Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Shortly before the start of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” He was discussing an idea of great importance to the founding generation: that free people needed to be good, moral, and virtuous citizens to sustain a free country. Other influential Founding Fathers, including John Adams, Samuel Adams, James Madison, and , made similar public comments emphasizing this idea.
When George Washington left office after two terms as the first president of the United States under the Constitution, he published his famous “farewell address” to the nation in 1796. In it, he articulated many principles, including the importance of religion in American life. He stated, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” He goes on to say, “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.”
When the Founding Fathers discussed religion and morality, to what value system were they referring to? While the Founding Fathers read many 18th-century writers for guidance on liberty and government, such as John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu, they turned to the most-read book of 18th-century America for guidance on virtue and morality: the Bible. The founding generation read and quoted the Bible regularly. In fact, they quoted from the Bible more than from any other writing.
It is the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, that have become the basis for what is commonly referred to as the Judeo-Christian value system. While there could be a much longer list of how to identify Judeo-Christian values, here are some of its most important aspects: It starts with the idea that all of us are created in the image of God, that God is the source of our rights, that there are objective standards of right and wrong for which each of us is responsible, several of which that are expressed in the Ten Commandments, that every human life has value, and includes the Christian “Golden Rule” of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” These are the values of both the United States and Western Civilization as a whole.
The United States and its people are not immune to our flawed nature as human beings or to historical wrongs that have plagued every society, but adherence to these values has made the United States a predominantly good country, with predominantly good people. Most Americans can think of someone they know who lives a good life in the service of others. These individuals treat everyone they encounter throughout their day, whether friend or stranger, with dignity and kindness. The majority of these individuals do good acts quietly, without any desire for recognition.
Sometimes, there are those whose efforts to help those around them require increased public acknowledgment. One of these individuals is Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who became a United States citizen. Her incredible efforts to care for those around her, through the establishment of religious-based institutions, led her to become the first United States citizen to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Maria Francesca Cabrini was the youngest of thirteen children, born in Lombardy, Italy, in 1850. Her parents were of humble origins and instilled religious values in their daughter. Young Maria Francesca was raised hearing stories of Catholic missionaries, especially of Francis Xavier, a sixteenth-century saint who was a missionary throughout Asia, particularly in Japan and India. This seemed to motivate Maria Francesca to seek a similar path. From an early age, Maria Francesca sought to become a missionary herself. This appeared unlikely, as she struggled with poor health throughout her childhood, including surviving a near-drowning that led to a lifelong struggle with lung issues.
At 13, Maria Francesca attended a school run by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an order of nuns. When she graduated at 18 with a teaching certificate, she sought to join the Daughters but was turned down because of her ill health. Instead, she was asked by a local bishop to become headmistress of an orphanage in Codogno, Italy. In 1877, she took religious vows, and in 1880, she founded her own order of nuns, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. At this time, Maria Francesca took the name Frances Xavier, in honor of the Catholic missionary she so admired. As the Reverend Mother of the new order of nuns, Francis Xavier became known as Mother Cabrini, the name most associated with her today.
Mother Cabrini’s biggest desire was to become a missionary in China. To do this, she needed the blessing of Pope Leo XIII in Rome. When she gained an audience with Pope Leo, another Italian, a mass migration of Italians to the United States was taking place. The assimilation of Italians within the United States was not going well. Language barriers, a lack of education, and prejudice were contributing to difficult living conditions for many Italian immigrants, who often lived together in close quarters where sickness and disease were prevalent. The Italian immigrants in the United States needed help. Pope Leo told Mother Cabrini, “No, not to the East but to the West,” or not to China but to America. Always faithful, Mother Cabrini complied. The United States would be the beneficiary of the Pope’s decision.
In 1889, Mother Cabrini and six of her Sisters made the difficult sea voyage from Italy to New York. Her time in the United States began with immediate challenges. The group of nuns had nowhere to stay. They found lodging where they could in a poor, crime-ridden area in Lower Manhattan called Five Points. It was here that the Mother Cabrini story really begins. The area was full of people, mostly immigrants, who were struggling to survive, including young children sent to the United States without their parents. Mother Cabrini never wavered in her commitment to help the people she encountered. Her first order of business was setting up an orphanage for the many children wandering the streets alone. She then turned her attention to educating these children through religious education with an emphasis on learning English, a language Mother Cabrini had to learn herself. In late nineteenth-century New York, access to hospitals and medical care was challenging, especially for immigrants. Mother Cabrini worked to build new hospitals.
To accomplish all of this, Mother Cabrini needed funding. She clashed with the local Catholic bishop over funding for these projects but eventually persuaded the Catholic Church to contribute. For her first hospital in New York, the Italian government provided some funds. She and her nuns would ask people on the street for money, and Mother Cabrini would solicit contributions from more established, financially secure immigrants to help finance the work. In time, Americans from all backgrounds contributed.
In 1890, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart purchased a property in West Park, New York, located on the Hudson River, for an orphanage. The property was discounted because the owners did not believe there was an underground water supply. Mother Cabrini and the Sisters went to work with shovels in hand to search for a water supply for the property. After countless hours of hard work, they found the water they had been searching for. The orphanage helped countless numbers of children as a result.
Mother Cabrini did not stop her work in New York. She possessed a spirit and drive that was matched by few. She and her order of nuns went on to found orphanages, schools, and hospitals across the United States, in Central and South America, and in Europe. American cities that benefited from her work include Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, Newark, Scranton, New Orleans, and Denver. She often named hospitals after Christopher Columbus because she believed this would give Italian immigrants the reassurance that they could trust the hospital. While the Italian community was initially the focus of her work, her ministry grew to include every immigrant group and American-born citizens. Everyone who needed help was welcomed. In all, 67 orphanages, schools, and hospitals worldwide were started by Mother Cabrini and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. These institutions have helped tens of thousands to this day, including a relative of this writer.
The Mother Cabrini shrine in Golden, Colorado, about 30 minutes outside of Denver, is just one of the many places impacted by Mother Cabrini’s life mission. Here, she built an orphanage and girls’ summer camp for the families of immigrant miners of the area, many of whose fathers died doing this dangerous work. The Colorado legislature made Cabrini Day a state holiday in 2020. Other Mother Cabrini shrines exist in Chicago and New York City.
Mother Cabrini grew to love her new country and its people. In 1909, she became a United States citizen. Her travels took her to every corner of the United States and to other continents to provide help to those who needed it. It is believed that, on one of her trips overseas, she was scheduled to be a passenger on the ill-fated ocean liner Titanic. However, fate spared her, and she took another ship to the United States instead. How a woman with various health challenges managed to keep such a rigorous schedule at a time when travel mostly consisted of trains and ships is remarkable. She seemed to have boundless energy. For her part, Mother Cabrini said, “For the soul busy with a thousand concerns; restore your strength, find new energy, pray and be strong in faith.”
Mother Cabrini died on December 22, 1917, at one of the hospitals she helped start, Columbus Hospital in Chicago. Her story and contributions did not end there. After her death, it became a custom for hospital workers to place sick newborns in her bed for her intercession.
Father Peter Smith as a boy. As a one-day-old, a medical mistake should have cost him his vision and given him lifetime scarring. Many believe that Mother Cabrini’s intercession restored Peter Smith’s sight.
In 1921, a little over three years after Mother Cabrini’s death, Peter Smith was born at Columbus Hospital in New York City. A mere two hours after his birth, a nurse put eye drops into the newborn infant as was prescribed by law at the time. The drops contained 1 percent silver nitrate, or so the nurse thought. Peter’s eyes and face began to swell rapidly. Something was terribly wrong. To her horror, the nurse discovered she had given Peter 50 percent silver nitrate designed to be used against tumors at the time, and an amount strong enough to bore a hole through a piece of wood. At a minimum, the nurse’s mistake should have made Peter blind and disfigured. The doctor who was called to the scene reportedly said, “Nothing short of a miracle can help this kid.” All the doctors could do was apply cold compresses to Peter’s eyes.
Columbus Hospital was founded by Mother Cabrini. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart heard about Peter’s plight and spent the night praying in the hospital chapel, asking their foundress, Mother Cabrini, to help Peter. The following morning, the miracle everyone at the hospital was hoping for occurred. Peter’s eyelids were much less swollen, and his eyes appeared as they should. His sight was restored. His skin was healed. There was no medical explanation for Peter’s sudden turnaround.
However, Peter developed another serious problem – pneumonia. He developed a temperature of 107 at a time before antibiotics were available. Again, the Sisters turned to prayer. Again, Peter recovered quickly without explanation.
Peter Smith grew up to become Father Peter Smith, a Catholic priest. Until his death in 2002, Father Peter often spoke of Mother Cabrini and said about the harrowing events of the first few days after his birth, “Show the age of miracles has not passed.”
In an expedited process, the Catholic Church canonized Frances Xavier Cabrini as a saint in 1946. Pope Pius XII said of Mother Cabrini, “Although her constitution was very frail, her spirit was endowed with such a singular strength that, knowing the will of God in her regard, she permitted nothing to impede her from accomplishing what seemed to be beyond the strength of a woman.” In 1950, Mother Cabrini was named the patron saint of immigrants. Her extraordinary life still benefits us today.
Most American readers have either been treated at or know someone who has been treated at a Catholic hospital, a Protestant hospital, a Jewish hospital, or another religiously affiliated hospital. Religious schools and numerous religious charities have made the United States a much better country, positively impacting the lives of millions of people. Americans of all economic means remain the biggest givers to charity, not just at home, but worldwide, of any people on Earth.
Mother Cabrini is not solely responsible for this, but she certainly played an oversized role in starting religious-based American institutions that have helped countless people. Whatever an individual American’s beliefs are, this sort of society benefits us all. One in which an individual helps another, a stranger, without giving it a thought.
It is difficult to live up to the example set by Mother Cabrini, but the anonymous American majority tries to live out America’s Judeo-Christian values and treat all people as well as they can. This is not the case in many other countries and certainly is not the historical norm.
After 250 years, America’s Founding Fathers would be proud. As they hoped, freedom remains supported by largely virtuous and moral people. This must endure, or the United States and the world will be a far worse place to live.
Please Read:
Recommended Reading:
Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers by Daniel L. Dreisbach
Recommended Viewing:
Cabrini on Amazon (2024) – Although based on Mother Cabrini’s story, some characters and events were fictionalized.