Sainte Françoise-Xavier Cabrini
Fondatrice des Soeurs Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur
(1850-1917)
Né à Santangelo, près de Lodi, en Lombardie, treizième enfant d'une famille de cultivateurs, la petite Marie-Françoise, de santé si frêle, ne semblait guère vouée à traverser trente fois l'océan et à établir des fondations qui essaimeraient jusqu'en Australie et en Chine.
Françoise Cabrini embrassa la profession d'institutrice. Plusieurs tentatives pour se faire religieuse échouèrent à cause de sa santé précaire. Elle désirait aussi ardemment devenir missionnaire. Le curé de Codogno qui connaissait sa force d'âme, la fit venir à l'âge de vingt-quatre ans dans la Maison de la Providence pour remettre de l'ordre dans ce couvent où quelques orphelines recevaient leur formation. Un jour, l'évêque de Lodi dit à Françoise: «Je sais que vous voulez être missionnaire. Je ne connais pas d'institution qui réponde à votre désir. Fondez-en une!» Soeur Cabrini réfléchit un instant et répondit fermement: «Je chercherai une maison.» Elle posa à Codogno les bases de l'Institut des Soeurs Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur. La prière était l'âme de leur action; l'oraison remplissait quatre heures du jour, une cinquième s'ajoutait pour la fondatrice qui se levait une heure plus tôt que ses soeurs.
En sept ans, Mère Cabrini accomplit l'objectif désiré: l'établissement de sa congrégation à Rome et son approbation par le souverain pontife Léon XIII. De Rome, son institut s'étendit rapidement. La Sainte croyait que la Chine l'appelait, mais le pape lui demanda d'envoyer ses soeurs en Amérique pour aider les cinquante mille émigrés italiens qui attendaient un support matériel, spirituel et moral. Le Saint-Père lui dit: «Non pas l'est, mais l'ouest. Allez aux Etats-Unis où vous trouverez un large champ d'apostolat.» En effet, sans racines et sans foyer, les émigrés dépérissaient sur le plan religieux et social.
Sainte Françoise Cabrini arriva en Amérique le 31 mars 1889. Sa communauté prit bientôt un développement extraordinaire: hôpitaux, écoles, orphelinats surgirent à New-York, Brooklyn, Scranton, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, Seattle et Californie. Elle fonda une école supérieure féminine à Buenos-Aires. Cette vaillante ouvrière de l'Évangile se dépensa aussi en Amérique centrale et en Amérique du Sud. Au retour de ses voyages en Europe, Mère Cabrini ramenait des milliers de soeurs pour ses hôpitaux, ses écoles et ses orphelinats.
«Travaillons, travaillons, disait-elle toujours à ses Filles, car nous avons une éternité pour nous reposer. Travaillons simplement et bien, et le Seigneur est Celui qui fera tout.» Elle établit soixante-sept maisons en huit pays. Humble devant la prospérité de son oeuvre, elle répondait aux témoignages d'admiration: «Est-ce nous qui faisons cela ou bien est-ce Notre-Seigneur?» Son inébranlable confiance dans le Coeur de Jésus fut largement récompensée.
Celle qui s'était souvent écrié: «Ou aimer ou mourir!» fit de sa mort un acte de pur amour de Dieu. Elle expira le 22 décembre 1917, à Chicago, dans l'état d'Illinois. Son corps fut transporté à New-York, dans la chapelle de l'école qui porte son nom. C'est là que ses restes sont encore vénérés. Le 7 juillet 1946, le pape Pie XII a canonisé cette dévouée servante du Christ dans Ses membres souffrants et abandonnés. Il l'a aussi constituée la patronne céleste de tous les imigrants.
Résumé O.D.M.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Saint Stephen, Martyr
Roman Catholic Church, Chesapeake, Virginia
Françoise-Xavière Cabrini était la treizième enfant d'une famille aisée de la banlieue milanaise. Elle rêvait, comme beaucoup à l'époque, de la Chine. Elle voulait y être missionnaire. Mais en attendant, il lui fallait gagner sa vie. Elle se fit institutrice, mais elle n'oubliait pas l'Extrême-Orient. Elle se présenta dans plusieurs congrégations religieuses féminines qui toutes lui répondent : "Postulante de santé trop fragile." Alors, elle passe outre et fonde une congrégation : "Les Soeurs missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur". La Chine pense-t-elle se profile à l'horizon. Les voies de Dieu sont autres. Le Pape Léon XIII lui demande d'accompagner les émigrants italiens qui traversent l'Atlantique, misérables, déracinés, abandonnés, pauvres. Elle part avec eux. Pour eux, elle fonde des écoles et des hôpitaux. La Providence aplanit les difficultés. "La mère des émigrants" meurt d'épuisement à 67 ans. Sainte-Françoise-Xavier Cabrini est la patronne des émigrants, des orphelins et des administrateurs d’orphelinats.
Autre biographie:
Née à Santangelo, près de Lodi, en Lombardie, treizième enfant d'une famille de cultivateurs, la petite Marie-Françoise, de santé si frêle, ne semblait guère vouée à traverser trente fois l'océan et à établir des fondations qui essaimeraient jusqu'en Australie et en Chine.
Françoise Cabrini embrassa la profession d'institutrice. Plusieurs tentatives pour se faire religieuse échouèrent à cause de sa santé précaire. Elle désirait aussi ardemment devenir missionnaire. Le curé de Codogno qui connaissait sa force d'âme, la fit venir à l'âge de vingt-quatre ans dans la Maison de la Providence pour remettre de l'ordre dans ce couvent où quelques orphelines recevaient leur formation. Un jour, l'évêque de Lodi dit à Françoise : «Je sais que vous voulez être missionnaire. Je ne connais pas d'institution qui réponde à votre désir. Fondez-en une!» Soeur Cabrini réfléchit un instant et répondit fermement : «Je chercherai une maison.» Elle posa à Codogno les bases de l'Institut des Soeurs Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur. La prière était l'âme de leur action; l'oraison remplissait quatre heures du jour, une cinquième s'ajoutait pour la fondatrice qui se levait une heure plus tôt que ses soeurs.
En sept ans, Mère Cabrini accomplit l'objectif désiré: l'établissement de sa congrégation à Rome et son approbation par le souverain pontife Léon XIII. De Rome, son institut s'étendit rapidement. La Sainte croyait que la Chine l'appelait, mais le pape lui demanda d'envoyer ses soeurs en Amérique pour aider les cinquante mille émigrés italiens qui attendaient un support matériel, spirituel et moral. Le Saint-Père lui dit : «Non pas l'est, mais l'ouest. Allez aux Etats-Unis où vous trouverez un large champ d'apostolat.» En effet, sans racines et sans foyer, les émigrés dépérissaient sur le plan religieux et social.
Sainte Françoise Cabrini arriva en Amérique le 31 mars 1889. Sa communauté prit bientôt un développement extraordinaire: hôpitaux, écoles, orphelinats surgirent à New-York, Brooklyn, Scranton, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, Seattle et Californie. Elle fonda une école supérieure féminine à Buenos-Aires. Cette vaillante ouvrière de l'Évangile se dépensa aussi en Amérique centrale et en Amérique du Sud. Au retour de ses voyages en Europe, Mère Cabrini ramenait des milliers de soeurs pour ses hôpitaux, ses écoles et ses orphelinats.
« Travaillons, travaillons, disait-elle toujours à ses Filles, car nous avons une éternité pour nous reposer. Travaillons simplement et bien, et le Seigneur est Celui qui fera tout.» Elle établit soixante-sept maisons en huit pays. Humble devant la prospérité de son oeuvre, elle répondait aux témoignages d'admiration : «Est-ce nous qui faisons cela ou bien est-ce Notre-Seigneur ?» Son inébranlable confiance dans le Cœur de Jésus fut largement récompensée. Celle qui s'était souvent écrié : «Ou aimer ou mourir !» fit de sa mort un acte de pur amour de Dieu. Elle expira le 22 décembre 1917, à Chicago, dans l'état d'Illinois. Son corps fut transporté à New-York, dans la chapelle de l'école qui porte son nom. C'est là que ses restes sont encore vénérés. Le 7 juillet 1946, le pape Pie XII a canonisé cette dévouée servante du Christ dans Ses membres souffrants et abandonnés. Il l'a aussi constituée la patronne céleste de tous les immigrants.
Sainte Françoise-Xavière Cabrini
Missionnaire italienne aux USA (+1917)
Françoise-Xavière Cabrini était la treizième enfant
d'une famille aisée de la banlieue milanaise. Elle rêvait, comme beaucoup
à l'époque, de la Chine. Elle voulait y être missionnaire. Mais en attendant,
il lui fallait gagner sa vie. Elle se fit institutrice, mais elle n'oubliait
pas l'Extrême-Orient. Elle se présenta dans plusieurs congrégations religieuses
féminines qui toutes lui répondent: "Postulante de santé trop
fragile." Alors, elle passe outre et fonde une congrégation: "Les
Sœurs missionnaires du Sacré-Cœur" (site en plusieurs langues).
La Chine, pense-t-elle, se profile à l'horizon. Les voies de Dieu sont autres.
Le Pape Léon XIII lui demande d'accompagner les émigrants italiens qui
traversent l'Atlantique, misérables, déracinés, abandonnés, pauvres. Elle part
avec eux. Pour eux, elle fonde des écoles et des hôpitaux. La Providence
aplanit les difficultés. "La mère des émigrants" meurt d'épuisement à
67 ans.
Elle a été béatifiée le 13 novembre 1938 par Pie XI et canonisée (première
sainte des États Unis) le 7 juillet 1946 à Rome par Pie XII qui l'a déclarée
sainte patronne des émigrés.
À Chicago dans l’Illinois, aux États-Unis d’Amérique, en 1917, sainte
Françoise-Xavière Cabrini, vierge, qui fonda l’Institut des Sœurs missionnaires
du Sacré-Cœur et dépensa toutes ses forces avec une immense charité au soin des
migrants.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/297/Sainte-Francoise-Xaviere-Cabrini.html
Sainte Françoise-Xavier Cabrini
(1850-1917)
Vierge et fondatrice :
« Missionnaires du Sacré-Cœur »
Née et
baptisée le 15 juillet 1850 à Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, en Lombardie, treizième
enfant d'une famille de cultivateurs, la petite Marie-Françoise, de santé si
frêle, ne semblait guère vouée à traverser trente fois l'océan et à établir des
fondations qui essaimeraient jusqu'en Australie et en Chine.
Françoise
Cabrini embrassa la profession d'institutrice. Plusieurs tentatives pour se
faire religieuse échouèrent à cause de sa santé précaire ; elle désirait aussi
ardemment devenir missionnaire. Le curé de Codogno, qui connaissait sa force
d'âme, la fit venir à l'âge de vingt-quatre ans dans la Maison de la Providence pour remettre de l'ordre dans ce couvent où
quelques orphelines recevaient leur formation.
Un jour,
l'évêque de Lodi dit à Françoise : « Je
sais que vous voulez être missionnaire. Je ne connais pas d'institution qui
réponde à votre désir. Fondez-en une ! » Sœur Cabrini réfléchit un instant
et répondit fermement : « Je chercherai
une maison. » Elle posa à Codogno les bases de l'Institut des Sœurs Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur. La
prière était l'âme de leur action ; l'oraison remplissait quatre heures du
jour, une cinquième s'ajoutait pour la fondatrice qui se levait une heure plus
tôt que ses sœurs.
En sept
ans, Mère Cabrini accomplit l'objectif désiré : l'établissement de sa
congrégation à Rome et son approbation par le Pp Léon XIII (Vincenzo Gioacchino
Pecci, 1878-1903).
De Rome,
son institut s'étendit rapidement. La Françoise-Xavier croyait que la Chine
l'appelait, mais le pape lui demanda d'envoyer ses sœurs en Amérique pour aider
les cinquante mille émigrés italiens qui attendaient un support matériel,
spirituel et moral. Le Saint-Père lui dit : « Non pas l'est, mais l'ouest. Allez aux États-Unis où vous trouverez un
large champ d'apostolat. » En effet, sans racines et sans foyer, les émigrés
dépérissaient sur le plan religieux et social.
Francesca
Saverio Cabrini arriva en Amérique le 31 mars 1889. Sa communauté prit bientôt
un développement extraordinaire : hôpitaux, écoles, orphelinats surgirent à
New-York, Brooklyn, Scranton, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Chicago,
Denver, Seattle et Californie.
Elle
fonda une école supérieure féminine à Buenos-Aires. Cette vaillante ouvrière de
l'Évangile se dépensa aussi en Amérique centrale et en Amérique du Sud. Au
retour de ses voyages en Europe, Mère Cabrini ramenait des milliers de sœurs
pour ses hôpitaux, ses écoles et ses orphelinats.
« Travaillons, travaillons, disait-elle
toujours à ses Filles, car nous avons une éternité pour nous reposer.
Travaillons simplement et bien, et le Seigneur est Celui qui fera tout. »
Elle établit soixante-sept maisons en huit pays. Humble devant la prospérité de
son œuvre, elle répondait aux témoignages d'admiration : « Est-ce nous qui faisons cela ou bien est-ce Notre-Seigneur ? » Son
inébranlable confiance dans le Cœur de Jésus fut largement récompensée.
Celle qui
s'était souvent écrié : « Ou aimer ou
mourir ! » fit de sa mort un acte de pur amour de Dieu. Elle expira le 22
décembre 1917, à Chicago, dans l'état d'Illinois. Son corps fut transporté à
New-York, dans la chapelle de l'école qui porte son nom. C'est là que ses
restes sont encore vénérés.
Francesca Saverio Cabrini a été
béatifié, en 1938, par le
Pp Pie XI (Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, 1922-1939) et
canonisée le 7 juillet 1946 par le Vénérable Pie XII (Eugenio
Pacelli, 1939-1958) qui l'a aussi constituée la Patronne céleste de tous les immigrants.
©Evangelizo.org
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
SOURCE :
http://levangileauquotidien.org/main.php?language=FR&module=saintfeast&localdate=20141222&id=575&fd=0
Mère Cabrini, sainte et missionnaire contre toute
attente
Aliénor Goudet - Publié le 20/12/20
Françoise-Xavière Cabrini (1850-1917), née en
Lombardie, sait depuis son plus jeune âge qu’elle veut être missionnaire. Mais
à cause de sa santé fragile et son apparence chétive, elle rencontre de
nombreux obstacles à sa mission. C'est sans compter sur la détermination de la
future sainte et des clins d'œil que lui accorde le Christ. Ceux-ci la mèneront
bien plus loin que quiconque ne l'imagine.
Rome, 1878. Un silence pesant règne dans l’un des
somptueux bureaux du Vatican. Depuis sa chaise, le cardinal Parocchi observe la
petite religieuse qui se tient devant lui. Mère Françoise-Xavière Cabrini se
tient droite, son regard à la fois doux et aussi perçant que celui d’un aigle.
Mais malgré ce visage si sûr et plein d’anticipation, le cardinal ne semble pas
convaincu. Non qu’il ait trouvé défaut à la présentation de mère Cabrini, ou
que l’idée d’évangéliser la Chine et autres contrées de l’est ne lui déplaise,
mais c’est une mission de grande taille, qui demande une force et un courage
que peu de missionnaires possèdent.
Le cardinal Parocchi ne peut s’empêcher de remarquer
l’effrayante maigreur de la religieuse. Malgré son impeccable posture, elle est
si petite et son visage, si pâle. La pauvre s’effondrerait si elle portait plus
que son voile. Comment confier à quelqu’un de si fragile une tâche aussi lourde
? Au risque de paraître cruel, mieux vaut ne pas lui donner de faux espoirs.
– Je pense qu’il vaut mieux remporter votre rêve avec
vous à Codogno, dit-il sèchement, refermant le dossier sur sa table.
À sa grande surprise, le sourire de mère Cabrini
s’élargit. Ah, si seulement il savait la raison derrière se sourire ! S’il
savait combien d’obstacles la chétive religieuse a déjà traversés !
Depuis son enfance, mère Cabrini sait que Dieu
l’appelle à la mission. Mais à cause de sa santé fragile et de son frêle
gabarit, toutes les communautés lui avaient fermé leurs portes. Trop fragile,
trop malade, trop faible, lui disait-on à chaque fois, et elle rentrait en
larme se réfugier dans la prière. Mais comme chaque fois qu’un sentiment de
défaite l’envahissait, le Christ la consolait et l’appelait de nouveau.
Lire aussi :
Sainte Françoise-Xavière Cabrini, la patronne des émigrés si
chère au Pape
Même une fois ses vœux prononcés, elle avait dû faire
face à son plus grand échec. L’évêque de Codogno, monseigneur Gelmini, séduit
par la foi et la droiture de la jeune sœur Françoise-Xavière, l’avait nommée
supérieure de la Maison de la Providence. Mais révoltées par cette décision,
les deux autres sœurs plus âgées de la petite communauté avaient refusé
d’obéir. Cette histoire avait fini par l’excommunication des deux insoumises et
à la dissolution de la Maison.
Est-ce un ordre ou une suggestion, votre éminence ?
Encore à ce jour, c’est un souvenir amer pour mère
Cabrini. Mais comme d’habitude, le Christ était venu lui murmurer des mots
réconfortants à l’oreille et lui redonner courage. Depuis, elle avait établi
l’ordre des sœurs missionnaires du Sacré-Cœur, ouvert de nombreuses écoles et
orphelinats ainsi que quelques couvents en Lombardie. Et la voici face à un
nouvel obstacle. La frustration est bien présente, mais elle ne laisse rien
paraître. Le combat n’est jamais perdu avec le Seigneur à ses côtés.
Tout cela, le cardinal Parocchi l’ignore. Mais un
frisson le parcourt lorsqu’enfin, la petite religieuse lui demande ceci.
– Est-ce un ordre ou une suggestion, votre éminence ?
Il n’y a rien de logique ou de quantifiable à cette
impression presque menaçante. C’est comme si un géant invisible se tenait
derrière mère Cabrini. Un géant qui jamais ne la laisserait tomber. Et le
cardinal peut presque voir l’audace se dégager d’elle.
– Une suggestion, répond-il après un long silence.
L’audace de mère Cabrini la conduira bien plus loin
que ne l’imagine le cardinal. Un mois plus tard, c’est le pape Léon XIII qui
l’envoie elle et ses sœurs aux Etats-Unis afin d’assister et redonner espoir
aux migrants des communautés italiennes. Aussitôt arrivée, l’archevêque de New
York veut la renvoyer, l’estimant lui aussi trop fragile. Elle refuse.
L’œuvre des sœurs missionnaires devient rapidement
indispensable pour les immigrants italiens. Elles se font infirmières,
enseignantes et guides spirituels. Mère Cabrini ouvre de nouvelles écoles, des
orphelinats, et même des hôpitaux, dont l’un est le fameux hôpital de Colomb.
Son œuvre permet de raviver la foi auprès de ses patients et elle mendie même
pour les plus pauvres.
Lire aussi :
New York met à l’honneur la patronne des migrants
Mais New York n’est qu’une ville. C’est le monde que
veut conquérir mère Cabrini avec l’amour du Christ. Il y a tant à faire en si
peu de temps…
Si mère Cabrini ne se rendra jamais en Chine avant de
s’éteindre le 22 décembre 1917 à Chicago, son œuvre ne passera pas inaperçue.
Elle sera canonisée par Pie XII le 13 novembre 1946. Sainte Françoise-Xavière
Cabrini est la sainte patronne des immigrants, des hôpitaux et de
l’administration.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2020/12/20/mere-cabrini-sainte-et-missionnaire-contre-toute-attente/?utm_campaign=Web_Notifications&utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=notifications Cristiana dell’Anna va incarner sœur Cabrini au cinéma
Louise Alméras - Publié le 24/06/21
Le tournage d'un film sur la vie incroyable de sainte
Françoise-Xavière Cabrini, surnommée la mère des émigrés, va débuter dans
quelques jours. Alejandro Monteverde est à la réalisation tandis que Cristiana
dell’Anna tient le premier rôle.
Après avoir fondé la congrégation des Sœurs
missionnaires du Sacré-Cœur aux États-Unis, sœur Françoise-Xavière Cabrini
(1850-1917) a fondé de nombreux hôpitaux, dispensaires, orphelinats,
congrégations et écoles dans le pays. Sa vie est digne d’un roman sinon d’un
film. Ce qui n’a pas échappé à Hollywood qui s’est lancé dans cette ambitieuse
entreprise. Jugez plutôt. Le producteur du film n’est autre que Jonathan
Sanger, qui a produit Vanilla Sky et Elephant Man, ce qui promet
une direction expérimentée. Le choix du réalisateur s’est porté, quant à lui,
sur le mexicain Alejandro Monteverde (Bella, Little Boy) dont le talent
pour révéler la dimension humaine des personnages n’est plus à prouver. Enfin,
pour incarner sainte Françoise-Xavière, la production a misé sur l’actrice
italienne Cristiana dell’Anna qui s’est illustrée dans la série Gomorra.
Une femme forte, véritable modèle pour notre
génération
Le tournage du film Cabrini doit débuter ce
28 juin aux États-Unis pour une durée de dix semaines, dont deux semaines à
Rome. En comptant la postproduction, le film pourrait sortir à l’automne. Il
pourrait donc sortir dans les salles françaises en 2022. Si les
catholiques connaissent cette religieuse américaine ce n’est pas à sa célébrité
que l’on doit ce film mais bien à sa hardiesse exemplaire. Tout commence en
2015 quand sœur Marie-Louise Sullivan, de l’Ordre des Sœurs missionnaires du
Sacré-Coeur, demande à l’homme d’affaires Eustace Wolfington de
participer à la réalisation d’un film sur la fondatrice de son Ordre. Il refuse
catégoriquement avant de se laisser convaincre : « Sa persévérance a
épuisé ma résistance », avoue-t-il. Il accepte donc mais à condition que
le film soit axé, avant tout, sur l’idée d’une grande femme qui se trouve être
religieuse afin que le film inspire et présente un modèle à imiter pour les
générations actuelles et futures.
Bien vu. Car quand il prend connaissance de son
parcours incroyable, Eustace Wolfington est admiratif : « En fait,
Françoise-Xavière est l’une des plus grandes femmes de l’histoire américaine,
sinon la plus grande ! C’est l’une des nôtres. » À elle seule, et grâce à
toutes les congrégations qu’elle a créées, elle a réussi à surpasser les
entreprises d’aides caritatives de son époque. Même des Rockfeller ! « Le
monde est trop petit pour ce que j’ai l’intention de faire »,
s’amusait-elle à dire.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2021/06/24/cristiana-dellanna-va-incarner-soeur-cabrini-au-cinema/?utm_campaign=Web_Notifications&utm_medium=notifications&utm_source=onesignal
St. John Bosco, St John Neumann ; St. Elizabeth Ann
Seton, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Two of the stained glass windows in the
Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine in Freehold, New Jersey.
St. FRANCES CABRINI
Influences in her early life
Frances Cabrini was born in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano in the province of Lombardy, northern Italy, two months prematurely, on July l5, 1850. Her father, Agostino, was a farmer and her mother, Stella, stayed at home with the children. Frances was the tenth of eleven brothers and sisters, only four of whom survived beyond adolescence. Small and weak as a child, these characteristics influenced her entire life.
Her Spirituality
Her parents’ strong faith was transmitted to her by word and example. Her father would read to the family from the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, telling stories of the great missionaries. The stories of the missions in China made a particularly strong impression on Frances and at an early age, she desired to travel there as a missionary.
At the time of her youth, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was at its peak and provided a spiritual foundation to the work of the missions.
When she was old enough she applied for, but was refused, admission to several religious orders because of her frail health.
In 1863, Frances registered as a boarding student at the Normal School in Arluno, some distance from Sant’ Angelo. Her purpose was to graduate as a school teacher. The school at Arluno was run by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart who prepared and educated future teachers. Frances lived there for almost five years until 1868, the year she graduated. According to the custom of the time, boarding students lived in the convent with the religious sisters. For Frances, this was like a dream come true: for all practical purposes she was living as a religious among religious. Moreover, she shared the Christian life of a convent where the Sacred Heart was the center of devotion.
Upon completing her coursework, she petitioned to join the Daughters of the Sacred Heart. Although Mother Giovanna Francesca Grassi saw in Frances a chosen soul full of virtue, she decided not to accept her fearing that her poor health would not permit her to endure the rigors of religious life. Nonetheless, perhaps to soften the blow, or perhaps out of intuition, Mother Grassi encouraged her saying “You are called to establish another Institute that will bring new glory to the Heart of Jesus.” Her words were prophetic indeed.
In 1868, Frances received her teacher’s diploma and returned to Sant’Angelo where she taught in the private school established by her sister, Rosa, and dedicated herself to works of charity and to serving the poor. In 1871, at the request of her pastor, when a substitute teacher was needed immediately, she moved to the nearby village of Vidardo to teach in the public school.
A Crucial Move
In 1874, the diocesan authorities asked Frances to move to Codogno, a larger town further away from home to take over the direction of the House of Providence, a girls' orphanage, being unsuccessfully administered by Antonia Tondini and Maria Calza, in order to organize it with the structure and spirit of a religious institute. In complying with this request, Frances renounced forever the position of public school teacher and entered on a path of consecration to God. Five young women who were teaching at the House of Providence wanted to become religious sisters. She and the five women began their novitiate with Frances Cabrini as their novice mistress.
At the age of 27, in 1877, when she and her companions made their profession of religious vows, Frances added Xavier to her name, in tribute to the Jesuit, Francis Xavier, who evangelized the Orient. The bishop named her superior of the community. In 1880, due to many difficulties, the diocesan authorities recognized that the House of Providence could not be formed into a religious community.
Founding of the Institute
At this same time, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, as she was now known, received a mandate from the bishop to found a new religious institute with the help and support of the young women who had professed their vows with her. In a short time, she found an ancient Franciscan convent in Codogno. This is where the Institute of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was founded on November 14, 1880. It was established as a diocesan congregation in 1881, with a simple Rule written by Mother Cabrini, and approved by the bishop. There were some objections to the term missionaries, which implied a mission abroad. The bishop thought primarily of a service within the diocese, or at most, in the Province of Lombardy. However, Mother Cabrini, the 30 year old foundress, had no intention of restricting the congregation to the boundaries of Lombardy.
In Pursuit of the Goal
She set out for Rome in September, 1887. Her goals were to have a universal missionary Institute with a central house in Rome and pontifical approval of the young Institute. Since the ecclesiastical authorities moved at a slow pace and with caution, it was surprising that on March 12, 1888, the Institute was granted permission to open two missions in the Eternal City. While there, she met the bishop of Piacenza, Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, who had just founded the Missionary Institute of St. Charles to minister to Italians abroad.
The Italian Immigrants in U.S.A.
Italian immigrants faced many hardships in the United States. They worked at the most menial labor and experienced discrimination. Uprooted, without pastoral care, they were as strangers in their own church and the systematic targets of Protestant proselytism. Despite all, the great majority of Italians maintained an eagerness to return again to their Catholic faith and devotions. Seeking the help of religious women, Bishop Scalabrini asked Mother Cabrini to go to New York to work with the Italian immigrants. She hesitated because she planned to go to the Orient to evangelize.
Scalabrini was persistent and showed her a letter from Archbishop Corrigan of New York, formally inviting the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to establish a house there.
Westward!
Mother Cabrini sought an audience with Pope Leo XIII and posed her missionary dilemma to him; his response was: “Not to the East, but to the West.” Exchanging her dreams of going to China for the reality of going to New York, she embarked with six of her Missionary Sisters almost immediately for New York. Upon arrival, she learned that Archbishop Corrigan did not expect her so soon. When they first met, he suggested that she return to Italy. She refused, saying that the Pope had sent her. She and her companions spent the first night in a dingy tenement in the heart of the Italian ghetto. They could not sleep and stayed awake, tired, yet peacefully engaged in prayer. Afterwards, the Sisters of Charity gave them hospitality and guided their first steps through the city.
Beginnings in America
In a new world, another culture, without contacts, not knowing the language, Mother Cabrini set out to establish her mission. She went back to Archbishop Corrigan and gained his support and friendship. He approved the house in which the Countess di Cesnola wanted the new missionaries to live. On Palm Sunday of 1890, an orphanage for Italian children was inaugurated on the property, part of which the missionaries occupied as a convent.
A free school was established in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the poorest Italians lived. The sisters taught catechism in the Italian parish of St. Joachim. All the while, Mother Cabrini with the sisters, constantly traversed the streets of the Italian district, visiting families, trying to help and guide them, and bringing God nearer to them. To support themselves and the orphanage, the sisters had to beg for alms because the help they received from other women’s religious congregations and donations from the wealthy were not enough to support the growing number of orphans. Young women soon offered their help and some asked to join the Institute.
In July, when everything was in order in New York, Mother Cabrini went back to Italy with the first North American postulants for the novitiate in Codogno. She returned to Rome for an audience with Pope Leo XIII, who was fast becoming her good friend.
Continuing the work
At the request of Archbishop Corrigan, Cabrini founded a larger orphanage in West Park, New York, on the banks of the Hudson River. It was an ideal, healthful site for the orphans and for the North American novitiate which opened in 1891. The land was formerly owned by the Jesuits, who sold it at a very low price, because it lacked sufficient water. However, to the surprise of the Jesuits, the ever resourceful Cabrini soon discovered an underground spring on the property to that provided ample water even to this day.
In 1892, at Mother Cabrini’s direction, her Missionary Sisters traveled to New Orleans and quickly established a school and an orphanage in “Little Palermo” an Italian enclave of the French Quarter.
Back in New York, the Italian immigrants needed hospitals. Care of the sick, until this time, was not one of the ministries of the Institute nor was it an inclination of Mother Cabrini to do this type of work.
Archbishop Corrigan begged Mother Cabrini to take on hospital work. However, it wasn’t until Cabrini had a dream where she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary tending to a hospital patient, that she considered working in the healthcare field. In the dream, Cabrini asked the Virgin Mary what she was doing; the Blessed Virgin Mary responded, “I am doing the work you refuse to do.” Mother Cabrini moved quickly to establish a hospital for the Italian sick poor in New York City.. New to this work, the sisters turned out to be excellent healthcare providers and administrators. Mother Cabrini later went on to establish other hospitals in Chicago and Seattle.
Beyond the American shores
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus had been in America only two years. They were hardly well established and yet, Mother Cabrini sought to extend their missions to Latin America. Her objective was Nicaragua and in ensuing years, Argentina, where she opened a school, Colegio Santa Rosa, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
She returned to Europe, and in 1898, she established a students’ residence in Paris and spent time exploring London with the prospect of founding a mission there. In 1899, she initiated a school in Madrid.
Expanding Horizons in the United States
At the turn of the 20th century, Mother Cabrini traveled to Chicago where there was a large Italian colony and established a parish school. From Chicago, she traveled to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the Italian immigrants asked for schools. From Scranton, she proceeded to Newark, New Jersey, where she accepted the task of establishing and running a parish school there.
She looked for solutions which would afford her the means to subsidize free schools. In Dobbs Ferry, New York, on the Hudson River, she founded Sacred Heart Villa a school for daughters of now well-to-do Italian families who paid tuition, monies which in turn were utilized to fund the free schools.
Cabrini headed to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where a needy colony of Italian immigrants worked mostly in the mines under very harsh conditions. Her Sisters staffed a parish school and later, an orphanage.
In 1903, Mother Cabrini traveled seven days by train from Chicago to Seattle where she founded a school and an orphanage for Italian immigrants. She dreamed of establishing missions in Alaska and had she lived longer, this may have come to pass. Her dream of going to China persisted throughout her life. Her works on the western coast of the United States brought her closer to the Far East.
She extended her educational and childcare missions to California where there were settlements of Italian as well as Mexican immigrants. By September 1905, a school and an orphanage had been opened. Later, a preventorium for tubercular children, would be started in the Santa Monica Mountains north of the city.
While in Seattle in 1909, Frances Cabrini fulfilled a long-desired plan and became a citizen of the United States of America. The ensuing years were times of constant movement: New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, Colorado, California, Washington State, Central and South America and Europe.
It was in the spring of 1917 that Mother Cabrini undertook her last mission. Her health was compromised. In spite of this, she traveled to Chicago where the now two hospitals there needed her presence. On December 22 of that year, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini died in her private room at Columbus Hospital as she was preparing Christmas candy for the local children. She was 67 years of age.
Her Legacy
For twenty-eight years of her missionary life, Mother Cabrini traveled regularly across the Atlantic Ocean. A prolific writer, it was during her second voyage, that she began the custom of writing letters to her sisters in the form of a travel diary. These letters are preserved today as valuable biographical documentation.
In conformity with the Heart of Jesus, the Institute she founded has responded compassionately and efficiently to the needs of all, immigrants, as well as the native-born worldwide. Education, pastoral ministry, and religious instruction and outreach to those in need spiritually and materially flourishes on six continents. Responses to the “signs of the times,” to needs as they presented themselves continue.
When Mother Cabrini died December 22, 1917, at the age of 67, 67 missions of the Institute had been established, ministries of healing, teaching, caring, giving and reaching out, in cities of the United States, Italy, France, England, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and Nicaragua.
Reference sources for further information about St. Cabrini :
Andes, Sr. Mary Lou, MSC and Dority, Sr. Victoria, MSC. 2005 St. Frances Cabrini - Cecchina's Dream, Pauline Books and Media
Di Donato, Pietro. 1960 Immigrant Saint. New York: McGraw-Hill
Galileo, Segundo. 1996 In Weakness, Strength, The Life and Missionary Activity of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Philippines: Claretian Communications
Green, Rose Basile, ed. and trans. 1984 Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. Chicago: Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Maynard, Theodore 1945 Too Small a World. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co.
Rose, Philip M. 1975 The Italians in America. New York: Arno Press (reprint).
Rosenberg, Charles E. 1987 The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System. New York: Basic Books
Tomasi, Silvano M. and Engel, Madeline H., eds. 1970 The Italian Experience in the United States. Staten Island, NY: Center for Migration Studies
Sullivan, Sr. Mary Louise, MSC, Ph.D. 1992 Mother Cabrini - Italian Immigrant of the Century, New York: Center for Migration Studies
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was born in Lombardi, Italy
in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a Nun,
but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death, and
then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.
One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls’ school
and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the
Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and
hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States
with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.
Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a
wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools,
hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid
of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death, at Chicago,
Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute numbered houses in England,
France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the
first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by
Pope Pius XII. St. Frances is the patroness of immigrants.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-frances-xavier-cabrini/
Shrine to Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, designed by
brothers Theodore, James, and Gabriel Gillick, in Saint George's Cathedral,
Southwark, London. The bronze sculpture depicts the saint watching over a group
of migrants standing on a pile of suitcases.
Born at Sant'Angelo Lodigiano (diocese of Lodi), Lombardy, Italy, on July 15,
1850; died in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1917; beatified in 1938;
canonized on July 7, 1946; feast day was December 22.
The life of Saint
Frances is another remarkable story that teaches us the value of persistence in
hope. I've seen a photograph of her--she was absolutely gorgeous with her dark
hair, broad mouth, and shining, deep eyes. She was said to be small of stature
and big of spirit. Naturalized in 1909, she is the first U.S. citizen to be
canonized, but Francesca Maria was the Italian born 13th child of Augustine
Cabrini, a farmer, and his Milanese wife Stella Oldini. On the day she was
born, a flock of white doves flew down to the farm where her father was threshing
grain.
Several times in
her later life flocks of white birds appeared. Francesca loved them and
compared them to angels or souls she would help save, or to new sisters coming
to join her community.
Her parents
baptized her Maria Francesca Saverio after the missionary saint Francis Xavier.
Wittingly or not, it seems that her destiny was mapped out early. Because her
mother's health was delicate, Francesca was taught mainly by her elder sister
Rosa, a school teacher, and was encouraged by her uncle, Father Oldini, to
become a foreign missionary. He knew her secret childhood game of filling paper
boats with violets and setting them loose in the river as she pretended that
the violets were missionaries going to convert people in far-off lands. Her
parents wanted her to be a teacher, however, and sent her to a convent boarding
school at Arluno.
As a child she
learned to pray well by the example of her family. Her mother rose early to
pray for an hour before going to Mass, and at the end of the day she prayed for
another hour. Francesca would frequently steal away from her schoolmates to
pray by herself in some quiet spot.
In 1863, at the age
of 13, Francesca entered the convent of the Sacred Heart at Arluna, where she
made a vow of virginity. When she graduated with honors at age 18, she was
fully qualified as a teacher. At 20 she was orphaned, and felt called to be a
nun. Like several saints before her, however, no one seemed to want her because
her health was so poor that no one thought she would live very long, and rather
discounted her as far as being of much use to her order.
By the time
Francesca was 21, she had suffered much: in addition to the loss of her
parents, 10 of her siblings died. From 1868 to 1872, she worked hard nursing
the sick poor in her hometown, including a woman who died of cancer. She also
had to deal with her own illness (smallpox) in 1871. These hardships combined
to teach her that everyone in this world has a cross to carry.
After her recovery
(1872) she began to teach in the public school of Vidardo. In 1874 after being
turned down by the Sacred Heart nuns who taught her and another congregation,
Don Serrati, the priest in whose school she was teaching, invited Francesca to
help manage a small orphanage at Codogno in the diocese of Lodi. The House of
Providence had been mismanaged by its foundress the eccentric Antonia Tondini.
Msgr. Serrati and
the bishop of Todi, recognizing her intense love of God and bold holiness, and
her deep love for the poor, invited her to turn the institution into a
religious community. Reluctantly, she agreed. From Antonia, Francesca received
only trouble and abuse, but she persisted. With seven recruits, she took her
first vows in 1877. The bishop made her superioress.
Antonia's behavior
became worse--she was thought to have become unbalanced--but Francesca
persevered for another three years. Then the bishop himself gave up hope and
closed the institution. That was according to Francesca's desires--more than
anything else, she wanted to be a missionary to China. Thus, in 1880, the
bishop counselled her to found a congregation of missionary sisters, since that
was what she wanted to be and he didn't know of any such order. Francesca moved
to an abandoned Franciscan friary at Codogno, and drew up a rule for the
community. Its main object was to be the Christian education of girls in
Catholic schismatic or pagan countries under the title of Missionary Sisters of
the Sacred Heart.
Francesca and her
sisters placed their complete trust in God. When there was no money to provide
food, money miraculously appeared. When there was no milk for the orphans, a
formerly empty container brimmed with milk. When a nun was again sent to an
empty breadbox, the box was again full. God can never be outdone in his
generosity. He promised that He would provide for our needs and He does for
those who trust Him.
The same year the
rule was approved, a daughter house was opened at Grumello. The sisters of the
Sacred Heart soon spread to Milan. Francesca was a demanding mistress. She got
up very early, an hour before the sisters who also got up early. Four hours
daily were spent in prayer by each sister regardless of what else needed to be
done.
In 1887, Francesca
went to Rome to gain approbation of her congregation and permission to open a
house in Rome. After an initially unsuccessful interview with the cardinal
vicar--the congregation was deemed too young for approval--Francesca won him
over. She asked to open two houses in Rome, a free school and a children's
home, and the first decree of approval of the Missionary Sisters was issued in
1888.
Bishop Scalabrini
of Piacenza, who had established the Society of Saint Charles to work among
Italian immigrants in America, suggested that Francesca travel there to help
these priests. Francesca longed to evangelize China, but realized that Italian
immigrants in the U.S.--50,000 in New York alone--needed all the help that her
order could give them. Archbishop Corrigan of New York sent her a formal
invitation, so she decided to consult with the pope. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII
gave his blessing to the enterprise. Despite her fear of water caused by a
childhood accident, she set off across the Atlantic, landing in New York in
1889 (age 39) with six of her sisters.
Things did not get
off to a good start, even with the archbishop's patronage and warm welcome.
Apparently, the orphanage she was to have managed was abandoned because of a
dispute with the benefactress. There was much to be done: A whole nation of
orphans and elderly to be comforted--a daunting task with no money and no hope
of any in sight. The archbishop suggested that she return home. Francesca replied
that the pope had sent her to America and so she must stay. Within a few weeks
Francesca had mended the rift, found a house for the sisters, and started the
orphanage.
As with every
difficulty she encountered throughout her life, with each new trial she would
ask, "Who is doing this? We?--or Our Lord?" Even so, she encouraged
her sisters to use efficiency and business acumen in the cause of charity,
which won the respect of the most hard-headed and hard-hearted Americans.
Later that year she
revisited Italy, as she would almost every year to bring back new missionaries.
This trip she took with her the first two Italo-American recruits to the
congregation. Nine months later she returned, bringing reinforcements to take
over West Park, on the Hudson, from the Society of Jesus. The orphanage was
transferred to this house, which became the motherhouse and novitiate of the
order in the U.S.
In addition to the
24 times she crossed the Atlantic, Francesca travelled throughout the Americas
for 28 years--from coast to coast in the U.S. by train and on muleback across
the Andes. First she went to Managua, Nicaragua, where under sometimes
dangerous circumstances she took over an orphanage and opened a boarding house.
On her way back, she visited New Orleans, and there made another new
foundation.
Francesca was slow
in learning English, but she had great business acumen. She was sometimes
overly strict and self-righteous-- rejecting illegitimate children from her
fee-paying schools, for example--and she was slow to recognize that
non-Catholics could truly mean well.
In 1892 one of
Francesca's greatest undertakings--Columbus Hospital--was opened in New York.
After another visit to Italy, she travelled to Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, and
Brazil. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, she opened a school for girls.
In 1900 Francesca
visited Pope Leo XIII again. He was then 90 years old. One day he said to her,
"Let us work, Cabrini, let us work, and what a heaven will be ours!"
Then after he had passed, he turned around and looked at her again. "Let
us work, Cabrini!" he said, his kind old face all wreathed in smiles.
After her next trip
to Italy, she travelled to France, opening her first European houses outside
Italy. By 1907, when the order was finally approved, there were over 1,000
members in eight countries (including Britain, Spain, and Latin America),
founded more than fifty houses, and numerous free schools, high schools, fifty
hospitals (including four of the greats), and other institutions. At the time
of her death, the congregation had grown to 67 houses with over 4,000 sisters.
This sickly woman's
health finally began to fail in 1911, but she kept going even through the war.
On December 21, 1917, fearing that the children in one of her schools might
miss their usual treat of candy for Christmas, Francesca began to make up
little parcels with her own hands. "Let's hurry," she said to her
sisters, "the time is short, and I want to be sure that the children will
have their treat." The time was indeed short for she died of malaria the
very next day in the Chicago convent.
At first her relics
were placed at West Park, Illinois. Her body now rests in the chapel of the
Mother Cabrini High School in New York City, where you can see it in a state of
marvellous preservation in its glass casket. The work begun for Italian
immigrants was carried on for all without distinction (including convicts in
Sing-Sing prison) (Attwater, Bentley, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
Girzone, Melady, Schamoni, Stanbrook, White).
Because she was open
to God, He used her to fulfill His purpose. We never know how God is going to
use us; therefore, we have to wait expectantly, openly to see what He has
planned. We can be sure that He won't disappoint us. God has a way of turning
each attentive life into an adventure that brings joy and satisfaction and
peace to His servant and those around him.
In 1946, Pope
Pius XII named her patroness of all emigrants and immigrants.
St. Frances Cabrini Church, located at 1335 S. 10th
Street in Omaha, Nebraska; seen from the southwest. The
church is the former St. Philomena's Cathedral.
Also
known as
- Francesca
Saverio Cabrini
Memorial
Profile
One of thirteen children raised on a farm. She received a convent education, and training as a teacher. She tried to join the order at
age 18, but poor health prevented her taking
the veil. A priest asked her to teach at a girl‘s school, the House of Providence Orphanage in Cadagono, Italy, which she did for six years. She took religious vows
in 1877, and acquitted herself so well at her work that when
the orphanage closed in 1880, her bishop asked her to found the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Pope Leo XIII then sent her to the United States to carry on this mission.
She and six Sisters arrived in New York in 1889. They worked among immigrants, especially Italians. Mother Cabrini founded 67 institutions,
including schools, hospitals, and orphanages in the United States, Europe and South America. Like many of the people she
worked with, Mother became a United States citizen during her life, and
after her death she was the first US citizen to be canonized.
Born
Died
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Readings
We must pray without
tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor
on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human
industries, but on Jesus alone. – Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Inspired by the grace of
god, we join the saints in honoring the holy virgin Frances Xavier Cabrini. She
was a humble woman who became outstanding not because she was famous or rich or
powerful, but because she lived a virtuous life. From the tender years of her
youth, she kept her innocence as white as a lily and preserved it carefully with the thorns of
penitence; as the years progressed, she was moved by a certain instinct and supernatural
zeal to dedicate her whole life to the service and greater glory of God. She
welcomed delinquent youths into safe homes, and taught them to live upright and
holy lives. She consoled those who were in prison, and recalled to them the
hope of eternal life. She encouraged prisoners to reform themselves, and to
live honest lives. She comforted the sick and the infirm in the hospitals, and
diligently cared for them. She extended a friendly and helping hand especially
to immigrants, and offered them necessary shelter and relief, for having left
their homeland behind, they were wandering about in a foreign land with no
place to turn for help. Because of their condition, she saw that they were in
danger of deserting the practice of Christian virtues and their Catholic faith.
Undoubtedly she accomplished all this through the faith which was always so
vibrant and alive in her heart; through the divine love which burned within
her; and finally, through constant prayer by which she was so closely united with
God from whom she humbly asked and obtained whatever her human weakness could
not obtain. Although her constitution was very frail, her spirit was endowed
with such singular strength that, knowing the will of God in her regard, she
permitted nothing to impede her from accomplishing what seemed beyond her
strength. – from a homily at the Canonization of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
by Pope Pius XII
MLA Citation
- “Saint Frances Xavier
Cabrini“. CatholicSaints.Info. 11 August 2020. Web. 18
December 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-frances-xavier-cabrini/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-frances-xavier-cabrini/
Statua di Santa Francesca Saverio Cabrini nel portico
del santuario della Beata Vergine del Rosario di Pompei.
Santa Francesca Saverio Cabrini
Vergine
Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Lodi, 15 luglio 1850 –
Chicago, Stati Uniti, 22 dicembre 1917
Una
fragile quanto straordinaria maestrina di Sant'Angelo Lodigiano. In questo
ritratto si colloca la figura di Francesca Saverio Cabrini. Nata nella
cittadina lombarda nel 1850 e morta negli Stati Uniti in terra di missione, a
Chicago. Orfana di padre e di madre, Francesca avrebbe voluto chiudersi in
convento, ma non fu accettata a causa della sua malferma salute. Prese allora
l'incarico di accudire a un orfanotrofio, affidatole dal parroco di Codogno. La
giovane, da poco diplomata maestra, fece molto di più: invogliò alcune compagne
a unirsi a lei, costituendo il primo nucleo delle Suore missionarie del Sacro
Cuore, poste sotto la protezione di un intrepido missionario, san Francesco
Saverio, di cui ella stessa, pronunciando i voti religiosi, assunse il nome.
Portò il suo carisma missionario negli Stati Uniti, tra gli italiani che vi
avevano cercato fortuna. Per questo divenne la patrona dei migranti. Nel giorno della morte il suo corpo venne traslato a New York alla
«Mother Cabrini High School», vicino ai suoi «figli».
Patronato: Emigranti
Etimologia: Francesca = libera, dall'antico tedesco
Emblema: Giglio
Martirologio Romano: A Chicago in Illinois negli Stati Uniti d’America,
santa Francesca Saverio Cabrini, vergine, che fondò l’Istituto delle
Missionarie del Sacratissimo Cuore di Gesù e si adoperò in tutti i modi
nell’assistere gli emigrati con insigne carità.
Tra il
1901 e il 1913 emigrarono in America ben quasi cinque milioni di italiani, di
cui oltre tre milioni provenivano dal meridione. Un vero morbo sociale, un
salasso, come lo hanno definito parecchi politici e sociologi. Accanto ai
drammi che l'emigrazione ebbe a suscitare, merita ricordare una santa italiana,
festeggiata il 22 dicembre, che a questo fenomeno guardò con gli occhi
umanissimi di donna, di cristiana, meritando così il titolo di “madre degli
emigranti”: Santa Francesca Saverio Cabrini.
Nata a
Sant’Angelo Lodigiano il 15 luglio 1850 e rimasta orfana di padre e di madre,
Francesca desiderava chiudersi in convento, ma non fu accettata a causa della
sua salute malferma. Accettò allora l'incarico di accudire un orfanotrofio,
affidatole dal parroco di Codogno. Da poco diplomata maestra, la ragazza fece
ben di più: convinse alcune compagne ad unirsi a lei, costituendo il primo
nucleo delle Suore missionarie del Sacro Cuore; era il 1880.
Ispirandosi
al grande San Francesco Saverio, sognava di salpare per la Cina, ma il Papa le
indicò quale luogo di missione l’America, dove migliaia e migliaia di emigranti
italiani vivevano in drammatiche e disumane condizioni. Anche lei nella prima
delle sue ventiquattro traversate oceaniche condivise i disagi e le incertezze
dei nostri compatrioti, poi con straordinario coraggio affrontò la metropoli di
New York, badando agli orfani e agli ammalati, costruendo case, scuole e un
grande ospedale. Passò poi a Chicago, quindi in California, onde allargare
ancora la sua opera in tutta l'America, sino all'Argentina.
A chi si
congratulava con lei per l’evidente successo di cotante opere, Madre Cabrini
soleva rispondere in sincera umiltà: “Tutte queste cose non le ha fatte forse
il Signore?”.
La morte
la colse in piena attività durante l’ennesimo viaggio a Chicago il 22 dicembre
1917. Il suo corpo venne trionfalmente traslato a New York presso la chiesa
annessa alla “Mother Cabrini High School”, perché fosse vicino ai suoi “figli”.
Nei suoi quaderni di viaggio aveva scritto “Oggi è tempo che l'amore non sia
nascosto, ma diventi operoso, vivo e vero”.
Papa Pio XII l’ha canonizzata nel 1946. Nelle diocesi di Milano e di Lodi la
sua memoria si celebra il 13 novembre.
Autore:
Fabio Arduino
St. Frances Cabrini in a Mosaic in the Cathedral
Basilica of St. Louis
“La
vostra Cina saranno gli Stati Uniti”
Francesca nacque nel 1850 a Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, in una numerosa famiglia di
contadini benestanti e cristianamente praticanti. Nella sua famiglia imparò non
solo il fervore religioso e un certo spirito di iniziativa, ma anche un sincero
amore alla patria italiana, non frequente in quei tempi. Questo giusto
sentimento patriottico che cercò di risvegliare o di tenere desto nei numerosi
emigranti italiani negli Stati Uniti.
onseguito il diploma magistrale e l’abilitazione, anche per accudire insieme
alla sorella Rosa l’altra sorella handicappata Maddalena, accettò subito il
lavoro di supplente nella scuola vicina di Vidardo. Qui insegnò due anni. Un
episodio ci rivela il carattere e la determinazione di Francesca. Riuscì
infatti a vincere la battaglia contro il sindaco anticlericale del paese:
ottenne il permesso all’insegnamento della dottrina cristiana in classe
nonostante la proibizione governativa. Lei però desiderava ardentemente
diventare missionaria. Sogno che non poté realizzare subito. Fece anche i voti
religiosi entrando nella Casa della Provvidenza di Codogno. Furono anni
difficili, (“ho pianto molto” dirà lei stessa) che lei affrontò con coraggio e
praticando la virtù dell’obbedienza.
Ma la Provvidenza le venne incontro nella persona del Vescovo di Lodi che le
propose di fondare un istituto religioso per l’assistenza degli emigrati
italiani in America. L’America non era la Cina che lei sognava, ma l’ideale
missionario si poteva concretizzare ugualmente. Fondò presto Le Missionarie del
Sacro Cuore di Gesù, con case in Lombardia, ed una anche a Roma. Il secondo
intervento provvidenziale arrivò con Mons. Giovanni B. Scalabrini. Questi
cercava un ramo femminile al suo Istituto, e stimava molto la Cabrini. Lei però
temendo di perdere l’autonomia dell’istituto, resistette alla proposta. Ma
accettò subito la direzione di una scuola e di un asilo a New York. Questo
significava l’addio per sempre alla Cina. D’altra parte, ed ecco il terzo
intervento provvidenziale, era stato nientemeno che il Papa Leone XIII a dirle
paternamente: “Non a Oriente, Cabrini, ma all’Occidente. L’Istituto è ancora
giovane. Ha bisogno di mezzi. Andate negli Stati Uniti, ne troverete. E con
essi un grande campo di lavoro. La vostra Cina sono gli Stati Uniti, vi sono
tanti italiani emigrati che hanno bisogno di assistenza”.
Francesca partì nel 1889. Destinazione l’America, città New York. Era sicura
della volontà di Dio, e del campo di lavoro missionario. Ma le difficoltà non
si fecero attendere. Uno dei primi che si mise a ‘remare contro’ di lei e il
suo progetto fu addirittura l’arcivescovo Corrigan. Fece la parte dell’avvocato
del diavolo scoraggiando quel manipolo di suore temerarie e... italiane che
sembravano avere tanta fede ma, ahimè, poco “money”. Anche per le opere del
Signore, pensava lui, ci vuole molto “denaro”. Che, poverette, non avevano. Non
era più saggio tornare in Italia? La Cabrini gli oppose un argomento
spirituale... la benedizione del Papa, e uno materiale: l’amicizia di una ricca
cattolica americana, moglie di un emigrato italiano illustre, Luigi Palma de
Cesnola, direttore del Metropolitan Museum.
Non si sa se il prelato fu convinto da questi due “argomenti”, ma è sicuro che
la Cabrini continuò per la sua strada e il suo progetto. “Le suore aprirono una
prima scuola femminile in un modesto appartamento offerto dalla contessa de
Cesnola, ma si impegnarono anche in un lavoro di assistenza e di insegnamento
nei quartieri più degradati della città, compiendo ogni giorno chilometri di
strada ed entrando senza paura in ambienti spaventosi per miseria e violenza.
Madre Cabrini dimostrò subito di saper affiancare alla sua attività di
educatrice religiosa una spiccata sensibilità per i problemi degli emigranti
italiani: “Gli italiani qui sono trattati come schiavi... bisognerebbe non
sentire amor di patria per non sentirsi ferita” (L. Scaraffia).
Ella lavorò tutta la vita, con innumerevoli viaggi, per aiutare ad inserire gli
emigrati nella realtà sociale americana, facendone dei buoni cittadini, ma
nello stesso tempo rafforzando in loro anche l’identità italiana e cattolica.
In questa promozione sociale Francesca usò una tecnica il cui principio era:
convincere gli italiani ricchi ad aiutare gli altri italiani meno favoriti. Ed
alcuni dei suoi benefattori, convinti e incalliti anticlericali, la aiutavano
trascinati dal suo carisma più che dalle motivazioni teologiche.
“Si è detto che se Cristoforo Colombo ha scoperto l’America, la Cabrini ha
scoperto tutti gli italiani in America. Ma pur sentendosi autentica patriota e
quantunque circostanze particolari la inducessero a rendersi cittadina
americana nel 1909, il suo ideale missionario rimase sempre quello genuino,
senza confini di razze e di geografia” (G. Pelliccia).
Spiritualità e messaggio di Francesca Cabrini
Continuò con coraggio nel suo lavoro di fondazioni di nuovi istituti e di
rafforzamento di quelli esistenti e soprattutto nel seguire l’Istituto delle
Missionarie del Sacro Cuore di Gesù, da lei fondato. E questo fino alla fine
della sua vita, che si spense a Chicago, durante uno di questi viaggi, nel
1917. Lasciando dietro di sé in eredità alla chiesa tutta e al mondo un
fiorente istituto religioso e la sua personale santità e testimonianza di
carità apostolica a beneficio particolarmente degli emigrati italiani (ma non
solo).
Fu dichiarata santa da Pio XII il 7 luglio 1946 e nel 1950 proclamata “Celeste
Patrona di tutti gli Emigranti”. Due anni dopo, in considerazione del suo
lavoro per gli Italo-americani, il Comitato Americano per l’Emigrazione
Italiana le decretava un importante riconoscimento dichiarandola “La Immigrata
Italiana del Secolo”. Per gli emigrati italo-americani è semplicemente “la loro
santa”: la sua opera geniale, coraggiosa la fece stimare anche in ambienti non
benevoli verso il cattolicesimo, e aiutò enormemente a far cambiare idea sui
nostri connazionali emigrati.
Francesca Cabrini non la ricordiamo per le sue opere teologiche o per grandi
rivelazioni e miracoli. Niente di tutto questo. Noi la ricordiamo per la sua
santità semplice, umile, fatta non di tante ore di preghiera, ma per tutte le
ore delle giornate, di tutta la sua vita, passate a “lavorare, sudare, faticare
per Dio, per la sua gloria, per farlo conoscere ed amare”. Una santità fatta
non di rapimenti o di rivelazioni mistiche, ma di grande impegno sociale per
Dio. Non fu rapita in estasi nella contemplazione di Dio, ma consumò la vita
“lavorando” per lo stesso Dio. Con gioia. Un giorno, infatti, fermò una suora
che era sul punto di imbarcarsi per andare nelle missioni, solo perché
salutando parenti e amici, aveva affermato che faceva volentieri “il
sacrificio”. Sembrava che per lei si trattasse di una rinuncia da fare, che le
mancasse la gioia di partire e “lavorare per Dio”. Madre Cabrini la fermò dicendole:
“Iddio non vuole importi sacrifici così gravi”.
Il Papa Pio XI esaltava il suo nome come un “poema di attività, un poema di
intelligenza, un poema soprattutto di carità”. E prima ancora era stato lo
stesso Leone XIII che già nel 1898, affermava di lei: “È una santa vera, ma
così vicina a noi che diventa la testimone della santità possibile a tutti”.
Una santità “accostevole” imitabile da tutti, perché consiste nel fare bene e
per amore di Dio quelli che sono i nostri doveri. Questo richiama la famosa frase
e programma di santità consigliato da Don Bosco a Domenico Savio, smanioso di
farsi santo a forza di penitenze: bastava l’esatto adempimento dei propri
doveri quotidiani.
La santità e “la spiritualità intensa di madre Cabrini si realizzò soprattutto
nelle opere, nella sua continua attività finalizzata ad opporre del bene al
male. La preghiera stava nei fatti, non nelle parole. La sua vita è segnata da
una perpetua attività” (L. Scaraffia). Fatta
tutta per Dio e per correre dietro al Cristo. Diceva: “Con la tua grazia, amatissimo Gesù, io
correrò dietro a Te sino alla fine della corsa, e ciò per sempre, per sempre.
Aiutami o Gesù, perché voglio fare ciò ardentemente, velocemente”.
Lavorare per Dio nella gioia (anche quando si pensa di avere diritto a tutt’altro).
Non amava lamentarsi nelle difficoltà e raccomandava alle sue figlie non solo
tanto lavoro ma anche il coraggio, fondato sulla fede, che si esprime nel
sorriso: “Ci sentiamo male? Sorridiamo lo stesso”.
Nelle diocesi di Milano e di Lodi la sua memoria si celebra il 13 novembre.
Autore: Mario
Scudu sdb
Mother Cabrini Shrine, Our Lady of Pompeii Church,
Manhattan, NYC
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