Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini was the first canonized American citizen

Monday, 11/13/17

As a girl in Italy Mother Cabrini had stood out for her brilliance. She gathered a number of young girls around her, and they had made plans to work with the poor in China, when Pope Leo XIII asked her to help poor Italians in America.

After founding an orphanage and a hospital in New York, she travelled west to make similar foundations in Chicago.

Now, a priest friend of my had gained from Chicago's cardinal the use of an abandoned convent. I was teaching in Wisconsin back then, and I moved in with Father Ed for  the summer of 1970.

Father Ed took in thirty-five Korean girls, and we were looking for beds and cabinets for them when I heard that Mothr Cabrini's people were moving to a new facility. So they let me borrow a truck to bring their old beds and furniture to our Korean establishment.