Global Sisters Report, part of the National Catholic Register, reported that the pedestal where once stood a statue of Christopher Columbus, in the Chicago’s Arrigo Park in the Little Italy neighbourhood, will shortly be home to a statue of the patron saint of immigrants, St Frances Xavier Cabrini, known as Mother Cabrini (pictured above).
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, who was born in Italy in 1850 and migrated to the US in 1887, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and opened dozens of orphanages, schools and hospitals, before her death in 1917. She was canonized in 1946, the first US citizen to become a saint, and made patron saint of immigrants in 1950.
“When Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini came to Chicago in 1899, she didn’t just serve immigrant families, she built institutions that transformed lives,” said Chicago Mayor, Brandon Johnson: “She founded schools, orphanages, and hospitals that cared for Italian immigrants facing hardship, and she ensured that resources flowed back into the neighbourhoods that needed them most. Her work reflects Chicago at its best: a city that rises by lifting others.”
Read the full story in the Global Sisters Report, here.