St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

On Mon, 13 Nov, the Catholic Church celebrated the feast of Mother Frances Xaxier Cabrini. She was the 1st US citizen to be declared a saint. Her story is 1 of willingness to serve God no matter the cost. In Mother Cabrini's case this meant leaving her homeland of Italy & coming to the USA to ensure that Italian immigrants had their spiritual as well as physical needs. Because of her work with immigrants she is now the patron of immigrants.

Mother Cabrini was born Maria Francesca Cabrini in 1850 at Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, IT. Ill health prevented her from becoming a nun at age 18 as she wished. so she cared for her parents. Eventually, she began teaching at a girls school. In 1880 she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. In 1887 she met with Pope Leo XIII. He talked to her about the great need facing the Italian immigrants in the USA, Obeying the call of Christ through the successor of Peter she arrived in New York with 6 sisters on 23 March 1889. Initially Archbishop Corrigan was less than welcoming. But that changed & she began he work in Little Italy. Soon here work took her accross the United States founding schools, hospitals & orphanages. Her work eventually took her not only accross the USA but back to Europe & S America. She established a total of 67 institutions.

In 1909 in Seattle, WA she became an American citizen. She died in Chicago, IL on 22 December 1917 from malaria. She is intered in the Chapel of Mother Cabrini High School, 701 Ft. Washington Ave, New York, NY. This has become a place of pilgramage for those who have a devotion to this great saint. There is also a Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, CO. She was beatified 13 November 1938 & was declared a saint by Venerable Pope Pius XII on 7 July 1946.

Mother Cabrini's philosophy is summed up in this quote: "We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone. "

Pope Pius XII said the following in his homily at the canonization mass about her:

"Inspired by the grace of God, we join the saints in honouring the holy virgin Frances Xavier Cabrini. She was a humble woman who became outstanding not because she was famous, or rich or powerful, but because she lived a virtuous life. From the tender years of her youth, she kept her innocence as white as a lily and preserved it carefully with the thorns of penitence; as the years progressed, she was moved by a certain instinct and a supernatural zeal to dedicate her whole life to the service and greater glory of God.

She welcomed delinquent youths into safe homes and taught them to live upright and holy lives. She consoled those who were in prison and recalled to them the hope of eternal life. She encouraged prisoners to reform themselves and to live honest lives.

She comforted the sick and the infirm in the hospitals and diligently cared for them. She extended a friendly and helping hand especially to immigrants and offered them necessary shelter and relief, for having left their homeland behind, they were wandering about in a foreign land with no place to turn for help. Because of their condition she saw that they were in danger of deserting the practice of Christian virtues and their Catholic faith.

Where did she acquire all that strength and the inexhaustible energy by which she was able to perform so many good works and to surmount so many difficulties involving material things, travel and men?

Undoubtedly she accomplished all this through the faith which was always so vibrant and alive in her heart; through the divine love which burned within her; and, finally, through constant prayer by which she was so closely united with God from whom she humbly asked and obtained whatever her human weakness could not obtain.

In the face of the endless cares and anxieties of life, she never let anything turn her aside from striving and aiming to please God and to work for his glory for which nothing, aided by God’s grace, seemed too laborious, or difficult, or beyond human strength."