If you don’t know anything about Saint Frances Cabrini beyond her name…change that. Mother Cabrini was truly an astonishing woman whose life is as vigorous an expression the power and transformation that happens when we give ourselves over to Christ.

Of less than perfect health, Frances was inspired by missionary stories told to her as a child and confirmed in the joy and peace that comes from service as she, as a young woman, nursed the sick and taught children. Turned down by religious orders, her gifts were recognized by a priest who sent her to turn a troubled and poorly-run orphanage around, which she did.

At this juncture the bishop of Lodi sent for her and offered a suggestion that was to determine the nun’s life work. He wished her to found a missionary order of women to serve in his diocese. She accepted the opportunity gratefully and soon discovered a house which she thought suitable, an abandoned Franciscan friary in Cadogno. The building was purchased, the sisters moved in and began to make the place habitable. Almost immediately it became a busy hive of activity. They received orphans and foundlings, opened a day school to help pay expenses, started classes in needlework and sold their fine embroidery to earn a little more money. Meanwhile, in the midst of superintending all these activities, Francesca, now Mother Cabrini, was drawing up a simple rule for the institute. As one patron, she chose St. Francis de Sales, and as another, her own name saint, St. Francis Xavier. The rule was simple, and the habit she devised for the hard-working nuns was correspondingly simple, without the luxury of elaborate linen or starched headdress. They even carried their rosaries in their pockets, to be less encumbered while going about their tasks. The name chosen for the order was the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

In 1889, she set sail for the United States – and here’s a partial list of her destinations during the last 3 decades of her life:

New York City, Nicaragua, New Orleans, Argentina, Newark, Scranton, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles…with frequent and regular trips to New York and back to Italy. She died in Chicago in 1917.

The room in which she died at Columbus Hospital used to function as a shrine, but Michael said that’s changed – I don’t know if the hospital has closed or changed hands or what. Remind me?

There are shrines to Mother Cabrini in the United States – Colorado and New York – her body is on display under the altar of the chapel of Mother Cabrini High School in the Bronx.  We’ve been there, and yes, she’s there.