Frances Xavier Cabrini, known as Mother Cabrini, is revered as a symbol of compassion and dedication to the welfare of immigrants. Her journey from Italian farm girl to the first U.S. citizen saint has left a legacy of devotion that spans continents. But perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of her sainthood is the posthumous odyssey of her body, which was divided among several sacred locations, creating sites of pilgrimage and reverence across the globe.
Born in 1850 in the Lombard Province of Lodi, Mother Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious institute that was a major support to her fellow Italian immigrants to the United States. She was canonized on July 7, 1946, by Pope Pius XII, and is celebrated for her untiring service to the needy. It is recorded that, during her canonization, an estimated 120,000 people filled Chicago’s Soldier Field for a Mass of thanksgiving, a testament to the impact she had on the lives of many.
Cabrini died of complications from malaria at age 67 in Columbus Hospital in Chicago on December 22, 1917, while preparing Christmas candy for local children. As part of her canonization process, her body was exhumed in 1933 and found to be partially incorrupt. Her remains were then divided, with her head being preserved in the chapel of the congregation’s international motherhouse in Rome. Her heart was taken to Codogno, where she founded her missionary order. An arm bone remains at her national shrine in Chicago, and most of the rest of her body is enshrined in New York.
In New York, her major shrine in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan is a place of pilgrimage, where her body, encased in a wax replica, is displayed in a glass reliquary under the altar at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine. The shrine continues as a center of welcome for new immigrants and pilgrims of many nationalities.
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– Frances Xavier Cabrini