Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, A Mother to Those Far from Home

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

 Frances Cabrini was born on July 15, 1850, in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, in northern Italy. Her father, Agostino, was a farmer, and her mother, Stella, helped raise their family in the Catholic faith. Born prematurely, Frances remained physically delicate throughout her life. Yet her childhood held the beginnings of an immense ambition. Her father read missionary accounts to the family, and stories about China especially captured her imagination. She began hoping that she, too, might carry the Gospel to distant lands.

That hope encountered obstacles long before she crossed an ocean. Frances studied with the Daughters of the Sacred Heart and earned her teaching diploma in 1868. She wanted to join their community, but her application was refused because her health seemed too fragile for religious life. She returned home and taught, later taking a teaching position in nearby Vidardo. Although admission to the convent had been denied, she continued serving through education and works of charity. Her desire to give herself to God remained.

In 1874, Frances began working at the House of Providence in Codogno, where she taught and directed an orphanage. The years there brought serious difficulties, but also the development of her religious vocation. She made religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier to her name in honor of Saint Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary. With encouragement from Bishop Domenico Gelmini of Lodi, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1880. Seven young women joined her in the new undertaking.

Mother Cabrini still hoped to take her sisters to China. However, another urgent mission was being placed before her. Large numbers of Italians were emigrating to the United States, where many faced poverty, exploitation, and difficulty practicing their faith. When she sought Pope Leo XIII’s guidance, he directed her toward these immigrants. His instruction became one of the best remembered moments of her life. “Not to the East, but to the West.” She accepted a destination different from the one she had imagined since childhood.

On March 31, 1889, Mother Cabrini arrived in New York with six sisters. Their beginning was difficult, with inadequate arrangements awaiting them and enormous needs surrounding them. They nevertheless began visiting Italian families, teaching catechism, and caring for children. Mother Cabrini explained in a newspaper interview that their work involved going from house to house and apartment to apartment, learning whether children had proper homes and schooling. Their mission grew through this direct contact with families whose circumstances required practical help and spiritual care.

Schools and orphanages followed, and eventually hospitals. Mother Cabrini sought benefactors, raised money, and gathered the labor and support needed to make these foundations possible. Requests for further missions carried her far beyond New York. Her work extended across the United States and into Europe, Central America, and South America. Despite her fragile health, she made twenty three Atlantic crossings. During her lifetime, she established sixty seven institutions. Behind that number stood children receiving an education, sick people receiving treatment, and vulnerable families finding assistance.

Prayer sustained this demanding work. Mother Cabrini spent long periods before the tabernacle and sought to discern Christ’s will through the Church’s guidance and the circumstances before her. Devotion to the Sacred Heart gave her missionary life its spiritual foundation. The words of Saint Paul were especially dear to her. “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” Her confidence in Christ accompanied the practical responsibilities of founding institutions, directing sisters, traveling, and responding to the suffering of people far from home.

In 1909, Mother Cabrini became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The country to which she had come as a missionary had also become her own. She continued her work into her later years and died in Chicago on December 22, 1917, aged sixty seven, at the hospital she had founded there. The girl whose health had prevented her admission to a religious community had become the foundress of a congregation and an enduring presence in the lives of immigrants across many cities.

Pope Pius XI beatified her on November 13, 1938. Pope Pius XII canonized her on July 7, 1946, making her the first United States citizen declared a saint. In 1950, he proclaimed her the heavenly patroness of emigrants. Her feast is celebrated on November 13 in the United States. Mother Cabrini’s life joined missionary faith to patient, demanding work. She crossed oceans to help people who had crossed them seeking a future, bringing the love of Christ into classrooms, orphanages, hospital wards, and unfamiliar homes.

For a devotional image of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press