St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, byname Mother Cabrini, original name Maria Francesca Cabrini was an Italian-born founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the first United States citizen to be canonized.
Background
Cabrini was born July 15, 1850, in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, in the Lombard Province of Lodi, then part of the Austrian Empire, the youngest of the thirteen children of Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini, who were wealthy cherry tree farmers. Sadly, only four of the thirteen survived beyond adolescence. Small and weak as a child, born two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her life.
Education
At thirteen Francesca attended a school run by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart. Five years later she graduated cum laude, with a teaching certificate. After the deaths of her parents in 1870, she applied for admission to the religious congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart at Arluno.
Career
After teaching in Italy in Vidardo (1872–74), she was appointed supervisor of an orphanage in Codogno (1874). In 1877 she took her vows and changed her name in honour of St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionaries; soon after, she became known as Mother Cabrini.
She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1880, which served orphans and offered a day school. She planned to found a convent in China, but Pope Leo XIII directed her to “go west, not east, ” and she sailed with a small group of sisters for the United States in 1889. Their work in the United States was to be concentrated among the neglected Italian immigrants. This journey was the first in a series that took her through the Americas and into Europe. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1909. Although plagued by ill health most of the time, Mother Cabrini established 67 houses one for each year of her life in such cities as Buenos Aires, Paris, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro. She also founded several schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
Views
Quotations:
"We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend upon material success . . . but on Jesus alone. "
"I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him or have forgotten Him. "
"Prayer is powerful! It fills the earth with mercy, it makes the Divine clemency pass from generation to generation; right along the course of the centuries wonderful works have been achieved through prayer. "
"If you are in danger, if your hearts are confused, turn to Mary; she is our comfort, our help; turn towards her and you will be saved. "
"I travel, work, suffer my weak health, meet with a thousand difficulties, but all these are nothing, for this world is so small. To me, space is an imperceptible object, as I am accustomed to dwell in eternity. "