Saverio Cabrini |
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| Birth date | July 15, 1850 |
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| Death date | December 22, 1917 |
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| Feast day | November 13 |
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| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
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| Birth place | Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy |
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| Death place | Chicago, Illinois |
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| Titles | Virgin, Foundress |
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| Beatified date | November 13, 1938 |
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| Canonized date | July 7, 1946 |
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| Canonized by | Pope Pius XII |
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| Patronage | immigrants, hospital administrators |
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| Major shrine | Chapel of Mother Cabrini High School, New York City |
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Saint Francesa Saverio Cabrini (July 15, 1850, Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy – December 22, 1917), also called Mother Cabrini, was the first American citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Early life
Francesca Cabrini was born in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano Lombardy, Italy, tenth of eleven children from Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini who were rich cherry tree farmers. Sadly only four of eleven survived beyond adolescence. Small and weak as a child, born two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her 67 years.
Cabrini took religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier to her name to honor the Jesuit saint, Francis Xavier. She became the mother superior of the House of Providence orphanage in Codogno, where she taught.
In 1880, the orphanage was closed. She and six other sisters that took religious vows with her founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) on November 14. Mother Cabrini composed the rules and constitution of the order, and she continued as its superior-general until her death. The order established seven homes and a free school and nursery in its first five years. Its good works brought Mother Cabrini to the attention of Giovanni Scalabrini, bishop of Piacenza and of Pope Leo XIII.
Later years
The Pope sent Cabrini to
New York City on March 31, 1889, to help the Italian immigrants "Not to the East but to the West". There, she obtained the permission of
Archbishop Michael Corrigan to found an orphanage, which is located in West Park, Ulster County, New York, today and is known as
Saint Cabrini Home, the first of 67 institutions she founded in New York,
Chicago,
Des Plaines,
Seattle,
New Orleans,
Denver,
Golden,
Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, and in countries throughout
South America and
Europe. Long after her death, the Missionary Sisters would achieve Mother Cabrini's goal of being a missionary to China. In only a short time, after much social and religious upheaval there, the sisters left China and, subsequently, a
Siberian placement.
The sisters opened Columbus Extension Hospital (later renamed Saint Cabrini Hospital) in the heart of the city’s Italian neighborhood on the Near West Side. Both hospitals eventually closed near the end of the 20th century. Their foundress’s name lives on via Chicago's Cabrini Street.
Cabrini was naturalized as a US citizen in 1909.
Death
, New York City]]
Mother Cabrini died of complications from dysentery at age 67 in Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1917. By that time, she had founded 67 missionary institutions to serve the sick and poor and train additional nuns to carry on the work. Her body was originally interred at Saint Cabrini Home, an orphanage she founded in West Park, Ulster County, New York,
Shrine
In 1931, her body was exhumed, found to be partially incorrupt and is now enshrined under glass in the altar at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, part of Mother Cabrini High School, at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. The street to the west of the shrine was renamed Cabrini Boulevard in her honor. Another Mother Cabrini Shrine can be found in Golden, Colorado
Veneration
Cabrini was
beatified on November 13, 1938, and canonized on July 7, 1946, by
Pope Pius XII. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini is the
patron saint of
immigrants. Her beatification
miracle involved the restoration of sight to a child who had been blinded by excess
silver nitrate in its eyes. Her canonization miracle involved the healing of a terminally ill
nun. The date fixed at the universal level for Mother Cabrini's
feast day is November 13, the day of her beatification. In the pre-1970 calendar, still used by some, the date was December 22, the day of her birth to heaven, and so the day normally chosen for a saint's feast day. Other dates may be assigned at a local level.
Honors
Chicago's
Cabrini–Green housing project, which has since been mostly torn down, was named after her, due to her work with Italian immigrants in the location. It has since become a haven for underprivileged and poor people and the MSC sisters still work there.
Cabrini College, in Radnor, Pennsylvania, also bears her name, as does Cabrini High School in New Orleans, and Cabrini Medical Center and Mother Cabrini High School in Manhattan, New York City.
The Cabrini Mission Foundation is an organization committed to advancing St. Frances Xavier Cabrini's mission and legacy of healing, teaching, and caring around the world.
The Central Station of Milan is now named Stazione Francesca Cabrini.
See also
American Catholic Servants of God, Venerables, Beatified, and Saints
There is also a Mother Cabrini School in Caparra Heights in Puerto Rico. Frances Xavier Cabrini was the Patron Saint of the school.
Notes
External links
Biography at mothercabrini.org
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine; in New York, N.Y.
Mother Cabrini High School in Manhattan
Mother Cabrini Shrine; in Golden, Colorado
Cabrini Mission Foundation
Cabrini College
Cabrini High School in New Orleans, LA
St. Cabrini Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry, NY
St. Cabrini Home in West Park, NY
St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Allen Park, MI
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
Founder Statue in St Peter's Basilica
Category:American Roman Catholic nuns
Category:American saints
Category:American Roman Catholic saints
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:Italian immigrants to the United States
Category:Italian saints
Category:Italian Roman Catholic saints
Category:20th-century Christian female saints
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:People from Chicago, Illinois
Category:People from the Province of Lodi
Category:Burials in New York City
Category:Burials at chapels
Category:1850 births
Category:1917 deaths
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