Frances Xavier Cabrini

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

(born July 15, 1850, Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, Austria — died Dec. 22, 1917, Chicago, Ill., U.S.; canonized July 7, 1946; feast day December 22) Italian-born U.S. missionary, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic church. She was determined from childhood to become a missionary, and she took her vows in 1877. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1880, and in 1889 Pope Leo XIII sent her to the U.S. to work among Italian immigrants. She lived in New York City and Chicago but traveled in the Americas and Europe to found 67 houses of her order.

For more information on Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, visit Britannica.com.

Search unanswered questions...

Browse: Unanswered questions | Most-recent questions | Reference library

Saints: Frances Xavier Cabrini

Top

Cabrini, Frances Xavier (1850–1917), nun and foundress. The youngest of thirteen children of an Italian farmer who lived near Pavia, Frances was strictly brought up, but in 1870 both her parents died. Two years later she tried to become a nun at the convent school where she was educated, but was refused for health reasons. She applied to another Order, but, less than five feet high, was refused again. Now a schoolteacher, who had taken a private vow of virginity, she was called in by the parish priest of Codogno (Lombardy) to reorganize an orphanage. This was badly mismanaged by its foundress, who made things so impossible for Frances and her companions that the bishop closed the orphanage and encouraged her to be a missionary. Prioress over seven companions from Codogno from 1880, she made foundations at Grumello, Milan and in 1887 at Rome. Papal approval for her ‘Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart’ was now obtained and although her first idea had been to work in China, she was advised by several prelates to devote herself instead to the Italian immigrants in the USA, of which she became first a citizen and later the first canonized saint.

In New York, whose archbishop Corrigan had invited her to found schools and orphanages, it has been estimated that in 1889 (when she arrived) there were 50, 000 Italians, of whom only 1, 200 were churchgoers: most lived in conditions of extreme poverty. No adequate arrangements had been made for her nuns: they also first lived in dirty accommodation and begged to cover their expenses. The orphanage plan had fallen through, and she was presented with plenty of pupils but no school building. Undeterred by the archbishop's recommendation to return to Italy, she got the orphanage under way and in 1890 moved it to West Park on the river Hudson, where she established the novitiate and most important house of her congregation in the USA. Foundations followed at New Orleans, Managua (Nicaragua), and New York (the Columbus hospital). Later foundations included Chicago, Buenos Aires, and Brockley (Kent). In 1917 her congregation numbered over 1, 500 nuns in eight countries: there were sixty-seven houses in all devoted to education, nursing, and the care of orphans, their scope far transcending the original plan of ministry to Italian immigrants.

In character she was strict, but just and loving: sometimes her actions reflected the limitations of her early education, as in her rejection of illegitimate children from some of her schools, and her lack of understanding and sympathy for American Protestants. Against these stand the extraordinary and permanent achievement of herself and her nuns. She died of malaria in Chicago on 22 December 1917; she was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Her body rests in Mother Cabrini High School, New York. Feast: 22 December.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

E. de Sanctis Rosmini, La beata Francesca Saverio Cabrini (1938)
A Benedictine of Stanbrook, Frances Xavier Cabrini: the Saint of the Emigrants (1944)
other Lives by C. C. Martindale (1931), E. J. McCarthy (1937), T. Maynard (1948) and M. L. Sullivan (1992). Her writings include Escortationi della Cabrini (1954) and Diario spirituale (1957)
canonization documents are summarized in Novissima positio super virtutibus (1937). See also articles in N.C.E., ii. 1039 and Bibl. SS., v. 1028–45

Columbia Encyclopedia: Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Top

Cabrini, Saint Frances Xavier (zā'vyər kəbrē'nē), 1850-1917, American nun, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, b. near Lodi, Italy. Founded in Italy in 1880, her order was expressly for charitable and religious work among the very poor. She was sent by Pope Leo XIII to the United States (1889) to aid Italian immigrants arriving there. She lived mainly in New York City and Chicago, directing the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, nurseries, and schools in the United States and in Latin America. Her sanctity, highly regarded in her lifetime, became famous after her death. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1938 and canonized in 1946 by Pius XII. Mother Cabrini was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized. Her principal shrine is the Mother Cabrini High School in New York City, where she is buried. Feast: Dec. 22.

Bibliography

See P. Di Donato, Immigrant Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini (1960).

Dictionary: Ca·bri·ni (kə-brē'nē)

, Saint Frances Xavier

Top

(Click to enlarge)

Mother Cabrini

(Library of Congress)

(Known as "Mother Cabrini.") 1850-1917.

Italian-born American religious leader who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (1880) and was the first American to be canonized (1946).

Wikipedia: Frances Xavier Cabrini

Top

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Virgin, Foundress
Born	July 15, 1850(1850-07-15), Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy
Died	December 22, 1917 (aged 67), Chicago, Illinois
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	November 13, 1938
Canonized	July 7, 1946 by Pope Pius XII
Major shrine	Chapel of Mother Cabrini High School, New York City
Feast	December 22
Patronage	immigrants, hospital administrators

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (July 15, 1850 – December 22, 1917), also called Mother Cabrini, was the first American citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

1 Early life
2 Life
3 Death
4 Shrine
5 Veneration
6 Honors
7 See also
8 Notes
9 External links

Early life

Cabrini was born in Sant'angelo' Lodigano, Italy, the youngest of thirteen children of Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini who were rich cherry tree farmers. Two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her 67 years.

Cabrini took religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier to her name to honor the Jesuit saint, Francis Xavier. She became the mother superior of the House of Providence orphanage in Codogno, where she taught.

In 1880, the orphanage was closed. She and six other sisters that took religious vows with her founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) on November 14. Mother Cabrini composed the rules and constitution of the order, and she continued as its superior-general until her death. The order established seven homes and a free school and nursery in its first five years. Its good works brought Mother Cabrini to the attention of Giovanni Scalabrini, bishop of Piacenza and of Pope Leo XIII.

Life

The Pope sent Cabrini to New York City on March 31, 1889, to help the Italian Immigrants there "Not to the East but to the West". There, she obtained the permission of Archbishop Michael Corrigan to found an orphanage, which is located in West Park, Ulster County, New York, today and is known as Saint Cabrini Home, the first of 67 institutions she founded in New York, Chicago, Des Plaines, Seattle, New Orleans, Denver, Golden, Los Angeles, Philadelphia,^[1] and in countries throughout South America and Europe. Long after her death, the Missionary Sisters would achieve Mother Cabrini's goal of being a missionary to China. After much social and religious upheaval and only a short time, the sisters left China, and subsequently a Siberian placement.

Chicago became a major center of Mother Cabrini’s work. In 1899, she opened the city’s first Italian immigrant school. She also transformed a former hotel into Columbus Hospital in 1905; in 1911, she opened Columbus Extension Hospital (later renamed Saint Cabrini Hospital) in the heart of the city’s Italian neighborhood on the Near West Side. Although both hospitals eventually closed near the end of the 20th century, their foundress’s name lives on via Chicago's Cabrini Street.

Cabrini was naturalized as a US citizen in 1909[1].

Death

The shrine to Mother Cabrini at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, Manhattan, New York City

Mother Cabrini died of complications from dysentery at age 67 in Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1917. By that time, she had founded 67 missionary institutions to serve the sick and poor and train additional nuns to carry on the work. Her body was originally interred at Saint Cabrini Home, an orphanage she founded in West Park, Ulster County, New York,

Shrine

See also: List of shrines in U.S.

In 1931, her body was exhumed and is now enshrined under glass in the altar at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, part of Mother Cabrini High School, at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. The street to the west of the shrine was renamed Cabrini Boulevard in her honor.

Veneration

Cabrini was beatified on November 13, 1938, 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 its eyes. Her canonization miracle involved the healing of a terminally ill nun. The date fixed at the universal level for Mother Cabrini's feast day is December 22,^[2] the day of her birth to heaven, and so the day normally chosen for a saint's feast day. In the pre-1970 calendar, still used by some, the date is November 13.^{[citation needed]} Other dates may be assigned at a local level.

Honors

Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project, which has since been mostly torn down,^[3] 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 MSC sisters still work there.

Cabrini College, in Radnor, Pennsylvania, also bears her name, as does Cabrini High School in New Orleans, and Cabrini Medical Center and Mother Cabrini High School in Manhattan, New York City.

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.

Notes

^ Mothers Cabrini's Life Story on the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus website
^ Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7)
^ "The Cabrini-Green Issue", The Paw Print, February 2009. Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, Chicago, Ill. Retrieved 2009-10-15.

External links

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Copyrights:

		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Saints. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Copyright © David Hugh Farmer 1978, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2003, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more
		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more
		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Frances Xavier Cabrini". Read more

	St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
	Religion: Roman Catholic Patron Saints
	Cabrini

	What year was Saint Frances X. Cabrini born? Read answer...
	Who was Mother Cabrini? Read answer...
	How did Mother Cabrini die? Read answer...

	What was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini most famous for?
	What is St Frances Xavier cabrini known for?
	When was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini born?