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# 63 • JUNE 28 , 2015
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GREAT ITALIANS OF THE PAST:
FRANCESCA CABRINI
By Giovanni Verde
The first American citizen
proclaimed saint was born
in Italy. Francesca Xavier Cabrini was born in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano on July 15,
1850. At 24 she decides to
devote her life to God and
becomes a missionary. In
1880 Francesca founds the
Congregation of the Congregazione delle Missionarie del Sacro Cuore di Gesù
(Missionaries of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus), adding to
her name the surname Xavier, in honor of St. Francis
Xavier, missionary in the Far
East.
In 1889 Francesca decides
to go to the United States,
to assist the Italian immigrants who are leaving Italy
in search for a new life. Francesca does not stop on the
east coast, but continues her
work also in the hinterland.
She learns Spanish and English, converting several tribes to which no white man
or woman had ever approached.
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Her activity starts in Little
Italy, the poor neighborhood of the Italians in New
York: infant mortality is high,
large families live in one
room, children use to beg
or do shoeshine to earn a
few cents, while many girls work all day in factories.
Francesca and the nuns that
accompany her visit the poorest people, discovering a
reality of suffering and pain.
Her dream is to open religious institutions to accommodate girls, giving them
the opportunity to receive
proper education and where
to assist the many orphans
of Little Italy. Francesca constantly travels between the
US and Europe to establish
or consolidate a number of
missions primarily designed
to assist the Italian immigrants: schools, kindergartens,
hospitals. The countries that
see a rapid uptake of her institutions are the United US,
Italy, France, Spain, England,
Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil
and Argentina. There will be
67 of them.