Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Mother Cabrini shortly after establishing the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

A later photo of Mother Cabrini

Mother Cabrini (holding book, seated)
with her earliest Sisters

Mother Cabrini's Sisters
continue the legacy of caring

The first American citizen to be canonized, Frances Xavier Cabrini was born in a small town in Lombardy, Italy, on July 15, 1850, into a large, devoutly religious Italian farming family. Two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her 67 years.

Though Frances Cabrini’s lifelong dedication to God began at a very early age, she first joined the order of the Sisters of Providence in 1874. Six years later, she began to pursue her ardent interest in serving the poor and needy by founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Cabrini was sent to the United States by Pope Leo XIII in 1889 to provide for what was then a flood of recent Italian immigrants.

Soon after her arrival in New York City, she created an orphanage for Italian girls. Shortly thereafter in 1890, she moved the orphanage out of the city to the beautiful country location at a former Jesuit novitiate located on the Hudson River in West Park, New York.

Originally named the Sacred Heart Orphan Asylum, St. Cabrini Home--as it is known today--has continuously provided a home-like atmosphere, education, pastoral care and caring guidance to abandoned and wayward children from then to now.

After establishing her first institution--St. Cabrini Home--in 1890, she embarked upon a tireless crisscrossing of the world, establishing a network of educational, health care, and social service institutions for needy immigrants, institutions that today provide services for those of all faiths and backgrounds.

In her lifetime, Mother Cabrini established 67 missions--schools, hospitals, orphanages, and convents--from Denver to Chicago, Los Angeles to Philadelphia in the U.S., and at sites in 13 countries around the world!

In 1917, Mother Cabrini finally succumbed to her frail health, and she was ultimately canonized the First American Saint in 1946.

Today, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini's first orphanage, St. Cabrini Home, continues to heal the lives of troubled children. It is still administered in the same loving spirit by her order of sisters with the help of lay collaboration and support, as it was when founded over 100 years ago by Mother Cabrini.