FRANCESCA SAVERIO CABRINI, Saint. — Born at S. Angelo Lodigiano on 15 July 1850; died in Chicago on 22 December 1917. After a youth devoted to study and to exercises of piety, she obtained in 1868 the teaching diploma at Lodi. Orphaned of her father in 1869 and of her mother in 1870, she was left alone, for her sister had gone to join her brother in Argentina.
She taught for two years at Vidardo, where her vocation matured. Not admitted among the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, nor later among the Canossian Sisters of Crema, on account of her health, in 1874 she became director of the Casa della Provvidenza at Codogno, founded by Signora Tondini; but her vocation drew her more to missionary life than to that of a simple nun. On 14 November 1880 she indeed founded the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, adding to her name that of Saverio, in homage to the great missionary Saint. The constitutions were approved on 12 August 1881. In 1887 she opened the first house in Rome and, on the advice of Leo XIII, devoted herself to the grand work of assisting Italian emigrants in America, a purpose confirmed by a providential meeting with Bishop G. B. Scalabrini of Piacenza. In 1889, with seven sisters, she left for the United States, where, amid every kind of opposition and adversity, she began the many and most beautiful works that now flourish there: schools of every kind, hospitals, orphanages. Her activity was untiring, and no less than thirteen times, despite her poor health, she crossed the ocean, visiting Central and South America and founding several houses. The Italians overseas found in her a valiant protector and a great help; with good reason she is called the Saint of Emigrants, and today there is a broad movement to have her declared as such.
Animated by a profound apostolic spirit and sustained by an unshakable faith, she was beloved by the popes Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV. Statesmen and men of high standing felt
FRANCESCA SAVERIO CABRINI, Saint — Birthplace. S. Angelo Lodigiano.
FRANCESCA SAVERIO CABRINI, Saint — Portrait.
(from G. De Luca, *Parole sparse della S. C.*, Rome 1923, tav. I, 1)
FRANCESCA SAVERIO CABRINI, Saint — Portrait.
the Church of S. Maria Nova, and it seemed, or rather it was true, that it exhaled fragrance; and because her life was most holy, the whole city honoured her greatly.
The continuity of the fame of her holy life, which began during her earthly sojourn, never ceased. The miracles worked through her intercession, both before and after her death, reached a remarkable number, so much so that in the processes for her canonization the witnesses said that, upon hearing the announcement of her death, an immense multitude came spontaneously and reverently to pay homage to her remains and to venerate her tomb. And that cry of admiration raised around her body has not yet died away in the grateful and devoted memory of the Roman people. She was canonized by Paul V on 29 May