Signed Check from St. Frances Xavier CabriniSt. Frances Xaviar Cabrini was born in a small town in northwest Italy, the youngest of 13 children.
When she was 18, after her parents died, she decided to become a nun. However, two religious communities turned her down because of her poor health.
Impressed with the work she did in an orphanage, the local bishop encouraged her to establish a community for young girls.
Maria took the name Sr. Frances Xavier and, with seven other young women, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The community flourished and vocations were abundant.
In 1889, Pope Leo XIII sent her to New York to work with impoverished Italian immigrants. She accepted the invitation and arrived at Ellis Island later that year.
Within two years–and overcoming incredible odds–she had founded an orphanage and opened a hospital in New York. In 1909 she became a US citizen. Despite the discrimination she faced, she established schools, hospitals, and orphanages across the United States and the world.
Mother Cabrini died on this day in 1917 at age 67. Pope Pius XII canonized her in 1946, naming her “Patroness of Immigrants.”
She was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized.
Cabrini, a film about her life, was released in theaters earlier this year.
