St. Frances Cabrini

Frances Xavier Cabrini was born on July 15, 1850 in Lombardy, Italy, the thirteenth child of a farmer. She trained to be teacher, but after her parents died she felt drawn to religious life. She was at first refused entrance to an order because of her poor health. She taught girls at the House of Providence Orphanage for six years and so impressed her bishop that he asked her to establish the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for the poor in hospitals and schools. At the order of Pope Leo XIII, she and six sisters went to New York in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants. Mother Cabrini founded 67 institutions in the United States, South America, and Europe: hospitals, schools, convents, and orphanages. She became a U.S. citizen during her years serving people in the States. Frances Cabrini died of malaria on December 22, 1917. She was canonized in 1946. She is the patron of immigrants, malaria sufferers, hospital administrators, and orphans. Her feast day is December 22.