Святая Франческа Кабрини: Жизнь и деятельность

Italian American Roman Catholic religious sister and saint

Frances Xavier Cabrini (; July 15, 1850 – December 22, 1917), also known as Mother Cabrini, was an Italian American Catholic religious sister. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious institute that was a major support to her fellow Italian immigrants to the United States. Cabrini was the first U. S. citizen to be canonized a saint by the Catholic Church, on July 7, 1946.

She was born Maria Francesca Cabrini on July 15, 1850, in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, in the Lombard Province of Lodi, then part of the Austrian Empire. She was the youngest of the thirteen children of farmers Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini. Only four of the thirteen survived beyond adolescence. Born two months early, she was small and weak as a child and remained in delicate health throughout her life. After her parents died in 1870, she applied for admission to the Daughters of the Sacred Heart at Arluno. These sisters were her former teachers, but reluctantly, they told her she was too frail for their life. She became the headmistress of the House of Providence orphanage in Codogno, where she taught and drew a small community of women. Cabrini took religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier (Saverio) to her name to honor the Jesuit cofounder Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionary service. She had planned, like Francis Xavier, to be a missionary in the Far East.

In November 1880, Cabrini and seven other women who had taken religious vows with her founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC). She wrote the Rule and Constitutions of the religious institute, and she continued as its superior general until her death. The sisters took in orphans and foundlings, opened a day school to help pay expenses, started classes in needlework and sold their fine embroidery to earn a little more money. In New York she encountered disappointment and difficulties. In New York City, she founded Columbus Hospital, which merged with Italian Hospital to become Cabrini Medical Center from 1973 until its closure in 2008. In Chicago, Illinois, the sisters opened Columbus Hospital in Lincoln Park and Columbus Extension Hospital (later renamed Saint Cabrini Hospital) in the heart of the city's Italian neighborhood on the Near West Side. Both hospitals eventually closed. Cabrini was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1909. Cabrini was beatified on November 13, 1938, by Pope Pius XI, and canonized on July 7, 1946, by Pope Pius XII. Her canonization miracle involved the purported healing of a terminally ill member of her congregation. When Cabrini was canonized, an estimated 120,000 people filled Chicago's Soldier Field for a Mass of thanksgiving. In the Roman Martyrology, her feast day is December 22, the anniversary of her death, the day ordinarily chosen as a saint's feast day. Following the reforms in Pope John XXIII's Code of Rubrics, the United States since 1961 has celebrated Cabrini's feast on November 13, the anniversary of her beatification, to avoid conflicting with the greater ferias of Advent. In 1950, Pope Pius XII named Frances Xavier Cabrini as the patron saint of immigrants, recognizing her efforts on their behalf across the Americas in schools, orphanages, hospitals, and prisons. Cabrini is also informally recognized as an effective intercessor for finding a parking space. As one priest explained: "She lived in New York City. She understands traffic."

After Cabrini's death, her convent room at Columbus Hospital, in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, became a popular destination for the faithful seeking personal healing and spiritual comfort. Due to the overwhelming number of pilgrims after her canonization in 1946, the Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Samuel Stritch, commissioned a large National Shrine in her honor within the hospital complex. He dedicated the shrine in 1955. The hospital and shrine closed in 2002 to be replaced by a high rise development on North Lakeview Avenue. Still, the shrine and Cabrini's room were preserved and refurbished during the long demolition and construction period. They were solemnly blessed and re dedicated by Cardinal Francis George on September 30, 2012, and reopened to the public the next day. The shrine is an architectural gem of gold mosaics, Carrara marble, frescoes, and Florentine stained glass, functioning as a stand alone center for prayer, worship, spiritual care, and pilgrimage. Where Cabrini had once located an underground spring on the mountainside, a replica of the Lourdes Grotto was built in 1929, later replaced by a simpler sandstone structure. After Cabrini's canonization, the campsite officially became a shrine. Extensive additions in 1954 included a long Stairway of Prayer for pilgrims following her footpath up the mountain, marked with the Stations of the Cross, leading to a 22 feet (7 m) Statue of Jesus at the highest point of the site. Queen of Heaven Orphanage closed in 1967, replaced by a system of foster care. The summer campsite became a year round facility for retreats and small prayer gatherings. A new convent building, completed in 1970, includes housing for the resident Sisters, overnight accommodations for visitors, a chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and an exhibit of artifacts and clothing once used by Cabrini. In addition to accommodating the public, the new shrine also served Cabrini High School students as a place for their liturgies and prayer services until the school closed in 2014. Today, the shrine continues as a center of welcome for new immigrants and pilgrims of many nationalities who come to pray and reflect.

Southwark, London, England: In St George's Cathedral, Southwark, where Cabrini regularly worshipped during her time in London, a shrine was dedicated to her in 2009, designed by brothers Theodore, James, and Gabriel Gillick. The bronze sculpture depicts the saint watching over a group of migrants standing on a pile of suitcases. Burbank, California, U. S.: Near the site of Villa Cabrini Academy (1937–1970), Burbank's Cabrini shrine consists of a chapel founded by Cabrini in 1916, relocated to St. Francis Xavier Church and renovated during 1973–1975, and joined by a library wing in 1993. The Italian Catholic Federation sponsors the shrine. Lewiston, New York, U. S.: Near Niagara Falls, the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima includes a shrine to Cabrini along the Avenues of Saints. Lower Manhattan, New York, U. S.: Our Lady of Pompeii Church was founded in 1892 as a national parish to serve the Italian American immigrants of Greenwich Village. Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters taught religious education there for a time, and the church now honors her with a shrine, a statue, and a stained glass window. Peru, New York, U. S.: In 1947, one year after Cabrini's canonization, a shrine was dedicated to her in Peru, New York, near the state's northern border with Canada. The shrine is a stone grotto located on the grounds of St. Patrick's, a mission church built in 1841 for Irish immigrants. Scranton, Pennsylvania, U. S.: In 1899–1900, Cabrini helped to found St. Lucy parish and school for Scranton's Italian immigrants. A century later, the church dedicated a shrine in honor of St. Cabrini.

St. Frances Cabrini Parish (parrocchia Santa Francesca Cabrini), Codogno
St. Frances Cabrini Parish (parrocchia Santa Francesca Cabrini), Lodi
St. Frances Cabrini Parish (parrocchia Santa Francesca Cabrini), Rome
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, 18 feet (5 m) statue of "S. Francisca Xaveria Cabrini", included among 39 saints who founded religious congregations

St. Cabrini Home, West Park, New York, was Cabrini's early orphanage, headquarters, and burial place. The Cabrini Museum and Spirituality Center occupies her original convent in Codogno, Italy. Cabrini University was named after her. RSA Santa Francesca Cabrini is an assisted living facility in Codogno. The Cabrini Mission Foundation, founded in 1998, is a non profit organization that raises funds to support worldwide Cabrini programs and institutions focused on health care, education, and social services. The Cabrini Sisters operate Cabrini Eldercare, a pair of non profit residential facilities in Manhattan and Dobbs Ferry, New York. Cabrini was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Cabrini was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2022. Colorado replaced its Columbus Day state holiday with Cabrini Day starting in 2020. Milan Central railway station was dedicated to Cabrini in 2010. Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing project, built 1942–1962, was named in honor of her work with Italian immigrants in the location. It has since been mostly torn down. Cabrini Boulevard and "Cabrini Woods Nature Sanctuary" are adjacent to the Cabrini shrine in Manhattan, New York. In a 2019 New York City survey, Cabrini was "the leading vote getter by far" among more than 300 nominees for the "She Built NYC" municipal statue program. Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray nevertheless declined a Cabrini statue and were widely criticized, until Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped in to commission one with state funds. On Columbus Day 2020, Cabrini's public memorial was unveiled in Manhattan's Battery Park City, looking out at the immigration landmarks of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Mother Cabrini Park in Newark, New Jersey, includes a 1958 statue of the saint on the former site of one of her schools. Mother Cabrini Park was created in Brooklyn, New York, in 1992, one hundred years after she established a school on the site. A 2012 mural on the side of Arriana Condominium in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, honors Cabrini and the local Italian community. Pope Francis's religious vocation was partly inspired by Cabrini's ministry to his family's Italian immigrant community in Argentina.

Maynard, Theodore. Too Small a World: The Life of Mother Frances Cabrini. Foreword by Timothy Cardinal Dolan. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2024 [original: 1945]. De Donato, Pietro. Immigrant Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini. New York: McGraw Hill, 1960. De Maria, Mother Saverio. Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. Translated by Rose Basile Green. Chicago: Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1984. Travels of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini: Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Edited by Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Chicago: Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1984.

Gregory, Nicole. God's Messenger: The Astounding Achievements of Mother Frances X. Cabrini: A Novel. Washington, D. C.: Barbera Foundation, 2018.

Keyes, Frances Parkinson. Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World. Vision Books. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997. Andes, Mary Lou and Victoria Dority. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini: Cecchina's Dream. Illustrated by Barbara Kiwak. Boston: Pauline Books, 2005.