Today, we celebrate the birthday of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini—a woman of boundless faith and limitless charity, a towering Italian American hero, and the first American citizen ever proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church.

From a young age in Northern Italy, Francesca Cabrini already knew that God was calling her to a life of service as a missionary.  After founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she answered the call to go “not to the East, but to the West,” where she ministered to Italian immigrants who worked to build new lives in America while remaining steadfast in their faith.

Arriving in New York City in 1889 with nothing but their unshakable faith in Almighty God, Mother Cabrini and her sisters opened hospitals, orphanages, and schools that comforted the sick, cared for children, and provided for the weary.  Mother Cabrini’s work rekindled the faith of thousands of Catholics and prepared generations to flourish as proud Americans.  She met every challenge and hardship with an inexhaustible zeal, and through her tireless devotion, she opened 67 charitable institutions across the world.  Today, the legacy Mother Cabrini began continues through the work of the Missionary Sisters and through the Italian American community whose deep devotion to faith and family enriches our Nation.

An immigrant who proudly became a citizen of the United States, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini cherished America as her beloved home and revered with all her heart the beauty, freedoms, and liberties that make our Nation exceptional.  Her tireless pursuit of the common good, her unceasing devotion to Jesus Christ, and her measureless generosity embody the very virtues that have made America the greatest force for good the world has ever known.

In recognition of her incredible life of service to God and country, Pope Pius XII canonized Mother Cabrini in 1946, making her the first American citizen ever proclaimed as a Catholic saint.  As we celebrate her enduring legacy today, we pledge to safeguard the precious freedoms she cherished so deeply, to usher in a historic resurgence of faith across our land, and to steward the full glory of the American promise for generations to come.