Monday, 13 November 2017

# Saints

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

The 13th of November is the feast day of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. She is the patron saint of Immigrants, hospital administrators, and Lincoln.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini lived between 1850 and 1917 and was the 13th child. Her farming family lived near Milan, Italy and her father would read them stories on the lives of the saints from a book. Saint Frances became inspired by the stories of missionaries working in the Orient and wanted to become a missionary herself, though during at that time, the role was only for men. She was rejected from becoming a nun because of her bad health, so she turned to her patron saint Francis Xavier, praying at his tomb. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart was approved by Pope Leo XIII and she was sent to America to serve the growing European immigrant population. There, she became an American citizen, living in New York and founded 67 institutions which included schools, orphanages, and hospitals throughout the Western Hemisphere. In 1946 she became the first United States citizen to be canonised as a saint.