St. Frances Cabrini

On November 13, the universal Church honors St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian missionary who spent much
of her life working with Italian immigrants in the United States. Mother
Cabrini, who had a deathly fear of water and drowning, crossed the
Atlantic Ocean more than 30 times in service of the Church and the
people she was serving.
St. Frances Cabrini longed to be a missionary to China, but God had
other plans for her. Orphaned in Italy before she was 18, she joined the
Sisters of the Sacred Heart and took on the name “Xavier” in honor of
St. Francis Xavier, the great missionary to the Orient.
At the advice of Pope Leo XIII who told her, “Not to the East, but to
the West” she focused her missionary efforts on the United States.
Accepting Archbishop Corrigan of New York's invitation, she came to
America and spent nearly 30 years traveling back and forth across the
Atlantic Ocean as well as around the United States setting up
orphanages, hospitals, convents, and schools for the often marginalized
Italian immigrants.
Eventually, St. Frances became a naturalized U.S. citizen. She died
in 1917 and was canonized in 1946, just before a new wave of immigrants
began to arrive in the U.S.
St. Frances Cabrini is the patron of immigrants.