While many holy people have passed through the doors of all the Catholic churches around the world, very few churches can boast of having their own canonized saint. Yet that is what Assumption has. St Frances Cabrini, whose statue stands in first place on the east side of the church, lived and worked among the Italian immigrants who moved into our neighborhood in the late nineteenth century and prayed in our pews.

Frances Cabrini was born in a small town in near Milan, Italy in 1850. She was two months premature and was in poor health all her life. Anxious to become a religious sister and a missionary to China, she applied to and was rejected by several religious congregations because of her poor health. However, the local bishop recognized her zeal for ministry and her commitment to Christ and her love for the Eucharist and encouraged her to begin her own religious congregation, which became the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. As the foundress and superior, she was commonly known as Mother Cabrini. In 1889 she petitioned Pope Leo XIII to begin missionary work in the Far East; but the Pope convinced her that the real need for her sisters was in America. Italian immigrants were facing discrimination in employment and housing and even by the Catholic Church, which was dominated by an Irish hierarchy. And, so, her primary mission for the rest of her life was in the United States: New York, Chicago, and Denver. In addition to her frail health, she almost drowned as a child and had a great fear of water; yet she crossed the ocean 27 times in pursuit of her mission. Such will and determination was very typical of her personality. She was an exacting boss and a shrewd business woman who rarely took “no” for an answer. During the 67 years of her life, she founded 67 different institutions (hospitals, schools, and orphanages), including Assumption School in 1899.  

When Mother Cabrini died on December 22, 1917, she was supposedly engaged in making Christmas stockings for the children of Assumption School. She had insisted that no tuition ever be charged at Assumption School, and if the Servite friars ever tried to charge tuition, she would immediately withdraw her sisters. And no tuition was ever charged at Assumption School until it closed in 1945, a year before Mother Cabrini was canonized a saint. If you did not know:  the Assumption school building still stands. It is a yellow brick building in the 300 block of West Erie and is now a condominium building.

The area around Assumption has changed dramatically over the past century, but Mother Cabrini’s concern for immigrants is ever relevant. Prayers are often offered to Mother Cabrini as The Patron Saint of Immigrants. In a video message in September, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso said, “During her lifetime of service, Mother Cabrini often faced great trials as an immigrant, a woman, and an advocate for the poor; but she never relented in her determination to build an empire of hope, sustained by her relationship with Christ in the Eucharist and the faces of those she served. . . . Mother Cabrini’s challenge and the challenges of those she served are not unique among the generations of Catholics and immigrants in general who have come to this land, and her witness can help in the present reality in the life of our church and our nation.” In imitation of Mother Cabrini, Bishop Seitz encourages all Catholics to “make an intentional commitment to live out the Gospel not in abstraction but through acts of solidarity that affirm the human dignity of every person.”

As a step in that direction, the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops invites us to sign The Cabrini Pledge:  To affirm in word and deed the inherent dignity of every person; to reflect on migration in light of Scripture and Catholic social teaching; to listen and learn about the circumstances facing migrants and refugees; to seek opportunities for encounter with those in need; to consider what it means to be a good neighbor and how I am called to reflect the love and hope of Christ to others; to encourage civic dialogue that places the human person and the sanctity of families at the center of policymaking; and to join with Pope Leo in praying for all migrants and refugees as fellow travelers on our journey to our true homeland. It is easy to sign the Cabrini Pledge.  Go to “USCCB The Cabrini Pledge.”

                                                                                            Fr. Joe