Francesca Cabrini (1850-1917) was born in Lombardy, Italy, one of thirteen children of rich cherry farmers Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini. Sadly only four of eleven survived beyond adolescence. Small and weak as a child, born two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her 67 years.
Francesca had been a devout child who took a vow of chastity at the age of 11. She took religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier to her name to honor the Jesuit saint, Francis Xavier. Trianed as a teacher, she became the mother superior of the House of Providence orphanage in Codogno, where she taught.
In 1880, the orphanage was closed. She and six other sisters that took religious vows with her founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC). Mother Cabrini composed the rules and constitution of the order, and she continued as its superior-general until her death. The order established seven homes and a free school and nursery in its first five years. Its good works brought Mother Cabrini to the attention of Pope Leo XIII.
The Pope sent Cabrini to New York City on March 31, 1889, along with six other sisters, to help the Italian immigrants. There, she obtained the permission of Archbishop Michael Corrigan to found an orphanage, which is located in West Park, Ulster County, New York, today and is known as Saint Cabrini Home. Battling money problems, she continued to found orphanages, schools and charitable institutions to serve poor immigrants in New York and other cities. She also dispatched missionaries to other countries.
Francesca was naturalized as a US citizen in 1909 and died in 1917 of complications from dysentery in Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, while preparing Christmas candy for the local children.
Francesca was beatified on November 13, 1938, and eight years later was the first American citizen to be canonized on July 7, 1946. She is the patron saint of immigrants.
One cold February day in 1858 a poor 13-year-old peasant girl from Lourdes, France, called Bernadette was collecting twigs for firewood together with her sister, Marie and friend, Jeanne Abadie when she saw a vision of a lady near a small cave on the bank of a river. This lady looked like, according to Bernadette, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. To make sure the vision was not a manifestation of the devil, Bernadette threw holy water at her. The lady inclined her head gracefully until the bottle was empty. Despite the temptation to run away the young peasant girl fell to her knees transfixed. Despite no one else seeing the vision, soon crowds gathered at the place of her “acquero” as Bernadette referred to it. The peasant girl started seeing more visions. During the ninth vision the gathered crowd witnessed Bernadette dig into the earth and uncover a trickle of water that proved to be a spring. An old stone mason with a blind eye bathed it in the spring’s water and his eyesight was restored. A large crowd of people gathered at Lourdes on the day of Bernadette’s eighteenth vision but still she was the only one to see the lady. This time she asked the young woman who she is; the answer in Provencal was “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou”, (“I am the Immaculate Conception”.) The young peasant girl did not understand this but reported it to her parish priest. Despite the church authorities scepticism regarding Bernadette’s claims of a miracle sick people from all over France began making their way to Lourdes. The sisters of Nevers had a house at Lourdes where they cared for the sick and instructed children. They received Bernadette, who disliked the attention she was attracting and wanted to get away from the trying publicity and the over enthusiastic attentions of insensitive pilgrims. The sisters taught her to read and write and kept her busy with light work. She then joined a convent, moving into their mother house at Nevers at the age of 22. Bernadette spent the rest of her brief life there, and in her later years contracted tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee. On 16 April 1879 the terminally ill Bernadette was heard to mumble “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, poor sinner, poor sinner.” A few seconds later Bernadette died. She had spent the last 12 years of her life working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. Bernadette had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes, but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876.
Saint Barbara (d235) of Nicomedia, Turkey, spent her youth on her own in a tower, especially built for her by her father to protect her from the world. She converted to Christianity, against the will of her father and rejected an offer of marriage that she received through him. After attempts to un-convert her failed, Barbara’s father struck off the head of his saintly daughter. Immediately he was struck by lightning and his body was consumed. As a result Barbara was made the patron saint of artillery.
On losing his parents in 270, the wealthy 20 year old Egyptian Saint Anthony (250-356), impressed by the scripture in the Gospel of Matthew, “Go and sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven”, gave away his inheritance to those born in less priviliged circumstances than him. Anthony went to live in the desert as a solitary hermit dedicating himself to lonely contemplation thus becoming one of the first Christian monks. After spending a number of years in an abandoned fort, the entrance to which Anthony had barricaded, some of his admirers broke in. By the early 4th century his visions and several miraculous healings had attracted followers and he devoted several years to instructing these disciples in the ways of monastic life. Anthony then left his retreat to found a community of monks, at first only a group of separate and scattered cells. This was one of the earliest attempts to instruct people in the monastic way of life. After setting up this community Anthony was moved by the Spirit to go further into the desert on his own. There he spent most of his time meditating, worshipping, rope plaiting and maintaining a herb garden to feed those who had trekked through the desert for several days to visit him. At the age of 105, filled with serenity, he died in his remote retreat. In the middle of the 4th century his biography, written by St Athanasius, largely helped to spread the ideals of the ascetic movement. The many lurid temptations he grappled with later became a popular theme for Christian art.
Bishop Ambrose (?340-397) was an Italian cleric who was an ardent champion of the church against the power of the state. He is recognised as one of the original four Doctors of the Church, along with Augustine, Jerome and Pope Gregory II. The story of how Ambrose came to be appointed the Bishop of Milan is an interesting one, so are you sitting comfortably? 374AD was a difficult year in the diocese of Milan. Heresies were threatening to divide the church and the two sides, the Arians and the Catholics couldn't agree on fundamental theological issues. When Auxentius, the Bishop of Milan died, everything came to a head. Should an Arian or Catholic bishop be elected? Ambrose, who was at the time, the Roman governor for the area, fearing an uproar, went to the basilica where the election was due to take place and made a speech urging the people to make their choice peacefully. The governor was completely thrown when a crowd started shouting “Ambrose for Bishop!” He run away, appealing to the Emperor that as he hadn't any theological training or even been baptized he was surely not the right man for the job. However because Ambrose was acceptable to both parties, the emperor believed him to be the right man. The theologically neutral governor hid in a senator’s house before reluctantly accepting the decision. Ambrose was baptized, ordained and consecrated within a week before proceeding, as an example to his flock, to give away his property to the poor. The honey-tongued Ambrose's preaching helped convert Saint Augustine of Hippo, whom Ambrose baptized and brought into the Church. A man of strong principals, he bravely denied admission to the church to the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius for eight months after he had ordered a massacre of rebels in Thessalonica, who had burned down a synagogue. The emperor later recanted. The former governor remained as the Bishop of Milan until his death of natural causes in 397, having . successfully used his legal and oratory skills to combat the Arian heresy. Ambrose was musical and composed several hymns, which each had eight four-line stanzas. The best known is the hymn "Te Deum," which is based on the text "Te Deum Laudamus", ("We praise thee O God"). It is claimed it originated when Ambrose was baptising St Augustine. He improvised the hymn starting with the words "Te Deum Laudamus." Troubled that in the Mass one individual sang all the Psalms and hymns whilst the congregation merely listened. Ambrose introduced to the western church congregational singing, antiphonal singing which allowed congregation to sing alternating parts of the music.
The story goes that the first recorded instance of communal singing in church was during a sit in of the Milan Basilica when the congregation had locked themselves inside. They had been forced into this action as the Empress, Justina, was demanding that Ambrose’s basilica be handed over for Arian worship, sending imperial troops to fulfil this by starving the distressed congregation out. On Palm Sunday, Ambrose preached a sermon about not giving up churches. In order to calm the people, the musical bishop taught them to sing the hymns he had composed and he split the congregation in two in order to alternate verses of the hymns. Hearing this the hearts of the soldiers softened, they joined in the singing and ended the siege. Surprisingly this story has yet to be made into a musical. Such was Ambrose's speaking and preaching ability that the title "Honey Tongued Doctor" was bestowed upon him. However it is denied by musical historians that it was Ambrose who composed "The Bee Song."
In 635, the newly crowned Christian King of Northumbria, King Oswald (605-642) asked the monastery at Iona to send a missionary to help him spread the faith to the mainly pagan people of Northumbria. They sent an Irish monk called Aidan (600-651) and he has made his base on the island of Lindisfarne, where he founded a monastery. Aidan engaged in widespread evangelism from his base with the active help of Oswald, who acted as interpreter for the non-English speaking monk. The Irish monk succeeded in converting the Northumbrian to the Christian faith and many miracles were attributed to him. One such miraculous event occurred in 651 during a siege on Bamburgh, the site of the Northumbrian royal castle, by the pagan King of Mercia. The town was set on fire and the flames started heading towards the king’s castle. Aidan prayed to God for the deliverance of the town and the wind changed direction sending the flames back to the besiegers.
