Jubilee Saint: Frances Xavier Cabrini
Continuing a series on saints who embodied the spirit of jubilee during this Jubilee Year of Hope, we look today at the first U.S. citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, an Italian woman named Frances Xavier Cabrini. Mother Cabrini’s life shines forth an abundant trust in Divine Providence that captures the jubilee attitude God desires of each of us.
Francesca was born prematurely in 1850 in northern Italy and had persistent health problems throughout her life. Yet she had the heart of a missionary, displayed in the little paper boats she would float down her local river to carry the Gospel’s message to the Far East of India and China. When she graduated from a school run by religious sisters, she attempted to join two religious communities but was rebuffed since her health wasn’t strong enough. Providence intervened when she was 24 to bring her to the town of Codogno to help operate an orphanage run by a nasty duo of old religious sisters who didn’t like prayer or service. Their order dissolved and then-Sister Frances Xavier took a few of the other sisters at age 30 to found her own community called the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Starting in northern Italy with orphanages, day schools, and nurseries, Mother Cabrini’s mission soon expanded. Though her heart yearned to go east to Asia, a meeting with Pope Leo XIII convinced her that the economically and spiritually destitute Italian immigrants in New York City needed her help in a particular way. She trusted in Providence over her own preconceived ideas.
The problems accelerated once she touched American soil. Prejudice from the local Irish-American clergy and the civil authorities, suspicion of ‘those northerners’ from the southern Italian and Sicilian faithful, and lack of material means plagued the early community. Combine that with Mother Cabrini’s poor health, and the mission came close to failing multiple times. But Francesca’s community prayed fervently and worked diligently to overcome these barriers while trusting that God would work things out. Once New York City was established, Mother Cabrini began a worldwide mission to establish communities everywhere she went. From New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, and LA to Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, she made 23 trans-Atlanatic voyages and founded 67 missions on 3 continents in her lifetime.
One mission demonstrated the push-and-pull of trust in Providence and diligent action. Purchasing land in Chicago to build a hospital for Italians, she suspected the realtors of cheating her of valuable square footage. So in the night, she shrewdly went and assessed the property herself with a sister and some shoestring. Confronting the realtor, she received the right square footage this time. Yet when the hospital ran out of food and supplies one month, Mother Cabrini ordered the sisters to pray fervently for divine intervention. That day, without knowing why they themselves showed up, merchants and suppliers came with an abundance of what the hospital needed.