Frances Xavier Cabrini

NAME Francesca Saverio Cabrini (born Maria Francesca Cabrini)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, becoming the first American citizen to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, and her extensive work with Italian immigrants in the United States and other countries, establishing schools, orphanages, and hospitals.

BIRTH Born on July 15, 1850, in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, Italy, approximately 20 miles from Milan. She was born two months premature and was the youngest of thirteen children, though only four survived to adulthood.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Her parents were Agostino Cabrini, a prosperous Lombard farmer who owned a modest estate, and Stella Oldini Cabrini. The family was described as "sturdy and pious," devoted to their home, children, and Church. Agostino and his wife Stella were conservative people who took no part in political upheavals. (1)

Her mother was fifty-two when Francesca was born. According to legend, just before her birth, a flock of white doves flew over the family home, which had never been seen before in their area.

CHILDHOOD Francesca was a delicate, frail child who remained small and weak throughout childhood due to her premature birth. At age seven, she nearly drowned, which left her with a lifelong fear of water and resulted in several years of suffering from bronchitis. This aquaphobia would later be significant as she would cross the Atlantic Ocean around 25 times during her missionary work. 

As a child, she was fascinated by missionary stories told by her father and would make paper boats filled with flowers, pretending they were missionaries sailing to faraway lands. Francesca had a particular devotion to St. Francis Xavier, from whom she later took her religious name.

EDUCATION Francesca was initially educated at home by her older sister Rosa. At age 13, she left the family farm to attend the Normal School in Arluno, where she lived for five years with the Daughters of the Sacred Heart who ran the school. She graduated in 1868 with her teaching certificate and high honors. Despite her excellent academic performance, the Daughters of the Sacred Heart rejected her application to join their religious order due to her poor health.

CAREER RECORD 1868: Applied to join the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus but was rejected due to poor health.

1872-1877: Taught at an orphanage in Codogno, Italy, and served as superior of the House of Providence, a struggling orphanage.

1880: Founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Codogno with seven young women.

1889: Traveled to New York City at the urging of Pope Leo XIII to assist Italian immigrants.

1889-1917: Established 67 institutions, including schools, orphanages, and hospitals, across the United States, Central America, and South America, as well as in Europe. Her work focused on providing education, healthcare, and social services to the poor and marginalized, especially Italian immigrants. She became a U.S. citizen in 1909.

APPEARANCE Mother Cabrini was described as not more than 5 feet tall and of frail constitution with a gentle face and kind eyes. She remained physically small and weak throughout her life due to her premature birth. Despite her diminutive stature and poor health, she was noted for her remarkable energy and determination.

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini

FASHION As a religious sister, Mother Cabrini wore the traditional religious habit of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, which would have included a tunic, scapular, and veil typical of Catholic religious orders of her time. 

CHARACTER Mother Cabrini's personality was complex and evolved significantly over time. She was known for being "strong in her principles and mild in her ways." Early on, she was seen as a somewhat difficult and tenacious figure, but her encounters with a wide range of people broadened her outlook and softened her judgments. 

Her deep and unwavering devotion to Jesus, along with an unshakable trust in Christ, remained a constant throughout her life. Cabrini also demonstrated exceptional business savvy, proving herself a skilled fundraiser and a shrewd negotiator when the situation demanded it. She combined saintly charisma with practical intelligence, and her natural charm and leadership abilities attracted a devoted following of women from the start of her mission. (2)

SPEAKING VOICE Mother Cabrini was noted for her ability to communicate effectively across language barriers. She arrived in New York not knowing English but was said to know "the universal language of the human spirit". She conducted extensive correspondence with her sisters, demonstrating her communication skills through written word.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Her compassionate and understanding nature suggests Mother Cabrini  possessed a gentle and empathetic disposition.

RELATIONSHIPS Mother Cabrini's primary relationships were with her religious sisters and the people she served. She maintained extensive correspondence with her sisters throughout her travels. She had working relationships with Pope Leo XIII, who greatly supported her mission, various bishops including Bishop Giovanni Scalabrini of Piacenza, and Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York. 

The film Cabrini depicts a relationship with opera singer Enrico Caruso, though this appears to be somewhat fictionalized. She remained unmarried and had no children, dedicating her life entirely to religious service.

MONEY AND FAME Mother Cabrini had a distinctive and practical attitude toward money, seeing it as “a means to be used wisely and skillfully to carry out God’s will in the world.” With ambitious goals to build hospitals, schools, and orphanages, she pursued funding with tireless determination, using “every means imaginable” to raise the necessary resources. She had a natural flair for business and became remarkably successful at fundraising, drawing support not only in the form of money but also time, labor, and materials. In contrast to many religious women of her era, she and her sisters boldly managed large sums of money and made major investment decisions, confidently relying on their own entrepreneurial instincts. (3)

Celebrated in her lifetime for her vast charitable efforts, Cabrini’s legacy only grew after her canonization, inspiring books, films, statues and shrines in her honor.

FOOD AND DRINK During her missionary work, Mother Cabrini's meals were typically simple and communal, reflecting the modest lifestyle of religious sisters. When she first arrived in New York in 1889, she and her six companions were "hungry and tired from their long journey" and were "treated to a hearty Italian meal, which they gratefully devoured" at St. Joachim's Church rectory. 

The living conditions during her early work in New York were challenging - at their temporary quarters on White Street, the nuns "ate cold food because the stove was broken". Despite these hardships, grateful schoolchildren would bring the Sisters whatever gifts they could find, including "a scrap of wilted lettuce, two lemons, a handful of limp peacock feathers plucked from the trash".

Mother Cabrini understood food as an expression of care and love for her community. During her final months in 1917, despite her failing health, she would "bring them small gifts of fruit, candy, cake, or cookies—tailored to each Sister's preference" during recreation times with her sisters. This attention to individual preferences shows her thoughtful approach to nurturing her community through food.

Her final act before death involved ensuring children would have Christmas candy, exclaiming "Oh, no! They must have their candy! Christmas would not be Christmas for them without it!" and instructing the Sisters to purchase candy at her expense. (4)

MUSIC AND ARTS Mother Cabrini had a significant relationship with music and the arts, particularly in her fundraising efforts and educational institutions. The 2024 film Cabrini depicts her strategic use of music for charitable purposes, including organizing children's serenades to soften the hearts of potential donors. In the film, when trying to gain support from opera singer Enrico Caruso (portrayed as "Giovanni"), she has "a group of children serenade him outside his window, his heart melts and he gives in by staging a performance of 'Pagliacci' in New York to raise money for her". (5)

Music played an integral role in the institutions Mother Cabrini established. Churches and schools founded by her order incorporated music ministry as an essential part of liturgy. Her schools and orphanages would have included musical education and performances as part of their cultural and spiritual formation.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus spirituality, which was central to Mother Cabrini's religious life, was expressed through various artistic forms in her institutions. The film Cabrini shows attention to artistic detail, including "several statues and pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" throughout her establishments. Her religious order's distinctive veils featured "a delicate checkered pattern" that was custom-made and artistically significant. (6)

LITERATURE She was well-read in religious texts and kept up with contemporary issues relevant to her missionary work. 

Mother Cabrini was a prolific writer, leaving behind 2,054 published letters along with other writings. Her correspondence reveals her spiritual depth, personal love for the Lord, business acumen, leadership abilities, and sensitivity to her sisters' needs. She often quoted Scripture, with her most frequently cited passage being "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" from Philippians 4:13. Her letters vividly describe her travels and encounters with people from all walks of life. 

Mother Cabrini, image by Perplexity 

In 1960, Pietro Di Donato published Immigrant Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini, a popular biography based on her writings.

NATURE Mother Cabrini had a complex relationship with nature, particularly water. Despite her lifelong fear of water due to nearly drowning as a child, she crossed the ocean many times for her missionary work. 

She established the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Colorado on property that initially had no running water, making it very inexpensive. According to legend, before leaving Colorado, she gathered other nuns, tapped on a rock, and said "dig here," leading to the discovery of a spring that still flows today.

During her final illness, "following medical advice, the Sisters arranged for her to be driven into the countryside daily, where she gathered wildflowers to adorn the chapel". This activity brought her joy and connected her to her rural childhood. (4)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS During her later years as Mother Superior, Cabrini enjoyed recreational time with her sisters. She "loved these times with the Sisters, and in the past had delighted them with her stories, and liked to play cards, although she was terrible at it and never won unless her opponents secretly let her". 

During recreation periods, she would not only bring personalized gifts of food but also engage in storytelling, sharing tales that delighted her community. Even when her health was failing, she insisted on joining these recreation times, saying "Oh, no! It is only now at their recreation that I can be together with them. If I am not, they will think I do not love them". (4)

SCIENCE AND MATHS  Mother Cabrini demonstrated practical mathematical and business skills in managing the finances of her religious institutions and successfully conducting complex financial negotiations.

MISSION WORK Mother Cabrini originally had her heart set on China (as one does when founding a religious order), but the Pope—who clearly had a talent for plot twists—told her, “Not to the East, but to the West.” So off she went to New York, where she was greeted not with dragons or pagodas, but with teeming slums and thousands of Italian immigrants who had been promised golden pavements and instead got cholera and landlords. Undeterred, she got to work.

Immigrants were her people. She set up schools, orphanages, and catechism classes with the kind of cheerful defiance usually reserved for biblical prophets and slightly unhinged aunties. If someone said, “That can’t be done,” she heard, “Ah, excellent. I’ll do it before lunch.”

Healthcare? She noticed early on that if you’re going to serve the poor, you’d best be ready to bandage, vaccinate, and stitch. So she founded hospitals—including one right in the middle of Manhattan—and convinced people with deep pockets and shallow generosity to open them a little wider. Apparently, she could look at a millionaire and they’d start fumbling for their chequebook.

The globe was her parish. She crossed the Atlantic more times than most people cross the street—23 or 24 times, depending on whether you count the one where she brought a convent and a cow. By the time she was done, she’d set up 67 institutions in eight countries, all while maintaining a prayer life that would make a monk blink twice.

She died in 1917, probably mid-project, but her legacy grew. Canonized in 1946 and named patron saint of immigrants in 1950, Mother Cabrini remains proof that holiness doesn’t always wear sandals and speak softly—it sometimes carries a ledger, a train timetable, and a to-do list the length of the Gospel of Luke.

Her life was a loud, loving, full-bodied “yes” to God and to the world’s most overlooked souls. A saint with grit, grace, and an eye for a good property deal.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Mother Cabrini’s theology was deeply rooted in her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which emphasizes God's boundless love and compassion. Her devotion was not just of the heart, but of the will, the hands, and the daily grind of mission work. For her, the Sacred Heart wasn’t an abstract symbol; it was the living center of her spirituality and the guiding compass of everything she did.

This devotion, along with her fierce missionary drive, shaped what some have called her apostolic mystique. Her spirituality could be summed up in this: to feel what Christ feels, to care about what He cares about, and to make His hopes and sorrows her own. It wasn’t about lofty ideas; it was about rolling up her sleeves to love with action.

Mother Cabrini managed a rare and beautiful balancing act—a "Christian synthesis" of tireless outward service and deep inner contemplation. Her faith wasn’t compartmentalized; her work flowed straight from her prayer life. And at the center of it all was a simple, unwavering goal: to lead hearts to the heart of Jesus.

Even amid the whirlwind of building hospitals, founding schools, and crossing oceans, she insisted on prayer and silence. Not as luxuries, but as survival tools. As she once put it, interior silence and prayer are “great necessities for the person who is occupied with a thousand concerns.” She would know—she was occupied with about a thousand and one. (7)

POLITICS Mother Cabrini navigated complex political landscapes in Italy, the United States, and other countries to secure support and permission for her foundations. She interacted with government officials and church leaders to further her mission, always with the goal of serving the needs of immigrants, not for political gain.

Mother Cabrini became a naturalized United States citizen in 1909, twenty years after her arrival. Her family in Italy were described as conservative people who "took no part in the political upheavals around them," although some relatives were involved in Italian unification struggles. 

In her work with immigrants, she was "cognizant of the negative perceptions many people in the United States held against newcomers" and set out to demonstrate that "Italian immigration is not a dangerous element" to the country. She encountered resistance from some co-religionists and worked to combat xenophobia. 

In modern times, she has become a political symbol in immigration debates, with politicians like Governor Andrew Cuomo supporting statues in her honor.

SCANDAL The main controversy involving Mother Cabrini occurred posthumously in 2019 when she received the most public nominations for a statue in New York City's "She Built NYC" initiative but was passed over by the selection committee. This led to public outcry, marches by Italian-Americans, and intervention by Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ensured a statue would be erected. 

During her lifetime, she faced resistance from Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York, who initially advised her to return to Italy, though this was resolved through Vatican pressure.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Mother Cabrini suffered from poor health throughout her life, beginning with her premature birth. She nearly drowned at age seven and suffered from bronchitis for several years afterward. She was described as being "plagued by ill health most of the time" and was so frail that she was rejected from several religious orders because of her health. Despite these challenges, she demonstrated remarkable energy and endurance in her missionary work, crossing the ocean numerous times and establishing institutions worldwide. 

HOMES Mother Cabrini lived in various locations throughout her missionary career. She was born and raised on her family's farm in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy. As a religious sister, she lived in convents and institutions of her order across multiple countries. 

Key locations included the original convent in Codogno, Italy; houses in Rome; her institutions in New York City; and facilities in Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and various locations in South America and Europe. 

At the time of her death, she was residing at Columbus Hospital in Chicago, which was one of her own institutions.

Columbus Hospital, Chicago, Illinois (1922)

TRAVEL Mother Cabrini was an extraordinary traveler despite her fear of water. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean between 23-27 times during her missionary career. Her travels took her throughout the United States, South America (including Argentina, Brazil, Chile), Central America (Nicaragua), Europe (England, France, Spain), and she made multiple trips back to Italy and Rome. 

She traveled by various means including ships, trains, carriages, on foot, mule, and even horseback to reach remote areas. 

Remarkably, she had a ticket for the RMS Titanic in 1912 but changed her plans and sailed earlier, thus avoiding the disaster.

DEATH Mother Cabrini died on December 22, 1917, at the age of 67 at Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. She died from complications of dysentery. At the time of her death, she was preparing Christmas candy for local children. She had established 67 institutions by the time of her death, corresponding to each year of her life. 

Her body was originally buried at St. Cabrini Home in New York but was exhumed in 1931 and found to be partially incorrupt. Her remains are now distributed among several locations: her head is preserved in Rome, one arm is at the national shrine in Chicago, and the rest of her body rests at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York under glass.

Mother Cabrini was canonized as a saint on July 7, 1946, by Pope Pius XII. This made her the first United States citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. The canonization ceremony took place at St. Peter’s in Rome and was attended by thousands, with an estimated 120,000 people later gathering in Chicago’s Soldier Field for a Mass of thanksgiving.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Mother Cabrini has been the subject of numerous books, films, and media productions. 

In 2024, a major film titled Cabrini was released, directed by Alejandro Monteverde and starring Cristiana Dell'Anna. The film depicts her work with Italian immigrants in New York and has sparked renewed interest in her life. 

Pietro Di Donato's Immigrant Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini was published in 1960 and became a popular biography.

Various children's books have been written about her, including Mother Cabrini- A Heart for the World by Claudia Cangilla McAdam. 

A composer named Kathleen Fagre wrote a musical tribute to Mother Cabrini called "O Unico Amore" inspired by a visit to the Mother Cabrini Shrine

She has been featured in documentaries and educational materials, and there are multiple websites and online resources dedicated to her life and legacy.

ACHIEVEMENTS Founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1880).

Established 67 institutions (schools, orphanages, hospitals) worldwide.

Became the first American citizen to be canonized a saint (1946).

Pioneered social services for Italian immigrants in the U.S. and beyond.

Demonstrated extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and administrative skill in building a vast network of charitable organizations.

Her feast day is November 13.

Sources: (1) EWTN  (2) Novena (3) L'Osservatore Romano (4) Everyday Life Spirituality (5) The Tablet  (6) Fra Noi (7) Cabrini.org (8) St John's Law Scholarship Repository