Saint Frances Cabrini - Mother Cabrini
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Saint Frances
Cabrinie "Your Mission will be in
America." There were many obstacles Mother Cabrini had to overcome, on her voyage to the New World. The first adversity she had to conquer was the Atlantic Ocean. She'd had a bad experience as a child, where she fell into the river in search of some little dolls which had fallen from a ledge into the water. She was saved from drowning by her Guardian Angel, but he had never taken her fear of water. She was now going to tackle one of the largest bodies of water in the world, and not the most pleasant. In addition, she left on March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, smack in the middle of the winter months, which are the most fearful ones in which to attempt to cross the Atlantic. She and her sisters were extremely sick during the crossing, but she never let on. She walked around, trying to cheer them up, as well as some of the other 1500 Italians aboard ship, most of whom had never made a transatlantic voyage before. When they finally arrived in New York, some of Bishop Scalabrini's priests met them and gave them dinner at the rectory. Everything went well until the Sisters asked to go to their convent. That's when they had the first inkling that all was not as had been presented to them. They had no convent! Not only that, they didn't even have a place to stay that night. The priests brought them through the city to a series of rooming houses, one worse than the other. When they finally found one that met their pocketbook and didn't look too bad, they took it. But they were in for a surprise. The mice and bugs waited until they had paid for the room before they came out to meet them. Mother and her little brood spent that night in a terrible position, sitting on wooden chairs trying to defend themselves from the attackers. The priests of Bishop Scalabrini's community could not explain why the sisters had no convent to greet them upon their arrival. They hemmed and hawed over where the glitch was. They were sure the Archbishop would be able to unravel the mystery. To that end Mother Cabrini prayed all night to the Sacred Heart, as she sat on the hard chairs, protecting her girls from the New York vermin. They also offered their Mass and Communion that their meeting with the Archbishop of New York would turn out better than this, their first day in the United States. But when the first words the Archbishop said to them were "How is it that you are here? I wrote you not to come at this time." Mother Cabrini almost lost it. The Archbishop covered his tracks by explaining the offer for the convent and orphanage and the funds suddenly disappeared. The truth as related later on was that he had a falling out with Countess Cesnola, the benefactress, and the funds were not forthcoming. There was no orphanage! There were many students for the school; however, no school building. The Archbishop could not see anything but that the sisters return to Italy on the same boat which had brought them to New York. The nuns became almost ill at the prospect of another trip across the ocean like the one they had just endured. No one knew with whom they were dealing, however; not the sisters, not the Archbishop of New York. We don't know if Mother Cabrini had ever spoken to a bishop in the way in which she was about to address the Archbishop. To his suggestion that they go back to Italy on the same boat, she responded: "We were sent here by the Holy Father, Your Excellency and we cannot go back. We have been entrusted with a special duty and we must fulfill it." He asked for her letters of credit. Mother Cabrini had been very thorough before she left Rome. She had gotten letters from various cardinals, bishops, and her trump card, a letter from the Pope, explaining the urgency of their mission. Archbishop Corrigan backed down. "Of course you will remain; it is the Holy Father's wishes." "We have been entrusted with a special duty..." Mother Cabrini wasted no time ingratiating herself to the Countess who had originally made the offer. Within a few weeks, she had the money and the building to be used for the orphanage and school. In the meantime, they began a school using rooms of a local church: the choir, sacristy and the body of the church. It was not easy; but by the time they had the building, they had a large enrollment of students. Let's look at the situation in New York at the end of the Nineteenth Century, or 1889, when Mother Cabrini and her sisters arrived. There were far too many Italians in the city with nowhere near enough church facilities. They didn't have but five Italian churches and nineteen priests. It is said that ten of those priests had left Italy on account of questionable behavior in their native land. There were an estimated 50,000 Italians in New York City alone; with no more than 1200 attending Mass on a regular basis. Add to that the fact that there were no schools, hospitals or orphanages to handle problems, and you can understand the great need for someone like Mother Cabrini and her Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. However, there was another problem. There were Polish immigrants, as well as Ukrainians, Slovaks, Croats and Czechs. Who was going to take care of them? Archbishop Corrigan felt that it was the duty of the people of substance of each nationality to take care of their own. There was no way that the Church could handle such a large taking. But while his thinking was rational, it was not logical. There were not enough people of substance to give money for each nationality, and the immigrants who needed the help had no money. There was a whole world out there who needed help; if they decided to wait until there was enough funding to handle each minority group, nothing would ever happen. Mother Cabrini's mandate from His Holiness had been to look after the people of her own country. That's what she did. She prayed that others would come and reach out to the immigrants from their own countries, which they did by the way. Strangely enough, most of the benevolent works done in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other big cities was done by religious orders of the Church, with little or no help from the city or state agencies. So in effect, what we're saying here is that the Lord saw a need, and used His great army of the Church Militant to fill the need. Their greatest source of support was the Lord Himself. Praise Jesus! By the time Mother Cabrini returned to Italy four months later, she had successfully put the school and orphanage into place in New York, and her sisters were running them very well. She had never had any intention of returning to the Holy Father defeated and a failure. If she would have had to stay there for a year, she would not have returned to Rome without news of a success for His Holiness. As a sign of her triumphant return to Italy, she brought with her the first two American postulants. Towards the end of that year, 1889, she had an audience with His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII. He congratulated her on the work her community was doing with her at the head, and gave her a future mandate as well as a prophecy. He said he wanted the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to extend the Kingdom of God to all the world. Mother Cabrini took these words from His Holiness very much to heart. She knew she had to do whatever was humanly or spiritually possible to attain the goals the Holy Father had given her. Although Mother Cabrini had only spent four months in New York, she made miraculous strides for the Church of the Italians there. She was considered a major player, especially when it came to real estate. Everybody knew she was bursting at the seams at her little school down on White Street. She needed more space. The Jesuits wrote her a letter while she was still in Italy. There was a beautiful piece of property which they owned on the Hudson River, called West Park or Manresa, which they were willing to sell her at a reasonable price. She recalled as she read their letter that the Archbishop of New York, Archbishop Corrigan had recommended that place as being perfect for a novitiate that Mother Cabrini wanted to build. So she sailed back to New York in order to complete the transaction. Mother Cabrini immediately went to the site of the property being offered for sale by the Jesuits. She loved it; it was perfect. She commented, how it would not only make a great novitiate, but also the children from the city would be so happy running around, breathing in fresh air, playing on these grounds. There was only one problem, the property had no water. They could only draw water from the Hudson River, which, while it was being done to a degree, was not practical. Mother Cabrini smiled and responded, "It doesn't matter. God will provide." Author's Note: I can't help it but as I write this and even when I'm reading it back, I always find myself saying Mother Angelica in place of Mother Cabrini. When you re-read this chapter, see if you don't think Mother Angelica fits exactly into the story. Substitute the name Angelica for Cabrini and see if it doesn't work. It's one thing to read it after the fact, but when you're writing it, and you find yourself wanting to just write in the name Angelica for Cabrini, it's scary! I'm fitting this into the center of the story of Mother Cabrini so that Mother Angelica won't see it. Don't tell her about it. She gets upset when we call her a living Saint. Mother Cabrini bought the property. Then she went full steam ahead moving everything up from the city to this beautiful retreat on the Hudson. Although there was still no water, that didn't bother her; and because it didn't bother her, it didn't bother anyone else. But once they had moved most everything to the new property, Mother called for a Novena to Our Lady. Everyone prayed for Mother's intention. Probably many knew what the intention was. Somewhere about the fifth day into the Novena, she armed most of her sisters with picks and shovels and converged on a certain hill, on the property. Then she told them to dig. As they dug, they prayed. They were all like little children. One of them squealed out that the ground had turned dark where she was digging. Mother shouted out, "Keep digging!" They obeyed. Within a very short period of time, they all exclaimed that water was rising up out of the ground. They dug into a spring of fresh water. To this day, that water keeps flowing and provides the property with ample water. But Mother Cabrini would never call it a Miracle. It was more like having Good Friends in High Places, she said.. That novitiate became the main headquarters and Mother House of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. It was also the resting place of the bodily remains of Mother Cabrini until 1959. |
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