In 1309, amid Italian city-state disputes and external threats of invasion, the pope and the Curia relocated to the French capital, Avignon. This Avignon Papacy became characterized by luxurious lifestyles, corrupt political favoritism, and widespread confusion about spiritual leadership.  The true guide to peaceful unity, inclusion, personal integrity, and discerning right conscience was the intellectual and spiritual environment of Tuscany in 1347, when Caterina Benincosa and her twin, Giovanna, were born to Lapa Piagenti and Jacopo di Benincasa on March 25. Giovanna died shortly after birth.

At an early age, Catherine developed a strong religious awareness which influenced her generosity to Siena’s suffering victims of the plague and crippling poverty. Against her parents' wishes, Catherine firmly rejected both marriage and a cloistered convent life, declaring her choice of a Christ-centered lay life. In 1363, at 16, Catherine became a Dominican Tertiary committed to study, prayer, preaching, and community.

Catherine’s faith journey is recounted in her dictated Dialogues. Catherine had no formal education, but her Dominican affiliates taught her to read as a tool for study, leading her to proclaim, “Love follows knowledge.”  Catherine’s prayer life was rooted in Scripture, which led her to understand that “… Jesus said, I am the way”; that Christ was the “… Bridge of My only-begotten Son”, … through which “the earth of your humanity is joined to the greatness of the Deity…”. In her dictated letters and writings, Catherine called contemporaries to:
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”  “We've had enough exhortations to be silent. … Speak the truth in a million voices. It is silence that kills.”

For Catherine, the most profound prayer was to actively LIVE as Jesus had lived.  A Christ centered life transformed one’s very being into an image of God, ”who God meant you to be”. Loving union with  God was inevitably bound to love of neighbor. “To show the love we have to Him, we ought to serve and love every rational creature.” People living gospel values in both great and simple ways speak truth to a world unaware of, or hostile to, God’s goodness and provident blessings. Human example could be “a million voices” for changing minds and hearts, as Jesus did.

Catherine directly engaged Church and secular officials in her letters and writings. Some contemporaries respected and acted on Catherine’s advice to “knoweth things as they are and not as they are said or seem to be ….” Others criticized her informal style and bold, unauthorized reform activism. Her faith-filled response: “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.”  In 1377, Catherine’s influence prompted Pope Gregory XI to return the Curia to Rome. Though the return was temporary, Catherine endured until her death on April 29, 1380. Six hundred years later, on October 4, 1970, Pope Paul VI
confirmed Catherine’s wisdom and leadership by officially declaring her a Doctor of the Church.

Because St. Frances Xavier Cabrini is the patroness of immigrants, she was chosen as our first example of a holy woman whose quiet faith and perseverance continue to inspire the Church today. Although not as widely known as some saints, Mother Cabrini was a remarkable leader of prayer, compassion, and courage.

Today, immigrants throughout our country and around the world continue to face hardship and persecution, making her example especially meaningful in our time.

Born on July 15, 1850, in Lombardy, Italy, Frances was the 10th of 11 children. Her family deeply nurtured her faith from an early age. Though she longed to become a missionary, she first worked as a schoolteacher after being refused admission to a religious community.

After many struggles and setbacks, she eventually professed her vows and founded her own religious order:
The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

With great determination, Mother Cabrini traveled to Rome and obtained permission from Pope Leo XIII to come to America with her sisters to minister to Italian immigrants in New York City.

Although Archbishop Corrigan did not initially welcome her, Mother Cabrini remained steadfast in her mission to establish an orphanage for immigrant children. Over time, he became one of her greatest supporters, helping her found an orphanage in West Park, New York.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini died in 1917 at the age of 67 and was canonized in 1946.