Odds are you've never heard of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. No worries, I hadn't either, until a recent trip to New York City. She'd come to be known as the Patron Saint of Immigrants, but would ultimately be famous for something much macabre.
She was born in Italy on July 15, 1850. She was the youngest of 13 children and one of only four to survive past adolescence. As a young girl, she fell into a river and was swept downstream, later attributing her survival to divine intervention.
After years spent as a teacher and in service to the church, Cabrini came to America in 1889, eventually becoming an American citizen in 1909. Over the course of her career, she helped open and establish nearly 70 institutions throughout the United States, including schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Today, there are 41 churches named in her honor throughout the United States as well as six hospitals, one near you.
By 1917, her health was failing, so she traveled to Chicago to be cared for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. There, she was diagnosed with chronic endocarditis, which ultimately took her life on December 22nd. She was 67 years old.
She was initially interred at what is today known as the National Shrine of Saint Frances Cabrini in Chicago. Her remains were exhumed in 1933 however, when the church began her sainthood campaign.
As part of the canonization process, her remains were divided up. Most significantly, her head was removed and sent to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Motherhouse in Rome, where it is currently on display. The rest of her body was sent to the Saint Frances Cabrini Shrine in Hudson Heights, New York, a quiet residential neighborhood just a few miles from Manhattan. Today, it remains on permanent display, complete with a fake head.
Trivia
- If you want to learn more about Mother Cabrini, take a voyage to Amazon. It's all in books.
- Mother Cabrini was officially canonized by Pope Pius XI on November 13, 1938, more than 20 years after her death. She was the first American to be recognized by the Vatican as a saint.
- In 2020, Colorado officially renamed Columbus Day "Cabrini Day" in her honor. That same year, Inside Edition took its viewers on a video tour of the shrine. You can check it out on YouTube.
- The shrine is a functioning house of worship, where the faithful come to pray and pay their respects on a daily basis. If you go to visit, please be respectful.
- The 1989 John Candy film Uncle Buck contains a reference to Mother Cabrini when a drunken clown arrives at a children's birthday party. Check out this clip on YouTube to see what happened next.