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Mother Cabrini
History of Christianity is a six part survey designed to stimulate your curiosity by providing glimpses of pivotal events and persons in the spread of the church.
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Truth Prevails: The Undying Faith Of Jan Hus In an age when Europe was divided between three popes, when pestilence claimed one in three lives and church offices were sold to the highest bidder, Hus defied earthly authorities to seek truth directly from the Word of God. [0707]
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lthough 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 the strength of a woman." Pope Pius XII was speaking
of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American Citizen to be named
a saint by the Roman Church. Her feast day, the day on which the church
celebrates her memory, is on November 13.
Mother Cabrini was not always an American citizen. She was born in Italy,
the last of a very large family (she had fourteen brothers and sisters).
From an early age, Frances wanted to become a nun. She trained as a teacher,
but was rejected for the convent at age eighteen, because she was considered
too sickly. So she went to work at an orphanage. When the bishop closed
its doors, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and
seven of her orphans joined her. She hoped to carry the gospel to China
or Africa.
But first, she had to get her new community's rules approved in Rome.
With naive confidence, she sought the personal approval of the pope, and
hoped to found two convents in Rome while there. Worldly-wise churchmen
chuckled at her innocence. But as it turned out, she succeeded in both
of her aims. However, she did not make it to China. Pope Leo XIII urged
her to direct her attention to Italian immigrants in the United States.
A house was set aside for her to open an orphanage in New York City.
But when she arrived, she found it had been put to another use. The Archbishop
told her to pack up and go home. Frances refused. With spunk and determination,
she convinced him to allow her to raise money to buy another building.
He agreed and she soon made the necessary arrangements. She organized
adult classes to reinforce the faith of Italian immigrants. Despite dread
of the sea, she crossed the Atlantic more than thirty times on mission
business. She became a citizen of her adopted country.
By her death in 1917, this frail woman had overcome her sickness to found
over seventy hospitals, schools, convents and orphanages in North and
South America and in Europe. She died of malaria, sitting in a wicker
chair in Chicago. Her body was removed to New York where her tomb became
a site of pilgrimages.
Resources:
- "Frances Xavier Cabrini." Catholic Information Network. (www.cin.org/kc87-2.html).
- "Graveyards of Chicago." Holy Sepulcher Catholic Cemetery.
(www.graveyards.com/holysepulchre/cabrini.html).
- Saint of the Day web site.
- "St. Frances Xavier Cabrini." (www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=278).
- "St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Patroness of Immigrants." (www.buoy.com/~sfc/stfxcabr.html)
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