Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Life story

Frances Cabrini was born on 15 July 1850 at Sant'Angelo Lodigiano in Lombardy, northern Italy, the thirteenth child of a comfortably off farming family. Her health was delicate from childhood. She trained as a teacher, then taught locally and worked in an orphanage at Codogno.

In 1880 she and a few companions founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She wanted to go to China, but Pope Leo XIII advised her to go west to the United States, where many poor Italians had settled. In 1889 she arrived in New York at the invitation of Archbishop Michael Corrigan.

In the years that followed she opened schools, orphanages and hospitals for the Italian immigrant community, among them Columbus Hospital in New York and in Chicago. She travelled constantly between American cities, to Central and South America and back to Italy, setting up the congregation's many houses.

She became a United States citizen in 1909 and died on 22 December 1917 in Chicago. Pius XII canonised her on 7 July 1946, the first United States citizen raised to sainthood. In 1950 he declared her patron of immigrants. Her memorial is kept on 13 November. The congregation she founded continues to run schools and health centres on several continents, and her shrine in Upper Manhattan is a place of pilgrimage. She crossed the Atlantic dozens of times in the course of her work, despite her fragile health.

Works and witness

• Founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1880
• Went to New York in 1889 at Archbishop Corrigan's invitation
• Opened schools, orphanages and hospitals for immigrants, including Columbus Hospital
• Became a United States citizen in 1909
• Canonised in 1946, patron of immigrants in 1950

Patron of

Immigrants

Saints from the same country

Saint Agnes, Saint Lawrence, Saint Cecilia, Saint Sebastian

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• Theodore Maynard, Too Small a World: The Life of Mother Frances Cabrini

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.