St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

One of the ladies in my Bible Study has recently moved house and is struggling with the whole unpacking and "what box did we put that in?" game. Our table leader jokingly suggested praying to the patron saint of moving, so of course I had to Google it. While there is no "official" patron of moving, St. Joseph seems to be a logical choice - the whole flight into Egypt with no notice must have been a packing nightmare (not to mention the change of address cards). But good St. Joe has so much on his plate already. Another blog I read suggested Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, so we will look at her life.

Frances was born in 1850 in the Italian region of Lombardy, which was a part of the Austrian Empire at that time. She was the youngest of 13 children, only four of whom survived beyond adolescence. Born two months early, she was small and weak and remained frail her entire life. At 20, she applied to the religious congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, but was rejected due to her frail health. She then became headmistress of an orphanage where she taught. She soon drew other women to join her in living a religious way of life. In 1877 she took religious vows and added Xavier to her name to honor St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionary service.

By 1880, Sr. Frances Xavier and her six companions formed a religious community called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Cabrini remained the community's Superior General for the remainder of her life. They took in orphans and foundlings, ran a free school and opened a day school to help pay expenses.

In 1877, Frances Xavier had gone to the Pope to seek permission to establish missions in China. The Pope suggested instead that she go to America. Poverty stricken Italians were flooding the United States at that time. Eventually, Mother Cabrini followed the Pope's advice, arriving in New York City on March 31, 1889. She encountered difficulty and discouragement, but she persevered. She founded schools and orphanages, organized catechism and education classes for Italian immigrants and founded hospitals as well. She was as resourceful as she was prayerful, finding people who would donate what she needed in money, time, labor, and support. She founded 67 institutions: in New York; Chicago and Des Plaines, Illinois; Seattle; New Orleans; Denver and Golden, Colorado; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; and in countries throughout South America and Europe. (I think that counts as a lot of moving, qualifying her for a patronage of moving!)

Mother Cabrini died from complications of dysentery at the age of 67. Her feast day is November 13.