The Story of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
Faith Beyond Fear
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini’s life is a testament to how fragile beginnings, tenacious hope, and a daring faith can reshape the world. Born into poverty and marked by physical frailty, Mother Cabrini was raised amid hardship—but also fed by stories of missionaries, the rhythm of rural Italian faith, and a family courageously faithful in the face of loss. From childhood, her heart burned to serve God’s people and reach “the ends of the earth.” In time, that desire would make her the first American citizen saint, the Patroness of Immigrants, and a universal symbol of mercy in action.
Detailed Timeline of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
- 1850 (July 15): Born Maria Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, Italy.
- 1870: Parents die; Cabrini faces repeated rejection from religious life due to health.
- 1874: Takes over Codogno orphanage as director, making religious vows.
- 1880 (November): Founds the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) in Codogno with seven women.
- 1881–1886: Opens first orphanages and schools in Lombardy.
- 1887 (September): Travels to Rome, meets Pope Leo XIII, who sends her to America instead of China.
- 1889 (March 31): Arrives in New York City with six MSC Sisters; founds Sacred Heart Orphan Asylum.
- 1890: Purchases West Park property, establishes MSC novitiate and St. Cabrini Home.
- 1891–1895: Founds hospitals, schools, and orphanages in New York, New Orleans, South America. Survives anti-Italian riots in Louisiana and yellow fever epidemic.
- 1899: Arrives in Chicago; opens Assumption School for Italians.
- 1902–1905: Founds Columbus Hospital (NY & Chicago), then Columbus Extension Hospital in Chicago (1910).
- 1907: Advises future saint Katharine Drexel; establishes missions in Denver, Seattle, California, and beyond.
- 1909: Becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen.
- 1912: Misses Titanic voyage (by Divine Providence) due to urgent hospital business in Chicago.
- 1917 (December 22): Dies in Chicago at 67 after founding 67 institutions worldwide.
- 1926: Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart reach China, fulfilling Cabrini’s early dream.
- 1933: Cabrini’s remains exhumed, divided among shrines in Chicago, New York, Codogno, and Rome for veneration.
- 1938 (November 13): Beatified by Pope Pius XI after Vatican recognition of two miracles.
- 1946 (July 7): Canonized as the first American citizen saint by Pope Pius XII.
- 1950: Named Universal Patron Saint of Immigrants.
- 1955: Shrine and hospital chapel in Chicago dedicated to her memory.
- 2012: National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Chicago restored and rededicated.
- 2017: Centennial of her death celebrated in Chicago and worldwide.
Early Years: From Fragility to Zeal
Maria Francesca Cabrini was born on July 15, 1850, in the small town of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, the thirteenth and last child of Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini. Her early life was marked by fragility—born two months premature, she would struggle with poor health all her days. Only four Cabrini children would reach adulthood—a family shaped by grief yet grounded in faith. As a girl, she was captivated by missionary tales and, playfully yet prophetically, sent paper boats carrying violets (her “missionaries”) down the river, praying they would reach distant shores. That same river nearly claimed her life in a childhood accident that left her with a lifelong fear of water—a fear that fate and faith would repeatedly invite her to overcome.
Educated at home by her sister Rosa and later at the Daughters of the Sacred Heart school in Arluno, Cabrini distinguished herself with her intelligence and virtue, ultimately becoming a certified teacher at age eighteen. Despite her longing to enter religious life, she was turned away repeatedly due to her poor health—first by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, then by the Canossian Sisters, and even at the request of her parish priest, who feared losing her as a teacher. Francesca did not let disappointment become despair; she remained confident that “God has a plan for every obstacle.”
In 1874, Cabrini took on the directorship of a struggling orphanage in Codogno, Lombardy. She made religious vows, adding “Xavier” to honor her missionary hero, St. Francis Xavier, and brought new discipline, warmth, and dignity to the orphanage’s operation. In the face of jealousy from colleagues and dysfunctional leadership, Cabrini remained steadfast until 1880, when the orphanage closed. Undaunted, she gathered several loyal women and, with the support of her bishop, founded her own community: the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC).
Early Ministry and the Birth of a Missionary Congregation
The young congregation, under Cabrini’s leadership, opened schools, orphanages, and a hospital in northern Italy, with the sisters becoming known for their practical charity, devotion, and work ethic. They cared especially for abandoned children, girls whom no other order would admit, and the poor. As they stitched embroidery and taught needlework to earn money, Cabrini instructed her Sisters to be humble, inventive, and passionately spiritual: “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me,” became her motto.
Though frail, Cabrini’s energy was legendary. The bishop, noting her audacity and fruitfulness, told her, “If you ever need a favor in Rome, let me know.” Her sights, however, turned outward: Cabrini’s dream was to found a mission in China. Bishop Giovanni Scalabrini of Piacenza encouraged her missionary zeal and became a key figure in redirecting her great desire.
A Divine Detour: Pope Leo XIII Says “To the West!”
In September 1887, Cabrini traveled to Rome to request papal approval for her new community and permission to launch missions in Asia. Instead, Pope Leo XIII—disturbed by the spiritual and physical plight of Italian immigrants flooding into New York and the Americas—told her, “Not to the East, but to the West!” He commissioned her to serve in the United States, offering papal recognition to the MSC.
Cabrini did not hesitate. At age 38, accompanied by six sisters, she departed for New York in the spring of 1889. The voyage was rough and crowded; the sisters labored to care for poor migrants crammed into steerage. Upon arrival, there was no welcome. The local hierarchy, dominated by Irish clergy, had not prepared for their arrival and doubted the need for women missionaries. Cabrini found herself told to return to Italy. Instead, presenting her letter from the Holy See, she replied with characteristic cheer: “I have my orders from the Pope.”
America: Struggle, Ingenuity, and Explosive Growth
Mother Cabrini’s early work in New York was marked by adversity: poverty, suspicion, language barriers, and prejudice within the Church and society. Cabrini and her Sisters begged for food, funds, and shelter—sometimes going door-to-door in the Italian ghetto. With the help of donors like the Countess DiCesnola, they established the Sacred Heart Orphan Asylum, which soon required relocation to the countryside (West Park, NY) due to cost and growing need. Cabrini set up schools, a novitiate, and a safe haven for girls, refusing to turn them out at 14 as other institutions did.
With seemingly inexhaustible energy, she expanded the mission: in New York, the Bronx, Newark, Scranton, and beyond, the Sisters opened clinics, schools, and eventually Columbus Hospital. Mother Cabrini’s resilience extended beyond charity—she was a canny businesswoman, memorably knotting shoestrings together at night to measure property lines, ensuring the poor were not defrauded in land deals.
Her example inspired both religious and laity; her leadership style was firm, cheerful, and highly practical. She insisted that the Sisters be well-dressed (“not to give excuse for insults against our people”), and as a superior, she gave her nuns both autonomy and demanding spiritual formation.
Mission to the Margins: New Orleans, Latin America, and Beyond
Requests for the Sisters came from across the hemisphere. Mother Cabrini traveled to Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Grenada—often by mule and in harsh conditions. Her ministry in New Orleans during the violent anti-Italian riots of 1891 was both dangerous and holy: she established schools and an orphanage amid outbreaks of yellow fever and distrust. In every new place, Cabrini formed communities dedicated to spiritual and material support for the most vulnerable.
By the mid-1890s, the MSCs were an international congregation. Cabrini continued her direct action: intervening in disputes between bishops and Church bureaucracy, personally aiding the growth of new women’s religious and even giving St. Katharine Drexel strategic advice in Philadelphia to overcome Vatican obstacles.
The Chicago Years: Education, Healthcare, and Systemic Impact
Cabrini arrived in Chicago in 1899 to find Italian immigrants facing isolation, poverty, and limited opportunities. She and her Sisters opened Assumption School, the city’s first Italian parish school (always tuition-free), and would soon add Columbus Hospital in Lincoln Park (1905) and Columbus Extension Hospital on the city’s west side (1910). Cabrini’s fundraising and administration were tireless—and creative: surplus revenue from the main hospital subsidized free care for the poor at its extension.
She also established a farmland in Park Ridge to provide fresh food for recovering patients and the Sisters, and modeled the kind of communal, family-centered living she would later inspire in the Cabrini Green housing project (built after her death). In all, Cabrini treated every challenge as a mission, meeting resistance either by holy persistence or by building what others would not.
Being a Missionary to All
By the end of her life, Cabrini had crossed the Atlantic no fewer than 24 times—an extraordinary testimony for anyone, but especially for a woman who had feared water from childhood. She had founded 67 institutions on three continents: schools, hospitals, orphanages, and missions. She championed education, healthcare, women’s dignity, and the fundamental Christian call to treat every stranger as Christ Himself. Her institutions became sanctuaries for immigrants, women, children, the sick, the marginalized, and anyone left out by society or the systems of her day.
Final Years, Death, and Sainthood
In December 1917, Cabrini, suffering chronic heart disease, arrived in Chicago to be cared for by the Sisters she trusted and loved. On December 21, still serving until the very end, she wrapped Christmas sweets for the children at her school. She died unexpectedly on December 22 in her private room at Columbus Hospital, surrounded by the Sisters she had inspired and led.
Her body lay in state in Chicago and New York, drawing mourners from all walks of life. She was buried in West Park, NY, but her relics now rest at major shrines in Chicago and New York. By her death, the MSCs were present around the world, and her 67 institutions offered sanctuary, hope, and education for hundreds of thousands of people.
After her death, miracles were reported through her intercession: the healing of Peter Smith (a blind boy in New York) and the sudden recovery of Sr. Delphina Grazioli in Seattle were recognized by the Vatican for her beatification. In 1938 she was declared “Blessed,” and on July 7, 1946, Pope Pius XII canonized her as the first American citizen saint. In 1950, the Church officially named her Universal Patroness of Immigrants, affirming her unique legacy to the displaced and searching.
Conclusion: The Spirit of Cabrini Today
Mother Cabrini’s life is a monument to what God can do when a soul—however weak—surrenders totally to His will. Her words and witness echo on every continent, in every institution of mercy that bears her name, and in every heart daring to be “a missionary to all” in faith, hope, and charity. Her feast day is celebrated on November 13 in the United States and December 22 in Italy. Today, at the Shrine in Chicago and across the world, pilgrims continue to seek her intercession and to find in her an icon of possibility—proof that there are no borders love cannot cross.
“I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)