St. Frances Xavier Cabrini: Patron of Immigrants, Feast Day and Prayer

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850–1917) was an Italian religious sister who crossed the ocean to care for poor Italian immigrants in America. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, in 1946, became the first citizen of the United States to be canonized. She is the patron saint of immigrants, and in the United States her feast day is November 13.

People who met “Mother Cabrini” were often surprised. She was small, frail and never in good health, yet she built schools, orphanages and hospitals on two continents. Her secret, she would have said, was not her own strength but her trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Who Was St. Frances Xavier Cabrini?

Maria Francesca Cabrini was born on July 15, 1850, in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, a farming town in Lombardy, northern Italy. She was the youngest of thirteen children, and only a few of her brothers and sisters survived to adulthood. She was born early and was delicate all her life.

As a girl she loved to hear about missionaries. She dreamed of going to China, and she would make little paper boats, fill them with violets, and float them down the stream as her “missionaries.” She trained as a teacher and earned her teaching certificate.

When she asked to join religious communities, she was turned down because of her health. Instead, a priest asked her to help at a struggling orphanage, the House of Providence in Codogno. She worked there for several years and made her religious vows in 1877. At that time she added the name Xavier, after St. Francis Xavier, the great missionary to Asia whom she admired.

When the orphanage closed, her bishop told her: you want to be a missionary, so found a missionary institute yourself. In November 1880, with seven young women, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Codogno. The new community grew quickly, and in 1887 she went to Rome to seek papal approval.

“Not to the East, but to the West”

Mother Cabrini still hoped to go to China. But in those years millions of Italians were leaving home for the Americas. Many arrived poor, could not speak English, worked in dangerous jobs and had no priests, schools or hospitals in their own language. Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini of Piacenza, who had founded a congregation of priests for emigrants, urged her to help them.

She took the question to Pope Leo XIII. His answer is remembered by her sisters to this day: “Not to the East, but to the West.” She obeyed.

On March 31, 1889, she arrived in New York with six sisters. The welcome was not easy. The house that had been promised to them was not ready, and the archbishop at first advised her to go back to Italy. She stayed. Within months the sisters had opened an orphanage and were teaching catechism to immigrant children.

Her Work in America and Beyond

For the next twenty-eight years she traveled constantly, by steamship, train and even mule, across the Andes. Her sisters opened houses in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles and other cities, and in Central and South America, England, France and Spain. Her communities founded about 67 institutions in all.

Her works included:

• Schools for immigrant children, where they could learn both their faith and English.
• Orphanages for children who had lost parents to disease or accidents in mines and factories.
• Hospitals, among them Columbus Hospital in New York (1892) and Columbus Hospital in Chicago (1905), open to the poor who were often turned away elsewhere.
• Visits to immigrants in prisons and in mining camps.

She was a practical woman. She bargained for buildings, managed accounts and dealt with bankers and bishops. Yet her sisters remembered her above all as a woman of prayer. She often said that it was the Sacred Heart, not she, who did the work. Her favorite Scripture was said to be St. Paul’s words, “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me” (Philippians 4:13).

In 1909, in Seattle, she became a citizen of the United States, the country she had served for twenty years.

Her Death and Canonization

Mother Cabrini died at Columbus Hospital in Chicago on December 22, 1917, at the age of 67. In her last days she was still preparing Christmas sweets for local children.

The Church studied her life and the healings reported through her prayers. Pope Pius XI beatified her on November 13, 1938. Pope Pius XII canonized her on July 7, 1946, and she became the first U.S. citizen to be declared a saint. In 1950 Pius XII named her the patroness of immigrants.

	Date
Born, Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy	July 15, 1850
Founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart	November 1880
Arrived in New York	March 31, 1889
Became a U.S. citizen	1909
Died, Chicago	December 22, 1917
Beatified by Pius XI	November 13, 1938
Canonized by Pius XII	July 7, 1946
Named patroness of immigrants	1950

What Is St. Frances Xavier Cabrini the Patron Saint Of?

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini is the patron saint of immigrants. Catholics also ask her prayers for:

• migrants and refugees, and families settling in a new country
• hospital workers, nurses and the sick
• orphans and children in need
• teachers and Catholic schools
• anyone facing a task that feels too big for their strength

Her life is a living answer to the words of Jesus: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). The Catechism teaches that nations able to do so should welcome the foreigner who seeks the security and livelihood he cannot find at home, while immigrants in turn should respect the laws and heritage of the country that receives them (CCC 2241).

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Feast Day

In the United States, the memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini is celebrated on November 13, the anniversary of her beatification. The Roman Martyrology remembers her on December 22, the day she died, and some communities keep that date.

Simple ways to celebrate her feast:

1. Go to Mass and pray for immigrants and refugees.
2. Pray the prayer below, or the prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the devotion at the center of her life.
3. Tell your grandchildren the story of your own family’s arrival in this country.
4. Welcome a newcomer in your parish, or support a Catholic charity that serves migrants.
5. If you live near one, visit a Cabrini shrine. Her remains are venerated at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine in New York City, and there are shrines in Chicago and near Golden, Colorado.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Prayer

Prayer to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Original Prayer)

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini,
you left your home to serve strangers in a new land,
and you trusted the Sacred Heart in every hardship.
Pray for me when my strength is small and my task is large.
Pray for all who are far from home,
for immigrants, refugees and their families,
that they may find welcome, work and faith.
Help me to see Christ in every stranger I meet.
Amen.

Prayer for Immigrants Through Mother Cabrini (Original Prayer)

Lord Jesus, You were once a refugee in Egypt with Mary and Joseph.
Through the prayers of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini,
protect all who travel far from home in search of a better life.
Keep them safe on their journey.
Give them good neighbors, honest work and a parish family.
Soften our hearts so that we welcome them as You would.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Amen.

Many immigrants also pray to St. Christopher and to the Holy Family before a long journey. Our Catholic prayer for safe travel is a good companion to these prayers.

What Can We Learn from Mother Cabrini Today?

God uses weak instruments. She was refused by religious orders because of her health, yet she did the work of many strong people. If you feel too old or too tired to do anything for God, she is a good friend to ask for help.

Obedience opens doors. She wanted China; the Pope sent her to New York. Her greatest work came from accepting a plan that was not her own.

Faith becomes practical love. She did not only pray for immigrants. She found them beds, doctors and teachers. As the Catechism reminds us, we are called to treat our neighbor, without exception, as “another self” (CCC 1931).

Trust the Sacred Heart. Behind every school and hospital was a simple trust that Jesus would provide. Like St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, she shows that devotion to the Heart of Jesus leads straight to love of others.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us, and pray for all who are far from home.