Today the Church remembers St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Maria F rancesca Cabrini was born in 1850 in Italy, one of thirteen raised on a farm. She received a convent education and training as a teacher. Maria tried to join a religious order at age eighteen, but was rejected for poor health. Her priest asked her to teach at a girl’s school, which she did for six years. She took religious vows at age twenty-seven.
Sister Frances Xavier’s bishop asked her to found the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for the poor in schools and hospitals. Pope Leo XIII sent her to the United States to carry on this mission. She and six sisters arrived in New York, working among immigrants. Mother Cabrini founded sixty-seven institutions including schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
She became a US citizen during her life, nd would be the first US citizen to be canonized. Mother Cabrini died from malaria while completing a six-month retreat in 1917 Chicago. She is buried in New York City. She is the patron saint against malaria, and for hospital administrators, immigrants, and orphans.