The Legacy of Mother Cabrini | Vaticano
The Legacy of Mother Cabrini
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, better known as Mother Cabrini, is celebrated as a “pilgrim of hope” ahead of the 2025 Jubilee Year. Her remarkable life of service to immigrants and the poor was honored in Rome with the unveiling of a new statue at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, on the anniversary of her beatification. The statue, designed in Chicago—where she lived, worked, and died—connects her Italian roots to her global mission.
Artists Lou Cella and Jessica LoPresti explained the intricate process of crafting the statue, from the initial design to the final bronze cast. The piece captures Mother Cabrini’s determination and her lifelong commitment to helping others, a message that resonates powerfully even today.
Eighty pilgrims from Chicago made the journey to Rome, highlighting how Mother Cabrini’s life continues to unite people across continents. Her deep trust in God guided her many decisions, including a fateful one in 1912, when she narrowly avoided traveling on the Titanic due to a last-minute hospital crisis. Reflecting on this, she later wrote, “Divine Providence, which is constantly watching, did not allow it.”
Mother Cabrini’s legacy lives on through the hospitals, schools, and orphanages she founded and through her message of hope and faith, which remains just as relevant in our world today.
