Francesca Saverio Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini, became the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church. Born in 1850 into a poor farming family in Italy, she was the youngest of thirteen children.
In 1877, Cabrini took her religious vows and added “Saverio” (Xavier) to her name, honoring Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionaries, whose footsteps she initially wished to follow to the Far East.
In November 1880, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with seven other women. She authored the institute’s Rule and Constitutions and served as its superior general until her death. The sisters managed orphanages and foundlings, operated a day school to cover expenses, and taught needlework, selling their embroidery to supplement their income. Within five years, they had established seven homes, a free school and a nursery.
In 1887, when Cabrini sought papal approval to start missions in China, Pope Leo XIII advised her to direct her efforts towards the United States, where Italian immigrants were arriving in large numbers, often in dire poverty. His advice was, “Not to the East, but to the West.”
Cabrini arrived in New York on March 31, 1889, with six sisters. She organized catechism and education for Italian immigrants and cared for many orphans. Despite significant challenges, she established schools and orphanages, leveraging her resourcefulness and prayerfulness to secure donations in money, time, labor and support.
Over her lifetime, she founded 67 institutions across New York, Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and extended her work into Latin America and Europe, aiding the sick and poor.
Mother Cabrini passed away at age 67 from chronic endocarditis on December 22, 1917, at Columbus Hospital in Chicago. Her body was initially entombed at the Saint Cabrini Home in New York, the orphanage she had founded.
