Born in Sant╒Angelo Lodigiano in Lombardy, Italy, on July 15, 1850, Maria Francesca Cabrini was determined from her childhood to make religious work her life╒s vocation. She was educated by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart in Arluno, and at eighteen she became a schoolteacher in Vidardo. Delicate health prevented her from becoming a missionary, but her remarkable efforts in an orphanage in Codogno, where she went in 1874, earned her the name Mother Cabrini and led her bishop to encourage her to take religious vows in September 1877. She did not join a formal order. In November 1880 she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which won papal recognition in March 1888. As superior, she saw the new order grow rapidly to seven convents in as many years. Her intention was to extend the order╒s orphanage and missionary work to China, but instead she was directed by Pope Leo XIII to utilize her abilities among the Italian poor in the United States.
Mother Cabrini arrived in New York City in March 1889 and from then until her death lived there and in Chicago. For a quarter century she traveled extensively throughout the Americas and in Europe founding convents, schools, orphanages, and hospitals. The New York City orphanage opened in April 1889 was moved to West Park, New York, in 1890. A school in Granada, Nicaragua, was opened in 1891, followed by institutions in Panama, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil as well as several European cities. Columbus hospitals were established in New York City in 1892, in Chicago in 1905, and in Seattle in 1916. Schools and orphanages were opened in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, and elsewhere. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1909. The order she had founded was given final papal approval in 1907, and in 1910 Mother Cabrini was named superior general for life. By 1917 the order comprised 67 houses and over 1500 daughters. After her death in Chicago on December 22, 1917, proceedings were instituted that led to her beatification in November 1938 and her canonization by Pope Pius XII on July 7, 1946. She was the first American citizen to attain sainthood.
