Feast of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini (2020)
Feast of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini (2020)
The history of the United States is filled with stories of heroic religious women; by that I mean women who were part of religious communities who came to the United States as missionaries. The women who came here quite often founded charitable institutions to help immigrants who were just arriving in the United States. None was more courageous than St. Francis Xavier Cabrini.
Mother Cabrini, as she is popularly known, was born in Pavia, Italy, the youngest of thirteen children. She tried to enter a convent twice but was refused by both communities because she was considered too sickly.
She began to teach school and took a private vow of virginity. The local bishop encouraged her to become a missionary. She started the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1887. Pope Leo XIII encourage her to take her mission to the West. He encouraged her to look to the United States.
Hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants were moving to the United States. There was great animosity toward them. The Italians were considered racially inferior. Italians lived in ghettos in various cities. Mother Cabrini started her work in New York. The local Archbishop suggested that she return to Italy because the work she needed to do was too strenuous.
Mother Cabrini stayed. She and her sisters began to teach immigrant children, they founded an orphanage and they started various charitable institutions. She received no funding from the archdiocese.
She then went on to start missions in Chicago and New Orleans. Eventually she became a United States Citizen. She also started institutions in Central and South America. She, who was thought to be too fragile, proved to be a tower of strength. She was eventually the first U.S. citizen to be canonized.
Reflection Questions:
- Have I ever been told that I did not have the ability to do something? How did I react?
- Mother Cabrini followed God’s Call. How did she succeed when she had everything against her?
Dear Parishioners,
We have decided to livestream another Mass at nine a.m. on Sundays. We hope to begin this weekend. We hope that this will allow people to be able to hear both my homilies and Fr. Matthew’s.
There are many announcements coming from the diocese regarding COVID 19. We will be adjusting our Religious Education schedule. We will be making more decisions in the next few days. Once again, our object is to keep everyone safe and to try to help improve the health situation in our community.
May Our Lady and all he Angels and Saints watch over you today.
Fr. Mark