Born in Italy in 1850, Francesca was the youngest of thirteen children, only four of whom survived. 

Her parents were successful cherry farmers and, when she was a child, her father would read her stories about the missionaries.

As a result, Francesca developed a desire to become a missionary herself. When she got older her desire became even more specific; to become a missionary in China. 

After finishing school she helped a local Pastor for a while teaching catechism while also working with the sick and poor. 

Eventually, she ended up supervising a local orphanage and was assisted by a group of young women. When the Bishop of Lodi heard of her work, he asked Francesca to form a missionary group to work in his diocese which she did, calling the group the Missionary Sisters of The Sacred Heart. 

Immediately they opened an academy for girls. Seeing this work, Bishop Scalabrini, founder of the Missionaries of Immigration, told Mother Cabrini about the extremely difficult conditions facing Italians who had gone to the United States, which led to an audience with Pope Leo XIII..who changed her plans to go to China, telling her: “Not to the east. Go to the United States, sister.” 

In spite of her great fear of the water, Mother Cabrini went to the U.S. landing in New York in 1889, but it was not easy. 

The Archbishop told her that the house intended for an orphanage was not going to be available and that she should go back to Italy. 

Undaunted, Mother Cabrini found a way to start a school for the children of poor Italian immigrants, followed by many more. 

Over the next 37 years, Mother Cabrini erected schools, clinics, orphanages, and hospitals for the needy and the sick, nearly 70 institutions in all, not just in the United States but around the world, crossing the Atlantic which she so feared, 25 times. 

In 1909 Mother Cabrini became a U.S. citizen and at the age of 67, died at Columbus Hospital in Chicago while making dolls for orphaned children. 

St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, please pray for us.