December 22

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Roman Martyrology

Crossed the ocean to care for Italian immigrants in the Americas

Francesca Cabrini was born in 1850 in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, in northern Italy, the youngest of thirteen children. Frail in health, she was turned away by religious orders, so in 1880 she founded her own: the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She dreamed of going to China, but in 1889 Pope Leo XIII sent her west instead, to New York.

There she found Italian immigrants living in crowded slums, often poor and looked down on. With her sisters she opened schools, orphanages and hospitals, starting with very little money. She kept travelling for the rest of her life, crossing the Atlantic many times, though she was said to fear water after nearly drowning as a child. In 1909 she became a U.S. citizen. She died in Chicago on 22 December 1917.

In 1946 she became the first U.S. citizen declared a saint, and many remember her today as a patron of immigrants.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13 · BSB

A prayer

Faithful God, you sent Frances Cabrini across the sea to welcome strangers, teach children and care for the sick. Give us her courage when the task looks too big, and open our hearts and homes to those who arrive among us far from their own land. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.