Frances Xavier Cabrini Day in United States ― Date, History, and Details
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History of Frances Xavier Cabrini Day in United States and How to Celebrate/ Observe It
Frances Xavier Cabrini Day is celebrated on November 13 in honor of Mother Cabrini, the first naturalized citizen of the United States. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious congregation that devoted itself to the education and welfare of Italian immigrants. In 1950, Pope Pius XII canonized her as the first American saint.
Cabrini was born in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, Italy in 1850. Her parents were poor farmers, and she was the youngest of thirteen children. When she was eighteen, she applied to join the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lodi, but was rejected because of her poor health. Undeterred, she started her own congregation, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in 1880.
The order initially focused on providing healthcare and education to the poor in Italy. But in 1889, at the request of Pope Leo XIII, Cabrini and six of her sisters journeyed to New York City to help Italian immigrants who were struggling to adjust to life in America.
Cabrini and her sisters established several schools, hospitals, and orphanages in New York, Chicago, Denver, and other cities with large Italian populations. They also founded a college in Washington Heights, which is now known as Cabrini University.
Throughout her life, Mother Cabrini remained devoted to her work, even when she was beset by personal tragedies, such as the death of her husband and several of her children. She died of malaria in 1917, but her legacy continues through the many institutions she founded and the hundreds of lives she touched.