Cabrini was born July 15, 1850 in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, in the LombardProvince of Lodi, then part of the Austrian Empire, the youngest of the eleven children of Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini, who were wealthy cherry tree farmers. Sadly, only four of the eleven survived beyond adolescence.[2] Small and weak as a child, born two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her life. When she went to visit to her uncle, a priest who lived beside a swift canal, she made little boats of paper, dropped violets in them, called the flowers missionaries, and launched them to sail off to India and China.[3]
At thirteen Francesca attended a school run by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart. Five years she graduated sum laude, with a teaching certificate.[3] She became the Headmistress of the House of Providence orphanage in Codogno, where she taught, and drew a small community of women to live a religious way of life. Cabrini took religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier to her name to honor the Jesuit saint, Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionary service.[4]
Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
In November 1880, she and six other women who had taken religious vows with her founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (M.S.C.).[5] Cabrini composed the Rule and Constitutions of the religious institute, and she continued as its Superior General until her death. The sisters took in orphans and foundlings, opened a day school to help pay expenses, started classes in needlework and sold their fine embroidery to earn a little more money.[3] The institute established seven homes and a free school and nursery in its first five years. Its good works brought Mother Cabrini to the attention of (the now Blessed) Giovanni Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza, and of Pope Leo XIII.
Missionary
In September 1877, Cabrini went to seek approval of the Pope to establish missions in China. Instead, he suggested to her that she go to the United States to help the Italian immigrants who were flooding to that nation in that era, mostly in great poverty. "Not to the East, but to the West" was his advice.[5]
Cabrini left for the United States, arriving in New York City on March 31, 1889 along with six other Sisters. She encountered disappointment and difficulties at every step.[5] There she obtained the permission of Archbishop Michael Corrigan, the Archbishop of New York, to found an orphanage, which is located in West Park, New York, today and is known as Saint Cabrini Home—the first of 67 institutions she founded: in New York, Chicago, Des Plaines, Illinois; Seattle, New Orleans, Denver, Golden, Los Angeles, Philadelphia,[4] and in countries throughout South America and Europe. Long after her death, the Missionary Sisters would achieve Mother Cabrini's goal of being missionaries to China. In only a short time, after much social and religious upheaval there, the Sisters left China and, subsequently, a Siberian placement.
In New York City, she founded Columbus Hospital and Italian Hospital. In the 1980s, they were merged into Cabrini Hospital. This facility was closed in 2002. In Chicago, 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’ name lives on in Chicago's Cabrini Street.
Cabrini was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1909.[4]
Mother Cabrini died of complications from dysentery at age 67 in Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1917, while preparing Christmas candy for the local children. By that time, she had founded 67 missionary institutions to serve the sick and poor and train additional Sisters to carry on the work.
Cabrini was canonized in Rome in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Due to the overwhelming increase of pilgrims to her room at Chicago’s Columbus Hospital, the then-Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Stritch, consecrated a National Shrine built in her honor within the hospital complex.
The National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini was dedicated in 1955, 38 years after her death. Mother Cabrini lived, worked and died in Chicago so she is considered one of Chicago’s “Very Own”. It is located in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago at the former Columbus Hospital. It was solemnly blessed and dedicated in an Inaugural Liturgy that was celebrated by CardinalFrancis George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, on September 30, 2012, and the shrine opened the following day. The Reverend Theodore Ploplis, Coordinator of Spiritual Services at Chicago's St. Joseph Hospital and a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, also assumed duties as the first Rector of the National Shrine, effective September 1, 2012.[6]
This new worship space was dedicated with the special mission to foster devotion to the first American citizen-saint. Since that historical moment, the dynamic life of the National Shrine has played an integral role in the mission and ministry of the religious congregation which Mother Cabrini founded: The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Shrine was at the heart of Columbus Hospital, formerly located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. It was a popular destination for the faithful seeking personal healing and spiritual comfort. In 2002, the hospital closed and soon after was torn down, but the shrine and Mother Cabrini’s room were conserved, though closed to the public. It was reopened on October 1, 2012, following a ceremony the previous day.
The National Shrine will now function as a stand-alone center for prayer, worship, spiritual care and pilgrimage. Today, it is an architectural gem of gold mosaics, Carrara marble, frescoes and Florentine stained glass. As part of its restoration plan, it will be surrounded by a large condominium development on North Lakeview, the former site of Columbus Hospital.
Cabrini was beatified on November 13, 1938, by Pope Pius XI, 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 the child's eyes. Her canonization miracle involved the healing of a terminally-ill member of her congregation.
The date fixed on the Universal Calendar of Saints for Mother Cabrini's feast day is November 13,[7] 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.
Honors
Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing project, which has since been mostly torn down,[8] 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 Cabrini Sisters still work there.
Cabrini Catholic High School in Allen Park, Michigan is named in her honor.
The Santa-Cabrini Hospital in the east end of Montreal, Canada, is also named in her honor and is very popular amongst Canadians of Italian descent.
The Scalabrini Fathers, founded by the Blessed Giovanni Scalabrini, run St Francesca Cabrini Italian Church in Bedford, England, which is named in her honor.[9]
CHRISTUS-Saint Frances Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana, bears her name because Charles Greco, the Bishop of Alexandria at the time of its founding, shortly after her canonization, had met her when she came to visit the grade school he attended in New Orleans.
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.[10]
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church located in El Paso, Texas, was founded with her as its patron saint.
St. Frances Cabrini Church in Tucson, Arizona, is another church under her patronage, as is St. Frances Cabrini Parish in San Jose.
A school in Madrid, Spain bears the name "Colegio Cabrini Madrid".[11]
There is also a Mother Cabrini School in Caparra Heights in Puerto Rico.
